How to Manage Remote Workers

Letting people work outside of the office – at home, at client sites or even in the local coffee shop – can improve productivity and morale. It can also help reduce office costs. Many businesses are reluctant to take advantage of these benefits for fear of giving up management control. If you're considering making the move, we've pulled together a list of best practices to consider when giving employees the option to work remotely: 1.        It's all about time. Set deadlines. Book phone calls and chats using instant messenger (IM) software. Set yourself a reminder.    2.        Know your team. Make sure you spend some face-to-face time with your team, both at work and informally.    3.        Share documents. Web services like Windows Live Skydrive make it easy to share documents over the Internet and for remote teams to collaborate. It's free for personal and small business use. For larger teams, an intranet tool such as Microsoft SharePoint may be more efficient.    4.        Measure. Find ways to monitor and track work that people are doing. This will build trust and replace more informal, face-to-face supervision.    5.        Delegate effectively. Set objectives that are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.    6.        Respect people's personal time. Don't fall into the trap of treating remote workers as if they're on call 24/7 simply because you can contact them outside 'normal' office hours.    7.        Take pictures. Post pictures of your team members (or people on a conference call) on a website or pin board so that you can visualize people when you talk to them.    8.        Listen. In an office you can see when someone is upset, angry or bored. When they're on the end of a telephone, you need to listen actively and ask questions to find out how they're doing.    9.        Trust and be trusted. Trust builds when people do what they say they are going to do. As a boss, you need to set the highest standards of consistency and reliability. When you say you're going to do something, do it.    10.         Take turns. Let other people run meetings occasionally.    11.         Get objective feedback. Use 360-degree appraisals and customer or peer surveys to make sure your virtual team is working well.    12.         Keep a schedule. Use a shared calendar to book meetings and share your schedule with your team (and vice versa).    13.         Be a role model. Set an example with your own punctuality, commitment, reliability and availability. 14.         Give recognition. It costs nothing to write a thank you note or to give praise where it is due. Recognition is a powerful motivator.    15.         Change your management style. Switch from managing by input (time in the office) to managing by output (goals met).    16.         Avoid second-class citizens. Once you've proven the concept, everybody should get a chance to work flexibly (unless their job prevents it). Don't give one person a notebook while chaining a colleague to their desk.    17.         Training. Train managers and employees about the challenges and techniques of flexible working. Don't assume that everyone knows how to do it well – they don't. Individuals may need extra help with, say, writing reports or using IT.    18.         Don't isolate people. Encourage regular visits to the main workplace and include flexible workers in company social events. Put procedures in place to monitor for stress and counteract it.    19.         Over-communicate. Many remote and home workers use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol, or using the Internet as a telephone connection). Many notebooks include a built-in webcam that makes it easier to do video conferencing.    20.         Share applications in real time. Services like Virtual Rooms can help teams in different places share their desktop applications and documents in real time. It's a great companion to conference calls.    21.         Get the right technology. It goes without saying that you need technology to make virtual and remote teams work effectively. But there is a big difference between 'good enough' and 'best practice.' It can be very frustrating when people try to video conference and their PC isn't fast enough to cope with HD graphics and desktop sharing at the same time, or if you don't have a fast enough mobile broadband connection so that people can't log in and download files quickly.    .