You can be an excellent leader of remote employees whether this is the first time you’ve supervised people working from home or you have years of experience. The keys to success are demonstrating that you trust your employees and that you care about them as individuals and not just their productivity.

Team members working remotely can be excellent, high producing employees when they demonstrate initiative and personal accountability.

The team with remote employees will be successful when it realizes that working remotely is a challenge we all can meet by following these simple guidelines.

1. Establish clear goals, expectations and performance standards.
Before focusing on how we’ll get our work done, make sure each remote employee understands what it is they are responsible for. Follow up phone conversations with emails detailing tasks, timelines, and deliverables.

2. Identify remote working ground rules.
These should cover hours of work, breaks, lunches, availability needs, how we’ll use which technologies, i.e. email, IM, phone calls, Zoom and others and how often we’ll make contact and hold individual and team meetings. Listen, be flexible and arrive at ground rules that work for the team and others that meet individual needs.

3. Establish daily, weekly, and/or monthly check ins.
The frequency should depend on the needs of the employee. Discuss goals, accomplishments, challenges, technology needs, and any help needed. Offer lots of verbal and written praise and encouragement. Let the remote employee know they are not alone and remote in name only.

4. Provide needed technology tools.
This means more than a phone and computer. Don’t go cheap when going remote; provide what is needed to do the job successfully. Check with your IT department on any security and technology concerns while understanding most organizations are providing access to virtual conferencing and messaging platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, and ensuring the needed software is provided.

5. Encourage remote social engagement.
This can be as simple as asking about the employee’s family, asking how working remote is going or sharing success stories at the beginning of each meeting. In the last five months organizations have shared they are holding remote one-on-ones, remote potlucks, remote baby showers, remote pizza parties, remote happy hours, (be careful and safe), remote retirement celebrations, and remote family sharing time. The possibilities are endless and limited only by your own imagination and creativity.

6. Praise, recognize and let each employee know you value them as a person.
Provide verbal praise, written recognition, notes and gift cards sent home. Call to kick around non-work related items and simply tell someone “I really appreciate you,” and then tell them specifically why you value them. Laugh with them and let them know “We can do this and we will do this well.”

Your remote employees can be more productive, efficient, maybe even work longer and smarter and be just as satisfied as when they worked in the office. You may be challenged as a remote manager or supervisor, yet it can lead to even greater fulfillment as a trusting and caring leader.

I know you can do it!