While you might not be the kind of boss to hover above your team’s shoulders, it’s true that an office space brings people together and causes them to work hard as a team. At least, that’s the idea. It’s very easy to see who might be playing web browser games or scrolling their TikTok feed when they have two large screens on their desktop in an open-plan office.
For this reason, it might seem like a risk to hire remote workers, or even allow certain workers to go fully remote after staying inside. The truth is, however, that remote workers can be just as productive, if not more so than those in the office. After all, having room to work how you like, in your own space, can help some people thrive.
But how can you decide if they’re actually working, to ensure productivity stays high? Well, it’s rather simple. If you trust your staff and employ oversight in reasonable areas, you can detect who may be contributing most of all, and how others are offering their best.
With that in mind, let’s consider some tips for ensuring remote workers are really working:
DEADLINE FOCUS
If you have deadlines, you can see who reaches them and who doesn’t. Maybe you have a module that allows remote workers to turn in staff by a deadline, and those who continue to miss those deadlines can be in line for a performance review to see how they work and if they need any more support.
If deliverables are clear, then you can avoid thinking about how each hour is optimized, and focus on the appropriate assignment of work over time. That in itself can help you offer your employees the benefit of the doubt, and even give them the benefit of the doubt at work.
AVAILABILITY
Sure, remote work may be more flexible, and afford staff the chance to work harder at certain times and work more peacefully during others. For example, they might attend a doctor’s appointment without necessarily telling you, and then returning to work without worry.
But availability is important. If you ask staff to be generally available from 9-5 to match with your in-house team, well, they’ll be able to join video conferences or quick meetings as and when needed. This can prevent your staff from falling into a relatively open and nocturnal schedule, meeting deliverables but just barely. This way, you don’t have to track specific hours because when your staff are there, they will be here. If they miss a meeting or are rarely available when expected, that might be a sign to investigate further.
PROVIDE CLEAR EXPECTATIONS
Many people think that remote work is too open-ended and not structured enough, but that doesn’t have to be the case. By providing the tools to remote work well (such as well-furnished devices with all the functionality needed for each staff member), as well as making it clear what is and isn’t expected when working from home, you can begin managing remote employees with much more care and candour.
Moreover, you’ll have a standard you can point to if needing to discipline staff or question their working efforts. You can also implement a secondary contract for remote workers for the standard they have to meet, the security measures they have to take (like logging into the module with a VPN), or how to report errors promptly. From the very beginning, those guidelines will ensure you can manage consistently.
USE THE MENTOR SYSTEM
It can be helpful for younger staff who might not be familiar with remote working norms to have a mentor they can bounce ideas from, work for, and develop a connection with. This way, you can have more senior staff look over those they’re working with, and keep them motivated.
That’s not to say they’ll manage those staff, but having them as a sort of example can ensure those who have flexibility use it well. It can take an employee up to a month to truly settle into the remote work schedule, and so through this process you can implement a sort of onboarding.
You don’t have to dive straight into remote work either, you can always stagger staff in the office and working from home until they might become fully remote depending on schedules and the type of work they do. Using that mentor system can also ensure a sense of calm, so you don’t have to breathe down the necks of everyone who works for you, you can trust them to be the team you appreciate.
With this advice, you’ll be certain to ensure your remote workers are really working.
Thank you so much for reading! – xo N
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this is a contributed post.
New Lune 
I think remote workers need to know that you trust them. Then, if they have any self-worth, they won’t let you (and themselves) down.
Trust is a very important aspect in this case. Thank you so much for reading 😊
I have been remote since 2018. When I was in the office my colleagues normally did not show up until 9, then they would go to breakfast, returning an hour later. Then hit the gym, (we worked for a major sports apparel company) afterwards work would commence around 11. Break for a 2 hour lunch around 13:00. then they would be back at 15:00, maybe a break for a mindfulness session, then another bite to eat ultimately leaving the office around 19:00 when they would hit the bars.