Managing remote employees -- tips, tricks, and suggestions

[raeoflyte]

I only truly manage 2 offsite employees, but I have a team of 20+ who report to their branch but I manage their job role if that makes sense. 

I have 8 employees in the office next door to me, but the rest are all offsite.  One of my big questions this week is how do you, and how often do you check in with remote employees?  Looking to replace the walk in to the office of saying hi, how ya doin, etc. with the remote equivalent.  

Any success' on remote working is welcome so I can work on integrating tips we're not doing yet. 

[alabamagal]

I have been a remote employee and I also have remote employees.  I also have contractors working for me at other site.  And this "remote working" is generally working in a different office rather than work at home employees.

Depending on the employee and how much management they need, I would always speak to each of them at least once a week.  Even a call just to say "Hi how's it going" - the phone equivalent of "just stopping by to say hi" visit.

[gooddecisions]

I can't speak to managing a role function, it those others have a manager, then I wouldn't worry too much about them. I have always worked in a remote environment. I have a scheduled virtual meeting once a week with each individual, a once a week virtual team meeting and an open door policy for them to im, call or email me anytime. Even though we are all in different states, we are pretty close and help each other out a lot.

[billisonboard]

I hold a position in which the person on the organizational chart positioned directly above me has an office 7 hours away but travels the state frequently, including visits to the 45 minutes away. He was at our site last week for about four hours showing the site to other people. He arrived with and left with them. 20 months prior was his last visit, doing the same thing. We did meet last June. Our board meets then in the before mentioned town. I was there for face time. We talked for about 20 minutes at lunch. Last fall I asked for meeting to discuss issues. It was scheduled but he got sick and cancelled. He never showed any interest in rescheduling so I just let it go.

My suggestion: don't follow his example.

[giramomma]

We are all in town, but we work remotely, have lives, etc and rarely is everyone in the office at the same time.

We use a microblogging tool called socialcast to let folks know what we are up to.

You can create as many teams as you want. Right now, I can see about 26 different groups.

It's kinda like posting status updates on Facebook, but it's all work related.

We use hashtags to track projects.

You can use socialcast via an app on a mobile device or go to a web page.

It is wonderful, because if you need to have a quick question answered, you post.  It's also a quick way to let people know if you are out b/c of sick kids, sick dog, or what have you.

It has eliminated the need for emails. It also eliminates the need for routine meetings. We only have status meetings once a month. If we have a particular issue that can't be solved quickly, then we arrange for a face to face meeting. That happens once a month or so..

If you can't tell, we're not fond of meetings. We also aren't big on water cooler chit chat.

[Tiny]

Not really a remote employee.   My manager has 6 employees - all who do dramatically different things and with different responsibilities.   We're not much of "team" because we each playing a different game....   I usually see my boss for about an hour a week. 

That said, my boss has a weekly quick meeting 30 minutes or less  - just so we all feel like we're playing on the same 'team'.  

We also all turn in "status reports" with what is being worked on, status of projects, etc... He uses these to update his "mater list" of what each of us is working on.   And the final piece is a 30 minute weekly "one on one" meeting with each of us

to go over the "status" of our projects and if there is anything he can do/needs to be done.  Some things require someone with Authority (and he is an "Authority").

We could do without the 30 minute everyone together meeting...  but, I must admit turning in a 'status report' and the 30 minute a week one on one meetings are VERY useful to me - my boss is 'hands off' and pretty much lets me run my show.  He keeps a 'spreadsheet' with the various projects and just adds high level notes to it each week - basically info he needs so he can report on my work to HIS boss. 

In the past - our group had a manager who we pretty much only spoke to when it came time for reviews.  

I like the new arrangement much better.  I feel more productive and 'on track'.  

 

[Anne_in_VA]

I work remotely and am part of a small team that reports to a VP but I'm the only remote worker.  I am in a different state than the rest of the team and they all work in the same office.  My title is manager and the team looks to me for guidance if our manager is unavailable or out for whatever reason.  Last year she was out for 8 months and I was responsible for running the team and picked up her responsibilities in addition to my own.

