Nowadays more and more businesses are embracing the possibilities of remote work. Whether some of your team are working from home or your team comprises of freelancers from multiple countries, you need to ensure that you manage your team effectively. Managing a remote team requires a different approach to managing a traditional in-house team. However, there are many strategies you can implement to manage your team with more confidence.
For many business owners and managers, one of the most challenging aspects of managing a remote team is tracking time logged by employees. When you’re employees are not clocking in and out at your business premises, it can be difficult to know exactly what hours they are working. Figuring out a way to manage this issue is crucial when it comes to payroll and ensuring that you are paying your team the right amount. With the right systems in place, however, you can track work with your remote team with ease.
Let’s take a look at a few things you need to consider to track your remote teams work accurately.
Utilise Modern Busines Tools
Business software packages and cloud-based platforms have changed the way many businesses operate. Using these tools, you can ensure that you track all of the important data you need seamlessly. When it comes to tracking your remote teams hours, the Deputy timesheet app is an excellent tool that your employees can clock in with no matter where in the world they are. Applications like this make it easy to collect and verify timesheets, automate wage calculations, manage your payroll and always know who is working at any time.
Maintain Open Lines Of Communication
When you are managing a remote team, you need to ensure that you have clear lines of communication at all times. Having an effective communication system in place will ensure that you are always up-to-date with the progress of projects and you have a better understanding of your team is performing. In a traditional business setting, it is very difficult to operate efficiently when there are regular communication breakdowns. When it comes to remote teams, this is even more important as you don’t have the convenience of meeting your team face-to-face.
Trust In Your Team
While it’s possible for your remote employees to take advantage of their work-from-home status by overbilling for hours worked, as a business owner you can’t spend your days worrying about this. You need to put trust in your team and establish a good rapport with them. If you empower your team and show that you trust them, you will naturally motivate to perform better. Trusting that they are providing you with accurate data regarding project milestones and hour worked will also make tracking your remote team’s work easier than ever as you won’t need to spend time double-checking every last detail.
Set Milestones And Deadlines
Setting clear milestones and deadlines for work to be completed by will help you to track your employees work with more certainty. If you have provided enough time for the work to be completed and some employees are not meeting the deadlines, then you can speak to them about what is delaying them. If they are genuinely struggling with the tasks, you can use this opportunity to provide them with additional training and support. On the other hand, if the issue persists, the employee may not be putting in the work they are claiming which should be a cause for concern.
Track Work With Your Remote Team More Accurately
With a team of employees scattered across multiple destinations and even time zones, tracking your team’s work can be challenging. However, to move your business forward, you need to ensure that your team is performing. With the right systems in place, you can be sure that your remote team tracking is more accurate, allowing you to manage your business more efficiently.