According to a study by Global Workplace Analytics, working remotely has increased by 80% from 2005 to 2012, and with good reason, a Stanford study shows that home working leads to a 13% increase in worker performance. Better performance does not mean that there aren’t challenges to manage with a remote workforce though. For instance, the study does not measure morale and connection to other employees, which can hurt collaboration and company culture.
Jonathan Erwin, Red e App’s CEO, provided insight to BusinessNewsDaily on how to tackle some of the challenges that come with managing a remote workforce.
In addition to having reliable communication solutions, it’s important to make sure that your workers know when and how to reach one another. Jonathan Erwin, CEO of mobile messaging platform Red e App, advised establishing core hours that all team members will be online and available, and commit to responding to each other within a set period of time. Collaboration tools such as shared storage and cloud-based project management software can also help a scattered team work together efficiently, Erwin said.
“Employees collaborate best when they have personal connections with each other,” Erwin said. “In order to maintain this connection while working remotely, small teams should have a short daily conference call to discuss hot topics and unanswered questions, and use video chat for team meetings.”
“Successful virtual work programs are a series of practices, processes, technologies and, most importantly, constant collaboration between managers, teleworkers and stakeholders,” said Sean O’Brien, executive vice president of strategy and communications at PGi. “With the right program in place, virtual work and flexible programs build employee morale and drive growth for businesses.”
Read the complete article at BusinessNewsDaily.
Amee Kent
Red e App Marketing Director
