By Vladik Rikhter
When your employees are right in front of you, it’s easy to tell who is on time, who is working, and who
is slacking off. But, when your employees are working remotely, it’s much more of a challenge. If your
business model requires that you hire remote employees, you know there are going to be challenges. It
is extremely important that you get yourself organized and come up with a plan for tracking their time
and productivity. Otherwise, you could end up paying an employee for time that he or she never actually
worked. It could be weeks before you realize that this employee, who came so highly recommended, is
actually nothing more than a slacker who is draining your time and resources.
What Not to Do
Some employers are so scared of being taken advantage of that they spend all their time micromanaging their remote employees. Not only will this annoy your hard-working employees and potentially drive them to find work elsewhere, but it’s a massive waste of your precious time. Think about it this way: If you’re paying someone to do a job, but you’re spending almost the same amount of time checking up with them, you may as well be doing the job yourself. Is that productive? Of course not.
So, let’s look at a few ways to simplify remote employee management, so both you and your employees can be happy and productive.
Start with hiring.
When you hire a new employee, ask about their history with working remotely. It’s usually best to hire people who have experience working in the field. This way, you can check their references and know that you’re hiring someone who has displayed a solid work ethic even when the boss isn’t around.
Track their time.
Once you’re comfortable with your hiring decisions, you need to get a good employee time clock. Of course, this isn’t the same as a time clock you would install at your place of business. You need something with protective measures, so you know your employees aren’t checking in from their beds or while they’re sitting in traffic. A good time clock will be easy to use, so there is no margin for error. It also needs to be trustworthy, so you have one less thing to worry about.
Create checks and balances.
In order to sit back, relax, and stop worrying about your employees’ whereabouts, you need a system in place that will let you know that your employees are exactly where they should be. Nextpunch’s time clock has a cool feature that lets you know where your employees are when they’re checking in. The best part about it is that you can specify your own security settings based on your business’s needs. Regardless of where you have them check in, you can check up on your employees in real time. If someone is five minutes late to work, you’ll be just as aware as if they were working right there in your office.
When it comes down to it, you do need some level of when managing a remote team, but if you have any “dead weight” on staff, it’ll be come apparent, very quickly. Just be sure you’re using the right tools, trust in your system of checks and balances, and your business will run smoothly.
