Working remotely has become the new reality for companies throughout South Africa, mirroring a trend that swept the world during the pandemic.
A flexible working style brings several benefits, including a sense of well-being for workers and the ability for companies to downsize their premises to cut costs, but one of the major challenges of working remotely is monitoring the performance of team members.
In this article we outline several strategies that your business can use to ensure that team members remain productive when they’re not in the office. An outsourced management service may be the ideal way to implement these approaches rapidly and reliably.
Getting the job done when nobody’s looking
The traditional office environment, with management seated in close proximity to employees with the ability to supervise and monitor them closely, is becoming a rarity nowadays.
Instead, workers need to find the discipline to ensure that they are being productive away from the office, and managers may be wondering whether work is getting done in line with company policy at the appropriate time.
Fortunately, the same technology that allows people to work remotely can be used with an outsourced business management solution to monitor their progress. Here are some ways your team can check in with you without having to be in the same office.
Productivity monitoring software
Large companies with substantial teams may want to invest in productivity monitoring technology for tracking employee hours that tracks the number of hours employees have been working on a task or specific project.
These packages, which are generally available to purchase as well as on a subscription basis, simulate a traditional working environment where employees clock in and out at a pre-agreed time and have their hours of active screen time reported to management.
Regular check-ins
Managers who opt for autonomy and don’t require detailed minute-by-minute reports on workers productivity can adopt a project-based management system, and check in with the team on a daily or twice-daily basis to ensure that projects are progressing as envisaged.
Smart scheduling
It’s essential for managers to communicate deadlines and submission dates and times for work that’s done remotely and hold workers accountable for late submissions as well as work quality that falls below the company standard.
Time sheets and project updates
In addition to productivity monitoring, managers may want their employees to complete a spreadsheet detailing what project they are currently working on, how many hours they’ve spent on each section of the project, and whether the required steps have been followed, especially if compliance is essential as in the financial and industrial sectors.
Unlike software that merely measures the number of hours spent working, this approach measures actual productivity – i.e. the measurable results that an employee produces from each hour spent on the job.
If you’re keen to implement performance monitoring for your remote team, but aren’t sure where to start, our outsourced business management consulting service may be ideal for you.