Following on from our recent post about the pros and cons of remote working, we are now looking at how managing on-site staff compares to managing remote staff – what are the different challenges for example?

How to prepare your business to manage your team of remote workers

Your business may have a high percentage of remote workers already or may be moving in that direction. The
following are some of the things you can do to prepare for remote working:

· Employ the right people. When recruiting remote employees you need to consider their attitude and behaviour carefully and reconcile this with what you envision for your company

· Organise your data into one place – so it can be accessed by you and the remote workforce, using a cloud-based CRM programme

· Choose an efficient messaging communication system. Putting a clear system in place means you can all communicate efficiently and effectively

· Update your employment policies to facilitate remote work

· Equip managers for the transition. They need to become adept at treating remote and on-site workers
equally and need to adapt to assign responsibilities and set expectations without face-to-face contact with employees.

What are the challenges for managing remote teams?

It can be argued that managing on-site staff is less of a challenge, because you can more easily keep track of your team's performance and schedule meetings etc. If there are any problems, you can deal with them immediately.

Conversely, issues such as different time zones (remote workers are often spread across the globe), means that things such as scheduling meetings becomes harder and any issues that arise on a project cannot always be dealt with swiftly. Managers can find it hard to keep all the team members on the same page.

Do you need to use a different management style with your remote workers?

The simple answer to this question is yes! In an office, you are used to relying on visual cues to determine whether people are working hard or not, are coming in late or leaving early, and you don't have these visual
clues when you are dealing with remote staff.

Instead, you need to move away from conventional views of what 'working hard' looks like and instead set
specific targets. In addition, you need to trust the team to get the work done where, when and however works best for them.

Richard Branson, Founder, and Chairman of Virgin said: "We like to give people the freedom to work where they want, safe in the knowledge that they have the drive and expertise to perform excellently, whether they [are] at
their desk or in their kitchen..."

How do you motivate your on-site team and your remote workers differently?

There are obvious differences, but at the heart of motivating teams in the office or remotely lies communication and with all the available technology it is easy to do this on a daily basis.

Motivating workers on-site:

· Always be accessible with an open-door approach

· Arrange regular social events with your on-site team and really get to know them

· Set team challenges and competitions or organise team-building sessions

· Embrace modern working methods such as flexi-time and time to work remotely when they need to.

Motivating remote workers:

· Make time to schedule individual calls with remote employees, in addition to online group chats and video conference calls

· Try and arrange to meet up with your team on a regular basis, but at least monthly if at all possible. If
your remote team are scattered around the world, having a central location in which to come together as a team helps forge good relationships

· Allow them the freedom to work where they want to get the task done – this is a great motivator

Ian Brinkley, acting chief economist at the CIPD has urged employers to make sure remote workers "feel part of the loop" by keeping them updated with goings on in the company, using mechanisms such as 'keeping in touch' days. "That will help ease the concerns of the worker and organisation and create trust between the two – which these arrangements depend on hugely," he said.

It is clear that there are challenges and differences in the management of employees on-site and remotely, but good preparation, organisation, a flexible attitude, and great communication skills will help managers to lead both on-site and remote workers effectively.

If you'd like to talk to a recruitment specialist about the ways to attract the best on-site or remote employees for your business, get in contact with us.