Managing remote staff has all the usual challenges associated with management, and then adds the tyranny of distance on top. How do you know if your staff are actually on track and working? How do you know they are staying engaged?
Zig Ziglar says that workers have three prime needs to help keep them on track. Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on what’s happening in the company. From the workers perspective, motivating them and keeping them on track, they’re going to perform really well for you. Lay out the performance goals for your team and ensure everyone in that team has the same understanding of what’s important at work.
“Workers have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.” Zig Ziglar
But managing remote staff means you are working apart from each other. Being apart from remote workers makes it harder to motivate them, and it is understandable to feel a little disconnected from their daily routine. This is where goals-focused data and performance tracking become important. It gives you a window into how your workers are doing with their daily tasks, and an overview of how they are doing generally. For this to work well it is important for you to have good task management software.
With software that suits you and your business, you can track exactly what you need. With it you can do the following four things to keep an eye on how your remote workers are doing.
Make Performance Tracking Routine
Performance tracking should be routine, it shouldn’t be an extra thing you do when you think of it or performance drops off. Regularly gathering performance data lets you track how many tasks have been completed. This is simply making sure that people are actually getting work done by checking in regularly.
Set Motivating Rewards
You should also be setting motivating rewards. Make sure your team wants to work, because they’re looking forward to being rewarded. They know that they will be acknowledged for going the extra few yards to get a job done well and right. Rewards can be just about anything, and by doing a little bit of research, you can really personalise it.
Gather Data Each Week
Gather and keep your relevant performance data each week. Take a look across the software you’re using to monitor performance. Look at what the numbers are telling you. It will give you insight into where your workers may be struggling. It is really important to do that regularly, rather than leaving it as a once-off thing.
Quarterly Performance Review
You can now take that weekly performance data, and use it to review the performance of your team each quarter. This should be a meeting in a face to face setting, either physically or remotely. You can use it to look ahead and say, “How did you go in this quarter?” and “what can we do to make it better?”. Setting quarterly times to check-in and review, is absolutely essential to keep people on track.
Bringing all these ideas together into a simple schedule is the name of the game. It will make routine business work meaningful and connected to outcomes. Managing remote staff is challenging, that’s the truth. But understanding their motivations and being able to stay informed on their performance will help you stay on top of it all. That’s how you bring out the best in your remote workers.
