Although it used to be a foreign concept about a decade ago, having a remote workforce is becoming a norm in the modern-day business world. In fact, 70% of the global employees are working remotely at least one day per week, according to CNBC. This culture brings a lot of perks to the businesses that embrace it. For instance, having an employee work away from the office can increase productivity by giving them a flexible schedule. It can be a little bit daunting, on the other hand, to manage your workforce optimally under these conditions. Given that they are working far from your reach, it can be tough not to worry if such employees are concentrating on their job instead of using this time for their gain. Luckily, you can use the different employee monitoring software to calm your nerves, but how much monitoring is excessive to the point of impeding their productivity rates?
Read on to learn what level of employee monitoring is too much:
The Answer Depends On the Employee’s Character
Different employees tend to react differently when offered the luxury of working under minimal supervision. Deadline committed employees will tend to work overtime to achieve the set deadlines regardless of where they are working from. Task-oriented and introverted employees might also thrive in remote work environments such as working from home.
On the other hand, the productivity of extroverted employees might be derailed when working in seclusion. Given that there will always be exceptions to these expectations; it is always wise to keep tabs on your employees to understand their character when offering them remote work opportunities. With the help of employee scheduling apps, you can assess the commitment of employees to deadlines and their overall productivity while at the same time offering them valuable feedback.
Switch to Selective Monitoring Instead
If an employee is productive enough, it might be counterproductive to burden them by tracking their every move. You should at least offer them some leeway when engaging in their tasks. Just like you do not follow your employees around the office whenever they take a water break, you should avoid doing the same to productive remote employees whenever they take a few minutes to break.
On the flip side, major and consistent loopholes in the work culture of an employee shouldn’t be ignored. If an employee tends to put minimal effort when working remotely and they under-deliver, then you should keep tabs on them until they change their work culture. Additionally, it would help if you looked for ways to incentivize their productivity levels.
Monitor To Reward Employees
Employee monitoring is often associated with punishment were the employees under-productive, but this shouldn’t always be the case. Remote employees are at a disadvantage when it comes to receiving productivity rewards in comparison to office-based employees due to their physical absence. Why not use monitoring with the intention of rewarding them?
You can use employee monitoring tracking software to compare the performance of both in-office and remote employees to determine who is doing the most. You might actually be surprised that the productivity rate of the remote employees is higher than that of office-based employees, as noted on Nypost.com. Whenever such an employee hits or even exceeds your expectations, then you should find means to reward them to enhance your productivity culture.
Creating an Accountability Culture Will Help
Since the expectation is that all employees should work under minimal supervision, it is necessary to create an accountability culture in your organization. You can start by sharing timesheets that depict your activity levels. Next, urge the employees to share these documents among themselves to build a strong culture.
This will be a motivating factor for most employees. It will also act as a platform through which employees can benchmark their productivity, and offering incentives will further boost this goal.
Conclusion
Your efforts to monitor employees should never be used to kill their morale. Instead, it should be done when the productivity of an employee is in question. Consider the tips above to build a strong productivity culture in your remote workforce.