People nowadays have more options to work remote.  This allows them to have a more rewarding work experience and to feel better prepared and focused to do a good job.  However, as an employer, you can engage and mange all your remote employees?  What is the right leadership style?  What are the best tools?  Determine a reasonable return on investment.

Engaging remote employees

There is an advantage of freedom with working remote.  To feel confident in their abilities, increase their performance and empowerment to self manage.  The remote work lifestyle will help with achieving optimal work-life balance.  Employees will save time by eliminating long commutes, control of their schedule, and improve productivity.  They can now use that time to focus on personal issues as well.  A happy employees makes a happy productive company.

However, there may be a loss of camaraderie and collaboration.  There are many collaboration tools that can help bring people together in an online environment.  The social connectivity can not be replicated.  So employers need to encourage and support remote employees to try co-working spaces, or work in a social environment close to home.  It can even be the local library or Starbucks.  As a manager, you can help keep employees engaged by maximizing the positive aspects of working remote.

“The technology is here; it’s never been easier to communicate and collaborate with people anywhere, any time.”  ~ Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, authors of “Remote: Office Not Required“

• Utilize teleconferencing, online meetings and file sharing services.
• Have the right equipment with you to get the job done.  Laptop, high speed internet, conference call capabilities.
• Engage in personal meetings when you can and build a camaraderie relationship.
• Encourage team culture and agree on common values.
• Recognize their efforts and achievements.
• Host two offline meetings a year and spend quality time as a team.  Discuss both work and personal issues.
• Have a feedback system in place.

Effective tools for managing remote employees

1. Workplace flexibility savings calculator

Before you get started with remote working teams, you could try the Global Workplace Analytics Workplace Savings Calculator to assess your costs.

2. Trello

Use Trello to get organized and helps you organize information, tasks and documents, and can easily be synced with multiple devices.

3. Basecamp

Basecamp is a project management tool and offers a great workspace where you can collaborate with a remote team. Organize files, tasks and plan your projects.

4. Mural.ly

Mural.ly can be used for remote brainstorming and idea mapping.

5. HipChat

HipChat is a hosted group chat and video chat built for teams. The tool enables real-time collaboration with persistent chat rooms, file sharing and screen sharing.

6. SLACK

Slack is used to create open channels for projects, groups and topics that your team shares. It also integrates with Twitter, Dropbox and Google Drive.

7. DaPulse

DaPulse is great for organizing your workflow and keeping your team updated about project status.

8. Beesy.me

With Beesy.me you can easily manage collaborative projects, consolidate information and assign actions to group members.

9. Hivedesk

Hivedesk helps you keep track of remote employees’ time and productivity.

Be sure to focus on making communication a priority, redefine success, and offer tech support.