My friend, the manager we looked at yesterday, continued to lament his problems with remote employees. "For instance," he said, "I have an employee who is a stay-at home parent. I understand our telephone conversations occasionally get disrupted. I understand sometimes my employee is off taking a child to this or that activity. I know that's part of why some people want or need to work at home. But how do I know I'm getting my money's worth? How do I know the time I'm paying for is productive time? Sometimes it seems like my stay-at-home parent does what he/she wants to do, and not what I want done."
My response was: "That my friend is again a management issue, the same kind of issue you can have with on site employees. Perhaps not to the same degree, but it's the same problem none-the-less. On site employees sometimes need time off to attend to personal things. Some on site employees are guilty of working on personal things on company time. On site employees sometimes talk too much, lose focus, get distracted or just plain goof off. And on site employees don't always do what we need done."
"Yes, Dan, but when they are on site I can see it and I can deal with it."
"Not always," I cautioned. "You can be in a meeting and your on site employees can have a field day until just before you get back. And how many times have you been disappointed with an on site employee when something you needed didn't get done? Admittedly, these conditions are usually surface faster and are dealt with more quickly when the employee works on site. But they are also controllable and can be dealt with quickly when an employee works off site, provided you stay on top of things by establishing and monitoring clear expectations of performance.
"First of all," I continued, "I'm glad you recognize that stay-at-home workers can get distracted by stay-at-home things. That's a natural part of life, and frankly a cost of having remote workers. The question becomes one of reasonableness. Are too many telephone conversations being disrupted by children? Then perhaps more on site meeting time is necessary if you and the remote employee can't find any other way to resolve the off site issue. Is your off site employee not available when you need them due to out-of-home child activities? Then create a set of expectations that you both can live with. You could also require the stay-at-home employee to let you know in advance when they don't plan to be at home working.
"Secondly, in terms of getting your money's worth, clear performance measures are necessary for off site workers just as they are for on site workers. For production and paper processing types of jobs, you as a manager need to have a good handle of how many units of work can be done per hour. For project work, you as a manager should have a pretty good idea (and so should the employee) of the budgeted hours for the project. And, most importantly as a manager, you need to know how each employee's performance stacks up against those measures.
"Thirdly, in terms of priorities and job completion requirements, those belong to you. You can delegate those responsibilities if you are happy with the way your off site (or on site) employee handles their workload. But you always have the right to command and demand those priorities and deadlines when you believe it necessary to do so.
"Finally, if an off site (or on site) employee is not performing to expectations, then you need to put on your coaching and/or counseling hat and deal with it. Of course the barriers to performance may be different in a remote environment. But in the end it doesn't matter. The barriers to performance need to be overcome so the employee performs to expectations. After all, you are paying them to do their job properly -- no matter where that job is being done."
About me: Before becoming a full time educator, my career experiences included being vice president of a consulting firm, vice president - finance of a publishing company, vice president - sales support services for a manufacturing company and vice president - operations for a distribution company. As a full time educator working principally in Rhode Island (RI), Connecticut (CT) and Massachusetts (MA). I am pleased to share my experiences and business philosophies with managers at all levels.
Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.
All rights reserved.
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