Managing Employees and HR

Engaging From Afar

SBOCTeam — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:49:00 GMT

Keeping remote employees engaged can be a difficult task for a small business owner. But when managed well, your off-site employees can be just as productive as the ones you see every day.

by Max Berry

Sometime during the 20th century, the water cooler assumed a crucial position in the American office-it became a trading post not only for gossip and recaps of last night's television shows, but also for ideas and advice. With a growing number of 21st-century employees working remotely, the water cooler is a quieter place, its role more often filled by e-mail and instant messaging, videoconferences and webinars. Trading ideas used to be simpler, but that doesn't mean your small business has to endure a communication breakdown. Here are a few ways to keep your remote employees engaged and the conversation flowing.

Remote Connection
"It's all about staying connected," says management consultant Carol Hacker of managing remote employees. Regular contact via phone, e-mail, VoIP- or instant message is of course necessary for monitoring work flow and hashing out ideas, but members of a team who aren't working side by side need an established forum, one that can be accessed around the clock, on which to collaborate and check in with their colleagues.

Remote access services like those provided by Citrix (citrix.com) allow for remote workers to securely access and update centrally maintained information from their computers as easily as if they were working in the home office. Microsoft® Office Groove® offers a similar service, along with the capability to share files and create a workspace accessible to every member of your team.

With remote access to company information comes an increased security risk. However a manager chooses to keep his or her employees connected, an annual consultation with an IT specialist will help to ensure that remote connections to sensitive company and client data remain secure.

Being Clear: The Golden Rule
Once a reliable system is in place for remote employees to connect to the central office, a manager needs to set specific protocol for relations between the two entities. Since a manager can't be on-site to monitor remote employees directly, Hacker recommends creating a reference manual for remote workers. The manual should provide detailed summaries of company policy regarding data security and backup, project deadlines, appropriate use of company-issued equipment (especially notebook computers and other portable devices), the frequency with which a remote employee is expected to check in with the manager, and appropriate response times to requests and inquiries from the central office.

As Hacker puts it, "The most critical thing a manager can do is manage expectations." This means delineating, on a project-by-project basis, the objectives, deadlines, and anticipated challenges of every task a remote employee takes on.

Of course, the value of a remote employee's work can't be judged by hours logged in the office. Since they are not able to observe the way a remote employee goes about his or her task, managers must set clear guidelines pointing their employees to the desired end result. Assessing a remote worker's job performance requires a manager to trust the employee to meet company standards using his or her own strategy and technique. "Managers need to measure success by results," says Hacker, "not activity."

Keeping The ‘I' Team
A major component in job satisfaction is working with others toward a common goal. Feeling isolated from the rest of the team can diminish a remote employee's morale and hurt job performance. It is up to the manager to keep a sense of camaraderie and singular purpose among employees, remote and otherwise.

The first thing to remember is that some employees simply aren't cut out for remote work. Either they need supervision to be productive or they simply get listless if they aren't around a surplus of people. Managers looking to hire remotely should address these issues during the interview phase to make sure a new employee can handle the remote environment.

Regularly scheduled face-to-face meetings and social events can stave off the disconnected feeling in remote workers, as can the occasional "just because" call. "Don't always call [remote employees] when there's big news," advises Hacker. "Call to check in." Informal gestures like this quash the potential for a Charlie's Angels dynamic, in which a recognizably named-but eternally unseen-leader provides instructions only when necessary, and only by telephone.

But the opposite tack can be problematic as well. Hacker warns of becoming a "helicopter manager," an employer who compensates for a lack of face time by checking in too often, hovering from afar. This can be just as damaging as infrequent or impersonal contact. "It speaks to a manager not trusting his or her employees," says Hacker. "If you do that, you're going to alienate your best people."

Of course, employing remote workers also offers myriad benefits to employees, managers, and clients. A satellite office in a different time zone means staggered hours to help meet customer needs. A prospective employee who would have faced a long commute to a company's central office may be closer to a satellite office or, if both manager and worker are okay with the idea, may even be willing to telecommute. Remote offices with small staffs appeal to workers who prefer quiet and detest interruptions. And this is to say nothing of what working remotely can do for an employee's confidence. "Remote employees have the ability to approach their work according to their own strength and preferences," says Hacker. "They're almost entrepreneurs."

