by Jan Grobler,
February 2015
Introduction
Most managers dread the thought of managing a virtualised workforce out of fear of losing the ability to track employee
progress. Thanks to improved technologies and the higher price of transport, working
remotely has become increasingly popular
as is evident in the white and blue
collar domains, providing less expensive options for both large and small
work forces.
This does not mean that the managers
solved the progress
tracking issue. Having
teams or individuals roaming or on their own, representing you or your organisation in the work they are executing
are and have always been riddled
with uncertainties. Uncertainties
that are not easily resolved.
What is a Remote Workforce
So let’s start
at the beginning and look at what we call those lonely warriors that are out there in the wild,
representing us by doing work on our behalf, or doing their
work but not in the office
with the rest of the team. Most publications use words such as remote workers, telecommuters,
workshifters, distributed teams, flextime, flexiplace, career sabbaticals, zerohours contract and flexible work.
There is a tendency to use these terms interchangeably, though there are certainly subtle
distinctions between them. However, the real interest
and focus is on managing
the tasks executed
in remote locations at some distance from the manager
or the person responsible for controlling the process. What matters
is the distance between the manager
and executioner of the task or process, not
the label put on the job category.
In essence there are two categories which
are effectively the base reasons
for work done remotely. The most recently
developed category is where work that could have been done in the office,
is done remotely. Various reasons for this development exist and included
in this list are costs,
travel and time,
both to and from the place of work. This is impacted
by the distribution in location
of clients or prospects. Technology made this category possible in the forms of mobile computing and telecommunications.
The second category
however is the original reason for remote work the location where the work needs to be executed. This mean someone
needs to go to a specific geographical location in order to execute a specific task.
It is important
to note that to a large degree,
the two categories have the same effects
on the organisation, but, the reasons or objectives of the two
categories differ.
Issues with
remote work
Many information
systems don’t have the capability to support remote workers at the
outset of a remote
workforce rollout. Addressing the uncertainties are not all obvious at first,
but includes:
●
Are the team at
the right location,
●
Are they doing
the right job/task,
●
Are they
scheduled to do the job at this stage,
●
Did they start
on time,
●
Did they
complete the job,
●
Did they finish
on time,
●
Do they know
where to go next,
●
Do they know
what to do next,
●
Are we using
the right person/team for the job,
●
Are they
efficient in their execution,
●
Do they need
assistance/resources, and
●
Do they need to
compile proof of execution and when is the proof available.
Practices
Critical practices for successful Remote Workforce Management includes:
Going paperless Committing to digital information flow and storage is the single most important thing
you can do to enable
efficient distributed work. People can be much more mobile when they don’t have to access paper documents
that are by definition stored in only one location. The real magic
of centrally stored
digital information is that once it’s online
it can be accessed and
processed from almost
anywhere. Most organisations already have formal document retention policies; they just need to learn to use them.
Carrying the tools you need with you One government agency we studied no longer has any desktop computers. Everything is portable,
although all laptops
have physical security
devices and are assigned to individual employees.
That makes it really, really simple for staff to pick up and go. This degree of technology mobility
increases the likelihood that people will work
wherever they are because they can.
Making time to practice new tools such as jobspecific software applications Give employees time to learn how to use new
collaborative technologies well before they
are expected to integrate them into their work style.
We are talking about much more than a simple
orientation to a new version
of a program. Give the new tool to the team and let them play with it in offline mode before they are explicitly responsible for getting
the job done with it.
Being contactable (i.e., published times when people are available) When people work in a single central location everyone assumes
that if they can see you, you are available to
talk. When you are remote you
should advertise your availability and set aside specific blocks of time for calls and other realtime collaborative activities. One manager called these times his opendoor
hours.
Develop personal discipline, including knowing when to unplug Gil Gordon (one of the thought
leaders we interviewed) is famous for promoting the value of getting offline.
In his view, many employees
become overly connected and can’t separate
work from the rest of
their lives. There is a psychological risk in being
away from the direct supervision that helps people know when they are at work and when they’re not; burnout can become endemic among remote workers unless they learn how
to disconnect.
Remote Management
Primary attributes of effective remote management:
Establishing clear expectations/goals Set the goals
early, put them in writing,
and revisit them on a periodic basis.
Knowing your
employees Optimise their individual skills and
styles; get the right person for the right job at the right time in the
right place.
Establishing explicit Big Rules Define acceptable etiquette, protocols, expectations of team members,
norms, and values.
Do not assume everyone will understand how things get done around here. Be explicit. For example, in one ad agency we know, managers actually assign someone to shadow new workers in order to help them learn the notsovisible rules of the road.
However, as trite
as it may sound, the most critical skill in a
distributed work environment is the ability to establish trust
(which in many ways translates into, or is equivalent to, employee engagement).
Technology
Utilising the right technologies to support a remote workforce
is of utmost importance. No remote
worker or team can operate in isolation. Fostering a remote workforce means not only hiring the right people,
but also supporting them with the technologies that enable them to collaborate effectively. Working remotely
do not foster esprit de corps with colleagues from the same
organisation and surely do not allow for easy exchange of experiences and knowledge
sharing. This can be augmented through the use of technologies, depending on communication capabilities of devices
and systems utilised.