We have a team meeting every other week which is scheduled for an hour but often runs longer.  Each person recaps what they're working on so the team knows what we are all doing.  In addition, I frequently call my manager to ask questions and we generally chit chat for a few minutes.  She will call me if she has a question or needs something done right away.  

Our manager is usually not a micromanager, but she can be at times if she's stressed.  She generally leaves us to do our jobs as we see fit.  If we need her input we can always ask.  She's generous with praise and truly appreciates each team members contribution.  

If I were managing a remote worker, I'd probably handle them the same way unless they weren't doing their job, in which case I'd manage them more closely.

[muttleynfelix]

I'm a remote employee. My manager works 90 min away and then I'm assistant project manager where we use people in our company nationwide.

It helps to keep in regular contact. I have not spoken to my manager since November. I email her and let her know if I am out of the office all day. That is way too infrequent. It would be nice for her to say hey at least once a month. The working by myself has been getting to me lately and I need to be reaching out more, but I feel like no one is reaching out to me either (off that makes sense). I try to check in with people I need stuff from on a project on a weekly basis. Any less than that and I get shuffled to the back burner.

[Apple]

Not a great example, but the other extreme end of things...

I was able to remote work a few days out of a few months.  Because there was an investigation involving sexual harassment at my real job (which was not a desk job), management was trying to find ways to punish me for reporting the incident, and trying to keep track of my every move to see if they could "catch" me doing something wrong so they could justify screwing me over/firing me. (It didn't work out for them, but that's the background on why this was an extreme end of micromanagement, etc).  Bosses were rotating through, angling for the job permanently.  First boss was awesome and didn't treat me like shit, respected me for the knowledge I brought and he genuinely seemed to care about everyone in the office.  Second boss was everything he wasn't.  Vindictive bitch, documenting any time I literally said "hi" to someone walking by their cubicle if I was in the main office.

With second boss-- I had to email first thing every day, this proved that I was not sleeping in (even when the remote site was a physical office around other workers and not at home, I had to prove it because my boss couldn't just look out her office window and see me).  In the email, I had to report exactly what I would be working on.  Then she would send an email back questioning everything I was working on and why (she did not understand any aspect of the job, as it involved a lot of technical and safety things--the safety part being "how to prevent being blown up/burned if electrical equipment explodes/catches/fire/tries to kill you by some other method").

At the end of the day, I had to report to her exactly what I worked on, how much time each item took, proof of progress (if I said, "I'm studying section 2.2 of NFPA 70E to see how we can follow mandates at our specific locations" in the morning, I had to say "I found this in section 2.2 and..." even if it didn't tell me what I needed, because, "proof".)

My work has a requirement that if you travel outside the country, you have to do online training (and obtain a certificate, and keep it for four years), have to fill out online forms, and register your travel locations/times with them.  She didn't believe me and when I provided her with the email from years earlier that says "you must do this", she still didn't believe me and wanted to know how I still had that email.  Because if she didn't know about the requirement already, then I must be making it up as an excuse to do something not required by the company, but not directly related to my job.  She finally "allowed" me the time to do the required training on a work laptop (the only way you could access the training was by logging in on a company network, so not something you could do at home on your own computer on your own time).

Don't be her.

There was a weekly meeting where everyone called in and said "This is the big thing going on this week.  I will be in the office/at remote location/working from home these days."  Honestly, this was enough.  Everyone got in a little "water cooler chat" while waiting for everyone to join the conference call, and we all knew where everyone would be physically (so, if you wanted to get a photo of something at a remote location, say, an electrical panel, you'd find out Joe would be there this week and you could say "Hey, Joe, I'd like you to take a photo for me while you're there, I'll email you the specifics.")

[muttleynfelix]

Feb 17, 2017 18:05:19 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

Feb 17, 2017 18:01:00 GMT -5 muttleynfelix said:

I'm a remote employee. My manager works 90 min away and then I'm assistant project manager where we use people in our company nationwide.

