It is one thing when an employee is directly accessible to the manager, and another when the staff works remotely from home.
In this article, you will learn about all the peculiarities and problems of interaction with remote workers, as well as what solutions exist to increase productivity and control over work.
What are the main challenges of supervising employees remotely?
Firstly, there are too many distractions at home. When an employee comes to their rightful place of work (even if they are working as part of a mobile team) in an office or workshop, it is much easier for them to get in the mood for work. To put aside most of the domestic problems and focus solely on fulfilling their duties.
No one cancels the ‘do as others do’ effect. If everyone around you is busy doing things, the herd instinct kicks in. You start to work like everyone else around you — it’s sociology in action.
Other psychological factors also have an impact: a change of scenery, observing certain rituals (e.g., a morning meeting and/or summarizing the working day at the end), a clear schedule (a stable work regime, a clear schedule of smoke breaks) and so on.
But the biggest challenge is self-control. If at work, when you are distracted by something extraneous, you can be cheered up by your line manager. But at home, the employees report only to themselves.
To make up for the lack of such control, the manager needs special tools — software and hardware, and also the consent of the remote worker to actually interfere in his/her private life, especially in the case of video recording of actions. Organizing such systems may require special equipment (video cameras, laptops/personal computers, a wide channel of access to the Internet, etc.).
But let’s take it one step at a time.
Pandemic and forced transition to a remote format of work has revealed many bottlenecks and problems. All of them require the development of special measures to counteract procrastination.
The other side of the coin is the increase of control beyond the norm, which leads to the fact that remote workers are becoming more anxious and may be aggressive towards colleagues, households, or management representatives.
If an employee’s productivity drops, the overall cost of labour increases as new employees need to be hired to provide the same amount of work as before, delays and problems with meeting deadlines, and many other unpleasant consequences can occur.
Another important question is access differentiation. Due to the fact that employees are transferred to remote work on an emergency basis without thinking through all the details of their interaction with them, it often happens that employees are given access to the entire functionality of IT systems at once without proper data control. And this can cause serious problems: leakage of client databases, poaching of clients, disclosure of personal data, and so on. All of this can result in significant losses.
What tools ensure control of a remote worker
This is where it gets interesting.
The most ideal for the manager, but not the most comfortable for the employee, is the option of full audio and video control of the subordinate’s workplace.
It is only suitable for personnel with low motivation who need regular cheering up and a nudge in the right direction.
Continuous monitoring systems
There are comprehensive time monitoring systems that can:
- Track the location of a remote employee with GPS tagging.
- Record the work process on video, including the ability to identify points of concentration.
- Save the history of interaction with the company’s information systems and clients (websites, CRM systems, ERP, IP telephony/call centre, etc.).
- Match activity to work schedules and upcoming tasks (business trips, transport movements and other).
- Identify violators and notify management of the need for punitive action.
- Automatically generate timesheets (relevant for hourly models).
Of course, the employees will feel under the eye, as Big Brother will always be watching them.
Pros and cons of continuous monitoring systems
The advantages of the approach include the following points:
- Maximum automation of the control process.
- The number of management staff and, consequently, the payroll can be reduced. Or the freed up time of managers can be directed to other, more important tasks.
- The data collected by the system can be used to optimize work and revise personnel policies.
- There is always a substantive evidence base.
- The real efficiency of subordinate employees can be easily identified.
There are also a lot of disadvantages:
- Implementing such software usually involves large one-off investments to purchase licenses and the necessary hardware for installation and use at employee workstations. This can also include increased costs for corporate communications and mobile devices for remote, non-sitting staff.
- Software systems involve installing special software on users’ devices to track their actions (keyboard input, history of websites visited, desktop screenshots, recording video from webcams, microphone access, etc.). Privacy may suffer, as the system will track an employee at any time, even after hours.
- Complex processes of integration with the corporate software in use.
- Continuous monitoring can reduce staff motivation.
- Any automation system can be cheated. For this purpose, there are other specialized programs that can simulate user actions or deliberately increase the user’s performance indicators.
Instead of comprehensive systems, more specialized tools can be used. For example, conversations and correspondence with customers can always be tracked in cloud CRM systems.
BPM systems and point control
Task managers and BPM systems can be used to set and control tasks less closely. These are specialized software for scheduling employees’ work, maintaining corporate correspondence, storing work files and documents, receiving timely notifications (e.g., about new tasks or about deadlines for already received tasks).
Time management for remote workers can easily be brought into the tasks of the line manager. They can not only take into account the schedule, but also identify problems, hold motivational talks, organize group meetings in online format (as an element of socialization), personally designate the highest priority tasks and much more.
This format with reduced control will be preferable for teams and collectives where employees do not need constant monitoring.
Pros and cons of point control of remote employees
The advantages of a more democratic approach to supervision include the following points:
- Only those staff activities that are directly related to work are monitored. No interference in personal life and no total surveillance.
- More trusting relations, more personal communication, better working atmosphere. As a consequence — higher motivation.
- Stress levels are lower.
- Costs for profile BMP systems are significantly lower, usually cloud-based services with inexpensive subscriptions tied to the number of employees. No additional equipment is required. Internet access channel does not necessarily need to be wide, as video content is not transmitted.
- Software integration and its implementation at the enterprise is practically unnecessary.
There are disadvantages, and they may become decisive in the final decision of higher managers.
- The degree of control is much lower. Neither line nor superior managers can fully control the actions of their employees. Only to set tasks and wait for their fulfilment.
- Costs for the services and software involved cannot be avoided anyway.
- The possibility of falsifying employee performance results is much higher than in the case of complex monitoring systems.
- Different data on employee activity will be stored in different sources and services (separately video conferences, separately CRM, separately CMS-systems, etc.).
It is impossible to say with 100% certainty which approach will be relevant for your company. It will depend on many different factors, such as the degree of material responsibility of the staff, the importance of the tasks to be performed, the standards of manageability used, the current organizational structure, the individual characteristics of the employees, and so on. Any of these points can tip the scales in one direction or another.
