The number one factor of managing employees remotely is trust. How do you know if they are working on their project or showing up to contractor meetings? Staying in communication is easier than ever with technology. Here at Synel Americas, we’ve made working remote a breeze with our Mobile App for time and attendance, featuring punch zones and geostamps to keep track of your on-the-go employees while they are on-the-clock (we’ll get more into that later!) Here are four easy ways to create and keep trust with remote employees.
Use multiple channels of communication
While phone and e-mail are great ways of communication, you can also get creative with skipping long traffic commutes to the office by using video chats to show how projects are coming along and that you’re not just an aviator on the other end of the line. It makes communication and team work a lot more personal when not physically in the office. Cloud drives are great for putting together to-do lists, congratulating employees when they check things off, and showing you if it looks like an employee is stalling on a project and may need some help. Get creative and find new trending apps that make your work life easier!
Set concrete expectations
It might seem like a no-brainer when it comes to everyday hours, expectations, and deadlines with managing remote employees, but make sure it’s set in stone so they understand exactly what is expected of them. If someone will be out for a couple hours for an appointment, have them send a quick email to the team letting them know. Transparency with expectations and your team is crucial to employee culture. It also leaves no room for error when there is a miscommunication of some sort while you aren’t face-to-face every day in the office.
Build the relationship
It’s so easy to forget this simple “how was your weekend” chats when you’re not running into each other at the coffee machine daily, but it’s important for your employees to know you care about their personal life as well- not just their work efforts. Make relationship-building a weekly habit to continue building a great rapport with your team. Whether it’s planning an event or happy hour for everyone to get together outside of work, or asking someone about their weekend or plans before your video meeting starts, it’s important to keep those relationships and culture with co-workers even when remote. This will lead to your entire team knowing each other better, and as a result working better together.
Track employee hours – even salaried employees
Tracking hours is important to managing employees remotely. This doesn’t mean you don’t trust your employees, it just helps you keep track of hours and stay compliant. If you have a record of everyone’s hours and work, errors won’t come up later on (i.e. accrued vacation time). With our time and attendance software, XactTime, our Mobile App allows you to know where your employees are when they say they are! The mobile app is running on the employee’s smartphone, utilizing the smartphone’s internal GPS device which is accurate down to approximately 10 feet. By comparing the GPS location from the employee’s smartphone, the punch is either accepted or rejected based on the pre-defined rules in the maintenance section of our software set up by an administrator. Because XactTime is equipped with the ability to send automated notifications for some events via text or email, rejected punches can be defined to trigger notifications for supervisors for optimal workforce management.
To learn about other features of our Mobile App and for assistance selecting the right solution for your workplace, contact our sales team today and let us help you with managing employees remotely!
