Managing remote workers - The Cultivated Management Newsletter

Hi

Welcome to this week's newsletter. I hope you're having a good week and all is well.

A few month's back I sent out a survey and many of you responded - thank you for the feedback.

One of the most popular requests for new articles was how to manage people who work remotely.

So here goes.
 

10 Ideas for managing people who work remotely

1. Hire good people

If you hire good people they require less support and certainly don't require much "management". Simple fact is that good people do good work by default.

If you don't hire good people expect a long and difficult time as a manager. Take your time and hire good people - especially important for those working remotely. You have to be able to trust them, and you don't want to spend your entire time "managing" them.
 

2. Set expectations of "engagement" right at the start

When you hire remote people you must set out early what it means to be remote and what is expected from you and them. Such as how you will interact, deliverables that are expected and of course, you must encourage them to create a separation between work and home. It's much harder, at least initially, for people who work remotely to switch off and draw a line between work and home. You must help them do this, otherwise they will be working more than they should be.
 

3. Book 1:1s and stick to them

The one to one (1:1) is a powerful session where you both get to build a strong relationship. If you talk about work, fine, if not, that is fine too. Here's a handy Cultivated Management template for you to use.

Once you have scheduled the 1:1 you must stick to as much as possible. It shows that you value this interaction and consider it as important as all of the other things you have to do. By moving it, forgetting it or cutting it short you send a message that your relationship is not that important. So book a 1:1 and stick to it - weekly works best, especially so for remote workers.
 

4. Say hello every morning

When I was managaging a lot of people remotely I created an Evernote "template" with everyone's name in it and a checkbox next to each of them.

Every morning I would create a new "note" from the template and start working the list. By lunch I would ensure I have said hello to everyone. For those in the office this would always be a face to face hello. For those remotely it would always be via the appropriate comms channel. This would always be a simple "text" hello, usually via our HipChat channel - no need for a conference call.

By saying hello to everyone you show that you care and that you're there for them if they need anything. It freaks people out to start with, but they soon get used to it.
 

5. Meet them in-person (if possible)

It might not always be possible to meet them in person, but if you can, then do it. There is nothing like looking in their eyes and meeting someone. We always tried to organise a physical meeting every quarter. We didn't always make it but we tried.
 

6. Invest in decent communication tools

Make sure you get in place some decent video conferencing tools. Try to always use video conferencing, this is much better than voice, but voice only also works well.

Investing in good technology with good audio should mean that you'll be up and running with a conversation quickly. No matter how much we invested though we still often had rubbish audio, or the video would get dropped, or we simply had to revert to the trusty telephone.
 

7. Listen more than you talk

Listen, a lot. And then action what you can. Working remotely can be a lonely and frustrating experience. Make sure you listen to those working remotely and act on problems they have.
 

8. Invest in awareness of remote working for everyone not remote

The biggest challenge to working remotely is the lack of awareness of what it's like to be remote by those in the office. One of the best ways to do this is to have an entire "remote working" day where everyone works remotely. This helps to build awareness of what it's like to work remotely. Encouraging open team dialogue about frustrations and problems helps to raise the collective consciousness of the team - a positive thing.
 

9. Create a supportive community of interest tasked with improving the experience

Creating a community of interest around remote workers can help to empower those working remotely to air concerns, suggest improvements and make the whole experience better.
 

10. Feedback remotely

Giving someone negative feedback who works remotely can be tricky, but if you cannot get a face to face in a decent amount of time between the behaviour and the feedback, then go for a video conference call.

Giving them feedback is no different to anyone else. Keep it professional, keep it calm, keep it about behaviours and don't turn it in to a conversation. You will lose many of the non-verbal clues and feedback which will make it harder to work out how it went.

Don't let days go by after giving feedback and talking again. If they are dwelling on it you want to make sure you keep dialogue open.

Trust me on this one - if you have being doing 1:1s and your relationship is strong, then giving them feedback will not be an issue.

That's all.
Good luck!
Have a good weekend.
Until next time.

Rob..