It helps to keep in regular contact. I have not spoken to my manager since November. I email her and let her know if I am out of the office all day. That is way too infrequent. It would be nice for her to say hey at least once a month. The working by myself has been getting to me lately and I need to be reaching out more, but I feel like no one is reaching out to me either (off that makes sense). I try to check in with people I need stuff from on a project on a weekly basis. Any less than that and I get shuffled to the back burner.

Ughh that doesn't sound good. My company is very spread out, so we all tend to do the remote thing pretty well. That and a large portion of us trave frequently so even non-remote people are generally traveling ~20-70% of the time.  My boss is around 5 hours away and I generally see her once a month.  I travel to see my team once a month.  

Yeah, it isn't great. She is learning to manage remote employees more since we organized last year and management became less location dependant. It is still a transition. The reorganization is still finding its way and we had a round of layoffs the end of January. No one in my department was laid off, but I felt a little out of the loop and a little insecure in my job for a while. I should really reach out to her more, but like I said, it goes both ways.

[Tiny]

OK, paid more attention to what the OP wrote:

To avoid the 'stroll over to their cube and ask what's going on' thing:

Set up a scheduled 30 minute weekly meeting (done by phone or web conference).  It helps if this is recurring meeting, so it's ALWAYS on their calendar.

Require that the employee has emailed you a 'status report' - which could be a bullet list of their top activities.      You should have a 'status report' or spreadsheet where you keep track of what they are working on - could be a Bullet List with a sentence or two.    If you both should have access to the 'master' list/report of their top activities or what they are working on and the 'status' or how hot each thing is.  You both should be on the same page as to what the priority of each thing is. 

  

During the meeting discuss each 'activity' - a hi level what they did last week, what they will do this week and then if there's anything you as a manager needs to do keep their work moving...

It might help if you are upfront with how this helps you report up to your boss when they ask how things are going.  IDK about where you work - but in my group -  my manager has said he relies on our expertise/hard work.  And that he trusts our judgement.  His job is to make sure we have access to the people/knowledge we need OR to help with dealing with management in other areas.   And that is what he does. 

 

You might want to consider WHAT it is you want/need from these meetings.   I would assume you would need something you can tell to your Boss about the work you are responsible for over seeing.  So, you might come away from the weekly meeting with Sally:   "Sally's working on Project A and we are on schedule.  Sally's portion of Project B has hit a bump - but Sally is working with the XYZ department to resolve the issue - I have communicated with the Boss of XYZ department that Sally needs access to people and knowledge in XYZ department.  They have meetings scheduled and we are moving forward. "

If you have problems with XYZ department you can relate that to YOUR boss - who can apply pressure to XYZ department.  

Bureaucracy is a beautiful thing somethings.  

 

[Annie7]

I just became a team lead. I have 12 contractors reporting to me and I have 4 employees who are my peers. We are all geographically global - offshore and in different states of US and most of us in the US work from home even though we have offices.

We used to have a virtual (no video) team meeting once a week. When I took over, I started having a half hour virtual meeting with each of the employees every week in addition to the team meeting. I will be starting with the lead contractors from next month. My manager has a virtual meeting with me once a week too.

We have our company's IM. We are all required to be on there. So we communicate via that a lot. Have chat rooms where many of us collaborate to debug issues. I make liberal use of emoticons to convey feelings. If needed we have meetings with phone calls. I have had a couple of folks call me to blow off steam some times.

I am planning on having the team meetings face-to-face once a month for those in the same state as me. 

During the half hour 1-1 I talk about anything and everything - family, health, work, etc. During team meetings also we might bring up personal stuff. While IM-ing someone, after the work chat is completed, I might ask them about their personal life. I think it's important to have a personal touch. Not so much that you are solving their daily problems, but enough for them to come to you with big issues. 

Remote managing is similar to face-to-face managing, just requires an ability to "see" the person's emotions via what they write/say. That comes only by communicating often.