Fire Yourself

SBOCTeam — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:19:00 GMT

How delegating can free up your time and improve your business

By Max Berry

No small business owner can do it all. The idea of absolute control may be appealing, but a little delegation is necessary if you don't want to spread yourself too thin. While training an employee to perform a task you already know how to do may feel like a waste of time, the short term investment you put into teaching someone else will pay dividends.

"Many business owners are micro-managers," says Greg Smith, President and CEO of Georgia based corporate training firm Chart Your Course International. "We figure that we built it, so we're the genesis of everything a company does." While it is natural for an ambitious entrepreneur to feel that way, a successful entrepreneur simply doesn't have the time to do everything at once. So take some pressure off yourself by delegating the tasks that aren't cost effective for you to carry out, as well as those that simply aren't in your wheelhouse. This will spare you the stress of working on something that isn't suited to your skill set and free up the time to focus on tasks that are. You can still edit and fine tune your employees' work, ensuring it is of the standard you require, without giving short shrift to more managerial duties.

Banish Boredom
Some smart delegation will also save you from the perils of under utilizing your staff. Any employee, no matter how talented, will perform beneath their potential if he or she is bored. To prevent this, Smith recommends creating a personal delegation plan for each member of your staff. "Delegate to someone who has the capability, interest, and potential [to complete a particular task]," he advises. Pay close attention to the individual talents of your staff and assign jobs accordingly. Ask every employee you hire what their ambitions are and what kind of work they'd be most excited about doing. If you know this before you start delegating, you can ensure that each employee takes on a task they'll be excited about making their own. But be careful not to pigeonhole anybody. "You want to know what someone's capabilities are," says Smith, "but you also want to broaden horizons. Challenge your employees somewhat. Let them grow."

To this end, you should explain a task's objective and outline the desired results, but don't micro-manage. If an employee doesn't feel like their work is their own, he or she won't be inclined to take pride in doing it well. On the other hand, if you aren't specific enough about the way something should be done, the work you get back may be incompatible with company standards; be very specific about what an employee should achieve with a given task, but trust them enough to let them achieve it their way.

Delegation = Professional Development
Ask as much as you tell. Once you've given instructions, make sure you give your employees the chance to tell you if they need any additional resources or information to get started. Also be sure to hand over responsibility for an entire task, not just a portion of it. It is much easier to involve someone with a complete job than with one piece of a greater whole. This kind of absolute responsibility will give your employees the opportunity to grow professionally, which Greg Smith identifies as a chief benefit to delegation. "Delegation should be seen as professional development," he says, "not just the opportunity to take something off your own plate. Delegating gives people a sense of purpose. It makes them feel like they're not just working a job, but building a career. And it gives them more interest in staying." This last point demonstrates how delegation can work as a kind of insurance policy for the future of a business. "Often times a crisis occurs," says Smith. "Someone dies or retires, and people in the company aren't ready to step up." Using delegation as a means to train your employees, to build their knowledge little by little, means there will always be someone ready to step up.

Reward Good Work
Once you've delegated a task, ask for regular progress reports to monitor how the work is coming along. You should also develop a plan in advance to thank and reward your employees once a task is completed. Rewarding good work, as well as conducting a thorough analysis of how the job was carried out, will make your employees feel more like they had a tangible effect on the course of the company.

Letting your employees have that kind of effect may be the best training of all. "We get locked into the idea that education makes someone capable," says Smith. "That is not always the case." While it is true that there is no education like real life education, there are still some jobs you simply can't delegate. Specific tasks can be assigned to your employees but the major practices affecting how a business functions-setting office policies and standards, conducting performance reviews, hiring and firing need to be handled by the leader. Likewise for the final approval of any product or practice that bears your company's name. As Smith says, "When delegating, you are giving your employees responsibility, but not all the authority

Max Berry is an associate writer/editor for Priority magazine, whose work has also been featured in Business Minds and Favors magazine.