Teleworking Employees in Washington, Virginia and Arlington
Teleworking Employees in Washington, Virginia and Arlington
How to effectively manage teleworking employees
In many ways managing employees who are teleworking isn’t that much different than managing staff that are located on-site. However, when you do have employees working from home or other locations there are some important things to consider. Thanks to new advances in technology communicating with employees located off-site is easier than ever before. Many business operators are seeing the advantages of allowing their team to work from a different location and avoid the daily commute.
In many cases, having employees who are not located on site is a great advantage to business owners. They do not require as many operational costs and the employees often look at working from home as an advantage. In certain industries remote/ teleworking is just part of the job’s calling. For instance, journalists or researchers often need to be “on the move” and cannot be in office to attend meetings.
The most important thing to keep in mind when you are in charge of managing the offsite workers is that communication lines need to stay open. In order for the arrangement to work effectively the team member must feel as if they are included and valued. It is also essential that there are always clear expectations established about how and when work needs to be completed. Since you do not see this employee every day and cannot check in with them you want to set and hold strong deadlines so that they can manage their own work hours.
Allowing your employees the freedom to enjoy the advantages of teleworking is good! However, if you aren’t firm about your communication expectations, then you will notice that things can very quickly fall apart. Essentially, you will want to be a super-communicator and model your expectations by being the leading role model. Of course, you don’t want to be breathing down your employee’s neck, but establishing some rules and order is very important in teleworking scenarios.
So, how do we establish this rule and order without draining the “fun” from teleworking? When teleworking is a necessity rather than a choice how do we make it easier on the employee?
– Create a weekly schedule for meetings that is consistent. Having consistency will help your employee schedule and manage their time.
– Use applications and tech that allows you to streamline the workflow and communicate with one another online.
– Do not forget to include your teleworking staff member in team projects and meetings
– Be specific about the language that you use when communicating via email or text so that expectations are clear
– Use positive feedback and validation to make your offsite employee feel valued
These are just a few of the things that we recommend and educate management on in our training course: Successfully Managing Offsite and Remote Employees. This Proven Training Solutions has been optimized for managers who need some advisement on navigating teleworking employees in Washington, Virginia and Arlington.
- By Bill Walsh
- July 28, 2020
- Teleworking Employees
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