Shivani Misri Sadhoo on attending to off-site employees

While companies are recruiting employees in different cities and countries monitoring them can be an issue, here's how you can ensure productivity

Alocal employee physically shows up in your office every day. You can look into their eyes and gauge their nonverbal cues when they are communicating. You can take them into a conference room to collaborate with their team on projects. You can see when he/she is sitting at their desk and is working. You can tap on their shoulders and have an informal conversation if you like. However, in the last one decade, the technology supporting businesses has advanced in many folds. With easy and lowcost availability of high-speed internet connections, availability of advanced employee’s online tracking and monitoring systems, facilities of web conferences and much more, employees are no longer bounded to geographical locations.

While recruiting off-site employees, companies should remember the following issues: -

MAKE TIME FOR REGULAR COMMUNICATION

Off-site remote employees are generally prone to suffer from the fear that they would be forgotten. Hence, a firm should acknowledge employees fears by regularly communicating with them through emails, web-conferences, and/or calls.

BUILD TRUST AND COMMUNITY

Break down the barriers of distance by systematically building a successful team culture. Communicate respectfully. Avoid sarcasm and teasing in distance interactions. Handle sensitive issues with discretion. And when in doubt, over-communicate

to prevent misunderstandings. Encourage informal communication to build bonds. Ask remote and onsite employees to occasionally call one another, even when an email would suffice.

INVOLVE OFFSITE STAFFS TO CELEBRATE WINS AND LEARN FROM LOSSES

Celebrate wins and learn from losses as a group. Bring remote and on-site employees together to debrief (video conferences are great for this). Discuss what worked, what didn't, and how the win or loss can help you grow stronger as a team.

SUPPORT NEEDS OF OFFSITE STAFF

Ensure that all off-site employees have the resources needed to be good employees and be productive. List obstacles to working well together and brainstorm potential solutions.

MAKE SURE OF TIMELY APPRAISALS

Lots of times human resource managers forget to count off-site employee’s appraisals, due to their missing manager feedback lists or other work monitoring reports that are easy to compute for onsite employees’ vs off-site employees. Organisation must take care of this aspect because dissatisfaction of off-site employees is not easily recognisable.

Break down the barriers of distance by systematically building a successful team culture

REMUNERATE FOR INFRASTRUCTURE Offsite employees may not be enjoying other facilities that onsite employees enjoy. Hence remunerate them for telephone bills, internet connection and other charges that they bear to do the office work.