{"id":8801,"date":"2020-07-03T09:40:31","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T09:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/?p=8801"},"modified":"2023-11-30T12:35:09","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T12:35:09","slug":"are-your-remote-workers-staying-productive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/future-of-work\/are-your-remote-workers-staying-productive\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Your Remote Workers Staying Productive?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Every manager knows the satisfaction of walking into a bustling office \u2014 the air thick with ringing phones and group chatter \u2014 and feeling an immense sense of pride in productivity. Now, without an office to walk into or employee voices to hear, corporate leadership is suddenly feeling panicked \u2014 how do I know that my employees are working if I can\u2019t see them?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Industrial Revolution was a critical time as the birth of colocated workforces and modern management. Manufacturing was dependent on heavy, expensive machinery, so workers flocked to urban factories for employment. In this new work model, the role of managers was to physically monitor the physical workflows based on physical tools that were producing physical products.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Fast-forward a couple of centuries. Since the 1960s, the roles of knowledge workers have become less and less physical, to the point where we now have virtual workflows based on virtual tools that are producing virtual products. But we are still managing this work with physical monitoring. It\u2019s time to update our leadership styles to match the virtual workplaces of the modern business world.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being worried about not being able to watch the productivity of workers, is evidence of lingering physical management habits. In remote work, sensory criteria such as \u201cwatching\u201d and \u201chearing\u201d need to be updated with new supervisory methods. The productivity and success of our virtual workforces can be just as \u201cvisible,\u201d if you first understand what that looks like in a digital business world. Follow these five steps to manage the performance of your virtual employees and ensure they are staying productive,\u00a0regardless of their workplace<\/a>:\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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1. Set Expectations\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u2014 In March of this year, millions of professionals were simultaneously sent away from the office with the instructions to \u201cwork from home.\u201d But what does it mean to \u201cwork?\u201d That may seem like a ridiculous question, but remember that in an office, you are on the clock simply by being in the building. When at home, you don\u2019t get credit for just being present, so a new standard needs to be set. Start by refreshing the objectives and key results (OKRs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) of each role. What are the tasks and behaviors that constitute \u201cwork\u201d and differentiate business time from personal time? Discuss as a team what it means to be visible, active, and accessible in your new virtual workplace.\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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2. Define Productivity<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u2014 Again, this may seem like a trivial exercise, but you may be shocked to learn how misunderstood this topic usually is. The fact is that most managers are terrified that their remote workforce won\u2019t work without supervision, so they assign more work and reporting rituals to enforce. However, on average, virtual professionals are 40% more productive than they were in an office, so the additional assignments and compounding pressure from their leadership leads to an \u201calways on\u201d mindset in which they\u2019re working too many hours and eventually succumb to burnout or culture toxicity. So, when creating assignments, express trust and value to your team by diversifying the definition of \u201cproductivity\u201d by blocking time for multiple types of work, including strategy, networking, brainstorming, research, testing, planning, feedback, troubleshooting, correspondence, etc.\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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3.<\/strong> Monitor Only for Compliance\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u2014 Employee monitoring software is surging in popularity as leadership desperately tries to ensure consistent productivity of it\u2019s unsupervised workforce. These are critical and valuable tools in remote work<\/a>, but are often misused by doubtful leadership. By recording webpage urls, tracking keyboard activity, or activating webcam surveillance, managers are expecting to force their staff to stay busy and prevent distractions. But with these methods the original problem still exists – they are only measuring activity, not accomplishment. This is the world in which a paperweight on the keyboard can earn \u201cemployee of the month.\u201d So unless you are required to use these tools for legal or reporting purposes, steer clear. They\u2019re only sending the message to your team that they are mindlessly incapable of self-management.\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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4. Track Results\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u2014 If you are only concerned about your employees staying busy, are you really fulfilling your objectives as a manager? Isn\u2019t the real goal of productivity to\u00a0produce<\/em>? If so, then stop rewarding the race instead of crossing the finish line. By using a project management software, you can more clearly track the assignments and accomplishments of each team member. Then, at the end of a day or week, you get a nice, clean report of each individual\u2019s success. Just remember to accurately define \u201cresults\u201d (from Step 2) to also include\u00a0learnings\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0accomplishments<\/em>, since an over-emphasis on deliverables can lead to burnout.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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5. Communication is (Still) King\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u2014 You may pour over productivity reports and job descriptions for hours at a time, but you are never going to get to the root of the problem with an underperforming team member unless you talk to them directly. With face-to-face interaction limited to phone and video calls, many managers are hesitant to conduct performance reviews while working from home. But being in the same room does little to enhance an effective conversation – it\u2019s the tone, questions, empathy, and constructive feedback that will really make or break the success of the discussion; all of which are irrelevant to proximity. Don\u2019t allow the excuse of distance to disconnect you from your team during a time when they need your support the most.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entire business world is in the midst of a historical virtualization. Nothing is exempt from impact \u2014 our tools, our workplaces, our process\u2026 and especially our management methods. So, maybe it\u2019s not our workforces that need the supervision, it\u2019s the leaders.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do I know that my employees are working if I can\u2019t see them? Follow these five steps to manage the performance of your virtual employees and ensure they are staying productive, regardless of their workplace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":813,"featured_media":22216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-post-2.php","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[414,413,415],"ppma_author":[3654],"class_list":["post-8801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-future-of-work","tag-productive","tag-remote-worker","tag-virtual-workforce"],"authors":[{"term_id":3654,"user_id":813,"is_guest":0,"slug":"laurel-farrer","display_name":"Laurel Farrer","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/13e97f8f71df940497a20f15573f43f457e48e7523e51d9462ec2bb3aab9bba1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"http:\/\/distributeconsulting.com","last_name":"Farrer","first_name":"Laurel","job_title":"","description":"Laurel Farrer is CEO anf Founder at Distribute Consulting that collaborates with the world's top remote-friendly companies to strengthen virtual communication, streamline digital processes, and develop long-distance management strategies. She also writes about remote work for several online publications and education platforms and advises US governments, business conferences, and industry associations on how to share remote work resources with their audiences to stimulate economic growth."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/813"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8801"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34530,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8801\/revisions\/34530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8801"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=8801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}