The advancement in technology has made it convenient for businesses to incorporate a significant extent of flexibility and innovation in their fundamental job designs. While some decades back it was almost impossible for employees to hire remote employees and offer home-based or remote workplace, this has now become possible with the transition of businesses and organizations to the cloud.
Similarly, the change in job designs and the nature of jobs, workplace and the organizational culture has brought about a tremendous shift in the conventional patterns of management and organizational administration.
Managing a workforce that is situated at multiple remote locations, across the state, country or even the globe, on the same paradigms as managing an on-pries workforce is not technically possible. So, if the organization chooses to incorporate remote working and telecommuting in certain job roles this is imperative that they will have to incorporate certain essential and fundamental measures in their management designs to accommodate and cater to the needs of the workforce situated at multiple workstations.
Telecommuting – What’s in it for the organizations?
Researches and surveys indicate that the employees are likely to choose a job that allows telecommuting over an on-premise job that pays more. Furthermore, since telecommuting allows the employees to work at their own convenience, this brings about a significant improvement in their performance, proficiency and increases their level of dedication and commitment. Additionally, it provides a competitive edge to the organization in the market and creates a larger than life persona in the industry, through its diverse and globally spread workstations and workforce.
So, considering all the benefits that telecommuting has to offer for the benefit of the organizations, here are some smart strategies for businesses to include in their essential job designs and do an efficient job of managing their remote employees.
1. Quantify Your Work Operations
Since you will not be able to check in on all individual employees in person and address them about the work, it is essential for you to adopt a proactive approach to work planning and task allocation. Employee scheduling, task allocation, and work planning should be strictly quantified and time-bound. This will help you track performance and keep a timely record of task performance and completion.
2. Set Up a Mechanism of Instant Communication
The quality, efficiency, and proficiency of remote working depend on a great deal on the internal communication between the various operational units, managers and the employees. To foster a system of instant queries, response and feedback mechanism certain smart applications such as workforce management systems can turn out to be an immense benefit for you as well as your remote employees. Not only do they make it convenient for you to communicate with your employees in a smooth and instant way, they also ease down a myriad of managerial functions through the automation.
3. Keep Track of Time and Attendance
Since your remote employees won’t drop in every day to mark their clock-in and clock out times and attendance entries, it is a smart approach to automate the time and attendance recording functions through a smart time and attendance software. This will provide you with a real-time insight about the strength of workforce present and work at any given instant and enable you to keep a track of their work hours, overtimes as well as leaves and absences.
