How to Monitor Your Telecommuting Employees
These days, it’s practical to let some people work off-site as telecommuters. They remain part of your organization (not freelancers or contractors), but they don’t work within your office. To keep telecommuters accountable and to measure their productivity, you’ll need a way to monitor their work.
Set Clear Expectations Right from the Start
When your employees know what you expect of them, they’ll know what needs to be done regardless of where they do the work. If you call for them to render 40 hours per week, be clear when your typical week starts and ends, and then allow them to work within that period to target the 40 hours of service.
Don’t Believe Rumors, Investigate First
There may be negative reports about your telecommuting staff, don’t believe those right away. Instead, investigate into the situation. While it’s okay to randomly check VPN logs, it can be wasteful when you do so regularly. It helps to give a measure of trust to your employees. After all, you’re the one who hired them.
Choose Video Calls/Chats over Spying
Make regular video calls and chats with your employees so you can check on their needs, progress and ideas. Making daily or weekly reports can be extra burden, but when you spend at least 15 minutes a day or a week per employee just to catch up, it can help them be more productive and more accountable.
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Use Task Management Software
Better than using a time monitoring app, use a task management software that lets everyone in the team input their comments, see their assigned tasks, monitor each other’s accomplishments, and share files. There’s no use measuring the amount of time spent on a project, what’s important is that it gets done on time. You may need to pay your employees on a project basis rather than on per hour.
Congregate as a Team Occasionally
Telecommuters need to come together occasionally to bond and to socialize as a team. This helps ease stress and burden while working away from an office set up where socialization may be hard to come by. Also, it enables your team to know each other, despite not being able to work side by side physically.
Once you know how to properly monitor employees who work remotely, both you and your staff can enjoy the flexibility that telecommuting brings.
