The future is here. Businesses no longer need to rely on hiring office workers and buying space to accommodate them all.
Remote working is growing in popularity and is becoming the norm, slowly but surely. There are plenty of benefits to working with remote workers and freelancers.
In this post, we’ll first be discussing the benefits and then how you can manage remote workers effectively.
The benefits of remote workers
You can hire anyone in the world
There’s no need to limit your recruitment efforts to only hiring people in the local area. You can choose literally anyone in the world. There’s no limit.
Save on office space
If you’d rather keep overheads down, you don’t need to invest in pricey office space. You could choose somewhere smaller or even just work from home.
Save on equipment
No need to buy computers, software packages or kitchen facilities when your workers have their own at home. You may need to purchase licenses for software, but overall your costs of hiring an employee are going to be so much less than if they worked with you in an office.
Happier, healthier workers
Numerous studies have shown that commuting to work and sitting in the same office chair for 8 hours a day is bad for our health. And yet, many business owners just accept it as a fact of life.
Giving employees the freedom to choose their own hours, have control over their working environment and having flexible time off leads to happier and healthier employees. This then leads to better productivity levels so it’s a win-win situation.
Attract the best workers
If you have a flexible, remote working job role, this is going to make you a sought-after employer. You’re going to have your pick of the very best employees.
The only downside is you’ll probably have to sort through a lot of job applications unless you headhunt specific people or use a recruitment agency.
How to manage remote workers
A lot of people are still apprehensive about remote workers. There’s admittedly a lot less control over how your employees spend their time.
What if they’re only messing about on Facebook all day?
There’s always that risk. However, if you do your research and find the right employee, you shouldn’t have a problem.
Giving employees control over their time and environment is actually shown to boost productivity rather than hinder it. As remote working opportunities are so few and far between, a good employee would be unlikely to risk this privilege by abusing the freedom and flexibility you’ve offered them.
Sign up to a messaging app
With plenty of apps to choose from, it’s easier than ever to keep in touch with remote workers online.
Slack has grown in popularity since it was released over five years ago, just as remote teams have taken off. It’s free to use for small teams and can be used as a way to catch up, share documents, and get critique or even set up a video call. Other popular options include Zoom video conferencing or Skype.
Get help with project management
Project management solutions such as Asana, Monday, Hygger or Trello have made it much easier for people to collaborate and manage workloads remotely. You can see what your employees are working on, create content calendars, set project deadlines and label projects by priority.
Have regular catch-ups
Try to set aside time to catch-up one-to-one with remote workers to see how they’re finding things. Personal issues or things they’re struggling with might get pushed to one side when doing group meetings or pinging work-related messages over Slack.
It’s important that you’re supporting remote workers in the same way you would with regular office workers.
Be flexible
The beauty of remote working is that it’s flexible. So don’t be so rigid with your working day. Give people the freedom to take a break when they want, to schedule a doctor’s appointment or head out for a long lunch.
This is especially important for those working in different time zones. You can’t expect everyone to follow your rigorous schedule.
You’ll find more often than not that people appreciate this freedom and will return to work more productive. Not everyone is looking to escape or lead a lazy working lifestyle.
Do you work with remote workers? Have you ever worked remotely yourself? Share your stories and tips for success below.
