How to Manage Remote Employees

 

How to Manage Remote Employees - Part 1 18 December 08 01:19 PM

 

Due to the globalization of today's business managers are faced with having to manage remote employees.  This can be a daunting task especially if you are new to managing people let alone remote folks as well.  Throughout the next couple of weeks TechLeaders is going to be sharing a series of tips and ideas that Kelly Pate Dwyer wrote about in 2007. 

 

We would also like to gather your thoughts as well regarding this topic so feel free to comment.

Build a Strong Team, Starting with You

 

Goal: Make sure you’re up for the task of managing remotely.

 

Managers who run dispersed teams successfully share several traits. They work a lot, they

travel — some more than half the time — and they thrive on their work and the culture they’ve

created. “Remote managers need more energy, because a lot of what you have to do is

transfer that energy to your team,” says Juliana Slye, who manages remote employees

as director of the government division at software maker Autodesk, based in San Rafael,

California. The successful remote manager has the following traits:

Passion. A remote set-up won’t work unless your employees are motivated and running in

sync — collaborating, asking each other for help, sharing ideas. That energy has to start with

you. You don’t need to start each day smiling from ear to ear, but if you’re annoyed every

time an IM breaks your train of thought or you’re not good about remembering to check in with

people, running remote teams probably isn’t for you.

Availability. Good remote communication requires extra effort. You need to go out of your

way to address issues that would come up naturally and spontaneously if you all worked

in one place. When your staff is spread across a number of time zones, they need to feel

comfortable calling you at odd hours — even if it’s dinner hour. Beyond the guidance or

answers you can provide, which allows them to move forward with their work, your availability

shows support, which helps strengthen your relationships with everyone. That said, establish

reasonable guidelines about when to call.

Patience. A two-hour dinner with an employee across the country may take up two days with

travel time. And it may take two hours instead of 10 minutes to schedule a conference call.

The lesson here? Budget extra time for common group tasks. This doesn’t necessarily hurt

productivity. For instance, conference calls are usually shorter and more to the point than a

meeting in person, where members of the group are bound to do more small talk.

Reliability. By doing what you say you’ll do — whether it’s helping solve a problem or

sending a new laptop — you foster trust. Your reliability shows respect for what your workers

are doing. Without that, they’ll quit asking for help, and you’ll fall out of the loop. “Trust

is particularly important in distance relationships,” says management consultant Debra

Dinnocenzo, author of “How to Lead from a Distance.” “You build trust through actions that

demonstrate reliability, integrity, and familiarity.”

Five Ways to Build Trust

Asked how he makes sure his team is keeping him in the loop, remote manager Dan

Belmont, chief marketing officer of the Marketing Arm, a Dallas-based agency that

promotes sports and entertainment events, says he makes himself part of their “network”

by working beside them. “If you’re in the trenches doing the work,” he says, “you’re not

just perceived as someone who is managing people and processes.” Belmont makes

himself available to brainstorm or solve problems and typically spends an hour a week on

the phone with each of his 14 employees.

Here are more ways to build trust:

1. Be available. Don’t let employee calls go to voice mail. When you absolutely can’t be

reached, reply ASAP.

2. Beware of using sarcasm and teasing in distance interactions, like email and

conference calls, where signals can easily get crossed.

3. Handle sensitive issues with discretion. One team member might tell Belmont that

another is having a bad day. He’ll immediately call the person having the bad day,

without exposing the colleague who told him.

4. Communicate in a variety of ways (email, phone, in person, etc) and often.

5. Visit employees on their turf. It shows respect for their time and interest in their life

outside the job.

Managing Remote Employees - Part 2 19 December 08 09:57 AM

 

The traditional office and the 9-5 days have morphed into home offices, teams in different countries and no standard set hours.  Some employees flourish in a remote role, while others are just not cut out for it.  It takes a certain type of individual to handle working remotely. You want to be sure that you gather the right people for the remote roles.

 

Goal: Build a team that can work well at a distance.

 

A dispersed team depends on people who can be productive without a boss roaming the hallways or a trusted co-worker sitting nearby. Team members should be motivated, disciplined, and flexible with their time, allowing them to connect with clients or co-workers

 

in different time zones. “People who like to quit at 5 p.m. aren’t the people who work well remotely,”says Michelle LaBrosse, CEO of Cheetah Learning, a project-management training company based in Carson City, Nevada. They also need to communicate clearly in writing (since e-mail and instant messaging are the new standard for daily communication) and should be willing to suggest ideas, ask for and offer help, make decisions, and collaborate.  Below are a few suggestions for setting up a remote work arrangement.

Match people to the work.

Extroverts and idea people tend to like tasks that require frequent and ongoing communication. Make sure they’re in an office with teammates they can collaborate with. Introverts and people confident making decisions can work more easily at

home or on solo projects.

Match work to the time zone.

If some employees are working while others sleep, try to avoid assigning work that leaves team members perpetually in the hurry-up-and-wait cycle, as their counterparts half a world away complete their part of a project. 

Assign backups.

For the most critical tasks, make sure you or someone else in your group can fill in on a moment’s notice, like when someone is ill or quits. (And make sure you can access a remote worker’s files and contacts from afar.)

Sign an agreement.

Specify when and how much a person may need to work, times they need to be available, performance objectives, and frequency of in-person meetings. This codifies expectations and provides something tangible for your employee to refer back to.

Assess.

At least a few times a year, ask what’s working and what’s not, then make changes if necessary. Withdrawal is a common sign of a problem. Even if a person is meeting deadlines and producing quality work, they may be unhappy if you hear from them less and less.

Connecting the Dots.

After studying dozens of virtual teams, including groups at BP, Nokia, and Ogilvy & Mather, researchers at the London Business School recommend the following:

Recruit volunteers.

Look within the company for volunteers to lead a new committee or research a new opportunity, rather than just assigning such tasks. “Virtual teams appear to thrive when they include volunteers with valuable skills — people whose proof

of commitment is their willingness to join the team on their own,” writes Lynda Gratton, a professor of management with the school, in a 2007 Wall Street Journal article.

Add “boundary spanners” to each virtual team.

“Boundary spanners are people who, as a result of their personality, skills, or work history, have lots of connections to useful people outside the team,” Gratton writes. They play a strong networking role, keeping

the team and its accomplishments visible within the company. Nokia cultivates boundary spanners by introducing each new hire to at least 10 people both inside and outside their department.

 

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