During the pandemic, one of the biggest challenges observed by managers and small business owners is dealing with feelings of loss of control. Most managers and employees have become accustomed to a management style that requires physical presence to be effective.
Employees may use visual cues to subconsciously (and consciously) confirm that they are in the work environment and take corresponding actions. Similarly, managers and employers can use visual cues to collect employee engagement and productivity through simple observations. However, because most organizations have to adapt to remote and mixed work environments, managing and measuring productivity in this way has become inappropriate. In any case, it has never been the most effective way to track productivity. turn out.
Of course, there are ways to ensure that employees participate and achieve productivity goals without having to be physically present. I will show you how to monitor the work efficiency of employees and increase their sense of responsibility, while addressing the danger of over-management.
Create rituals and develop practices for communication
Establishing a communication ritual in your organization can mimic or achieve a similar effect to face-to-face interaction with the office. They can improve morale and give employees a sense of friendship. In addition, they can remind everyone that they are part of your organization's future and that you are all working towards the same goal.
In order to develop effective remote and team-wide communication ceremonies, you need to ensure that you have the right tools and infrastructure to facilitate them. The first step is to implement correct business communication and collaboration software.
If you use the messaging feature of collaboration tools, you can encourage employees to greet each other when they log in (for example, say "hi" or use a waving emoji), and use a farewell message when they log out (for example, say "goodbye" or "tomorrow" See"). Think about how you will interact if you enter or leave the office.
Although the workers are separated numerically, this simple approach can restore a sense of normalcy. It can also reduce the sense of alienation, loneliness and uncertainty caused by remote work.
Another communication ceremony worth taking advantage of is a weekly remote meeting to discuss all the priorities of the week. You can also encourage employees to hold digital talks so that employees can talk about anything that has nothing to do with work. More casual interaction can help you build teamwork and stability between remote employees.
The extent to which employees comply with these practices will give you an idea of the headspace of the team. Although the communication ceremony will not allow you to directly understand their work efficiency, it will ensure that they have a basis and reason to make them more autonomous and responsible.
Measure employee output
One of the biggest reasons why monitoring remote employees has become a topic of discussion is that many organizations have yet to learn how to quantify employee output. Instead, they measure work in terms of time invested. However, after working remotely for so much time, many of us understand that the time spent sitting at the desk does not necessarily equal the amount of work done.
You can be in front of your computer or in the office, but it is still extremely inefficient. Generally speaking, this is why it is a good idea to learn quantitative work, especially when working remotely. The focus needs to shift to results, not just the time invested.
Of course, this does not always apply to all occupations, but in most cases, you should be able to find some form of indicator. For programmers, this can be the number of updates or pushes to the repository. Or, it can be the number of tasks completed or new features added. For marketing, it can be the number of ads delivered or the marketing activity analyzed. With more specific expectations, your team will be more motivated to complete the work, rather than just investing time and receiving a salary.
Tracking time
In the previous step, we emphasized that the results are more important than the time invested. However, tracking time is still important. If employees do not complete their goals or complete tasks on time, tracking time can help you find out why.
Are the goals unrealistic, or the workers do not manage their time well? Both employees and leaders should be able to manage their time. But sometimes, you may need to find other tools to help your remote employees keep an eye on your remote employees—although this goes well with this type of software program. There is "a delicate balance between the legitimate reasons for monitoring employees and illegal violations of people’s privacy."
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