How To Manage Staff Productivity When Working Virtually?

In order to lead a remote team well, managers may find that they need to loosen the reins a bit while looking for ways to continue to hold employees accountable. Without the ability to constantly monitor employees in shared office spaces, they can achieve success by focusing more on what is being done and whether it meets well-defined quality standards.

Manage staff productivity

Common challenges of telecommuting

For starters, managers need to understand the factors that can make telecommuting especially challenging. Otherwise, high-performing employees may experience a decline in work performance and engagement when they start working remotely, especially in the absence of preparation and training.

Lack of face-to-face supervision

Both managers and their employees often express concern about the lack of face-to-face interaction. Many employees, on the other hand, struggle with limited access to management support and communication.

Lack of access to information

Newly remote workers are often surprised by the additional time and effort required to find information from co-workers. This phenomenon extends beyond task-related work to the interpersonal challenges that can arise between remote co-workers. 

Be organized and flexible

Whether your employees choose to spend their work hours in the morning or in the evening should not matter as long as the work is completed and of a high quality.

Monitor the progress of your workers

Have your employees provide you with a work schedule along with the tasks they are expected to complete at that time. Remember, just because you can’t see them working in your cubicle doesn’t mean the job won’t get done.

Emphasize communication

It’s critical for managers to communicate with their remote employees, because it lets workers know about deadlines, available resources, work-related challenges and managers’ expectations, including work schedules. Also, consider which communication tool best fits the team’s culture email text phone calls, video chats, intranet channel and find that delicate balance between constantly pinging employees via text, email, and radio silence.  

Video fatigue

On the flip side of the previous bullet point, constantly using zoom to support connectivity can have worse consequences. Allow employees to decide as a team and in internal meetings whether they want to be on camera or not.

Communication breakdowns and bottlenecks

When we work remotely, we can’t peer across a cubicle or slip down the hall to see if a colleague or supervisor is nearby to answer a quick question. Managers can help solve these problems by modeling effective communication strategies.

Ambient distractions

Whether it’s another coffee shop customer who accidentally spills sugar on a remote worker or a happy toddler screaming mightily from the living room during a Zoom call, distractions seem to come with the realm of remote work.

Regular one on one

Since you work remotely with your teams, you won’t have time to talk about problems. So give employees more one-on-one time, give them time to contact you via Skype or any other application without time zone conflicts. Always turn on your availability because your employees will have no idea when your door is actually open.

Conclusion

Fortunately, there are specific, research-based steps that managers can do without in these difficult times.