5 Tips For Releasing Your Fears And Letting Your Team Choose Remote Work
Remote work is a hot button issue for many employers. Some employers were early adopters and moved on the new work arrangement quickly, while others slowly moved into the trend. Even now, some employers have still not embraced the power of remote work.
Some careers will never work remotely. You can't set up an entire factory in someone's bedroom. But, the truth is, there are a variety of companies who could benefit from remote work if they let go of their fears and began seeing remote work for what it is.
Jumping into the unknown with remote work can be terrifying, and we wanted to shed some light on remote work, releasing your fears, and letting your team choose a work environment where they can genuinely thrive.
Remember That The Remote Work Relationship Can Be Temporary
Before we begin talking about how to release your fears about remote work, let’s get clear on one thing: this new remote work relationship can be temporary. You might be nervous that once you open Pandora’s box, you can’t take it back, but that’s not true.
Seeing your first experience with remote work as an experiment is the best way to release your fears so your team can try out a new working arrangement.
Once you experiment with remote work, you’ll probably find that you like the arrangement and that your team is happy too.
If you do see this as an experiment or a temporary working arrangement, make sure to let your team know first. Give some parameters to the remote work arrangement so your team knows they may be expected to come back into the office.
Get Educated On Why Remote Work Is So Amazing
One of the best things you can do if you are hesitant to let your employees work from home is to learn about the benefits of remote work and what it can do for your company.
You Can Access Better Talent Thanks To Remote Work
If you want to have access to the best talent your money can buy, choosing a remote work style is your best option. When you allow your employees to work from anywhere, you can build a fantastic list of talented staff members. No more looking for the best of the best in your area! We are talking about the best of the best in the world. Now, when you are dealing with team members from all over, there are new challenges. Managing teams across time zones is challenging, but all of these issues are solved with proper planning.
Remote Work Will Make Your Employees Happier
Another impressive strength of remote work is how it makes your employees feel. Your employees will feel happier once they can let go of the typical morning commute and do the work they love in an environment that brings them joy. The office environment was not meant for everyone, especially now that we have the tools to pick a different route.
Remote Work Cuts Down On Overhead Costs
Running a business from an office space can be a challenging expense. The overhead on owning and maintaining your building can prove too expensive for many companies, especially startups. Being able to scale back your headquarters or forego one entirely will save your company loads of money that you can use for other aspects of your business.
And an alternative to having a space, you can encourage and pay for your remote employees to set up their own desk area or even covering a coworking membership either with a space or coworking-on-demand services like Croissant.
Testing a day a month can be a great way to test out remote work possibilities. | Photo by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash
Find Ways To Take It Slow
Next, you might want to consider ways to take your new remote arrangement slow. Instead of diving headfirst into full-time remote work, here are a few alternative methods you could try.
Remote Work Days
When you are beginning to test remote work, you may want to start with a day of the week where everyone works from home, like Remote Work Friday. Alternatively, you could give everyone a certain number of work-from-home days each month or year that they can schedule in advance and then get their work done at home.
Starting small with a handful of days a month is the perfect way to test the waters without committing to any work arrangements. You can test how your employees handle working from home without fully diving into the world of remote work.
Consider Having A Daily Mandatory Working Schedule
Another way to take it slow is by stabilizing some of the work environment. Since your employees are all over the place, you might want to create a mandatory working schedule for a few hours during the day. For example, you might require that all of your employees do at least some of their business from 9 AM-12 PM in your time zone. The rest of your team’s hours might happen on their terms, but at least part of their job will be during your working hours.
Focus On Communication
It's true. Most things can be solved with more communication. When we stop communicating with our team, a lot of unnecessary issues arise. If you are hesitant about remote work, you should do everything in your power to make sure you communicate concerns with your team. Make sure you give them the same courtesy by allowing them to share their thoughts with you too.
Slack
One of the best communication tools for remote teams is Slack. Slack is great for creating that water cooler chat you miss when you work from home, while also allowing your company to get business done. Slack chats can hold hundreds of people, keep them organized in various rooms, and help you message people one-on-one if needed. Slack is simple to download and use as a team. Slack's focus is helping work happen, so it's an excellent tool for remote companies to use. You might also consider using Twist for communication with your team.
Regular Video Meetings
Another way to create open communication is by using video meetings. You can't always understand the meanings of words or audio, so video adds a significant amount of dimension to your calls with employees. You can use tools like Skype, Zoom, or Google Hangouts to host these meetings with your employees.
Use Time Tracking Software
Next, if you are worried about how your employees are using their time while working from home, there are a plethora of fantastic time tracking tools out there. The great thing about most time trackers is that they run seamlessly in the background while taking screenshots of what your employees are doing and providing you with accurate timesheets.
You do want to be careful if your employees have a job that doesn’t require a lot of movement. Some time tracking software isn’t advanced enough to understand tasks like research that are time-intensive but don’t require a lot of typing or mouse movement.
If a time tracker isn’t helpful to what your employees do, ask them to keep detailed logs of what they did every day. Or schedule a weekly stand up to catch up on major project updates.
Ultimately, it goes back to communication and making sure your employees understand their daily expectations as a remote employee.
Look at other successful companies that are fully remote. | Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash
Look At Other Successful Companies Who Manage Remote Workers
Last, but not least, if you want to release your fears about remote work, you need to see remote work in action. Several companies have remote working arrangements and do it well. Here are a few examples:
Buffer
Buffer, the social media scheduler, is a fantastic case study in doing remote work right. Buffer is a fully distributed team with tons of employees all over the world. They do excellent work, provide great benefits, and they are very open about their successes and failures as a remote company. You can find a ton of content about their policies, pay, and even how they communicate/have meetups on their blog.
Groove
Groove, a customer service/help desk software, is another company that has been pretty adamant about their use of remote workers. One of Groove’s biggest tips for succeeding with remote work is hiring great remote workers. They understand that some people can succeed at remote work better than others, so they've come up with a system that helps them identify employees that would fit well with their distributed team.
Other Companies Who Use Remote Workers
Here are some other companies who use remote workers:
YNAB (You Need A Budget)
So, are you ready to get started?
Going from an office to remote work shouldn't be as challenging as we make it. With these tips, you'll be able to release your fears and allow your employees to make decisions that will help them be more productive. When you start the journey with an open mind and communication, your business can go further and connect with employees all over the globe.
Writer Amanda Cross is a freelance content writer creating content about current HR issues like diversity, remote work, and building more engaged workforces. When she's not writing in the HR industry, you can find her running her lifestyle blog and producing a podcast for freelancers.