Do You Need To Monitor Your Remote Employees?

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Many businesses and families alike have found themselves at home for days on end due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses have sent most of their workforce home to minimize commute and contact with others. Many schools have also sent children home and cancelled the rest of the school year. This means full households 24/7 and many distracted workers.

Other difficulties of working from home include the transition itself. Some companies who didn’t previously allow teleworking are now scrambling to adjust to this new normal. This transition includes new policies, tools and expectations. Not to mention organizing a makeshift workspace in your home.

Business leaders in all fields are likely facing similar decisions. What tools should I get for my team? How do I ensure work gets done? How can I check in on my team without micromanaging?

As far as tools, the right communication tools are essential to keeping your team afloat as all collaboration is happening online. Things like Zoom and Slack are popular platforms businesses use to chat with team members and to host online meetings. However, other tools like time trackers and screen recorders are sophisticated programs that can monitor your team’s activity.

The necessity of these tools falls solely on your relationship with your team, the nature of your work and the goals these tools help you reach. For example, time tracking is useful if you’re having trouble gauging how long certain tasks should take and want to improve employee schedules. However, it may not be necessary if you already have another system in place and your team is generally efficient with their time.

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You may not need sophisticated tools if you have policies and clear expectations in place. Requiring regular check-ins or periodic reports from your team may eliminate the need to watch them closely, especially if you’ve already established firm trust between your team. On the other hand, monitoring tools can cut down on administrative tasks like time tracking and scheduling to give your team more time towards their actual work.

Needless to say, there are many things to consider when deciding how to monitor and manage your remote team. JW Surety Bonds put together a flowchart to help you decide whether or not monitoring your employees is the right move at this time. Take a look and see if you’re remote monitoring is the next step for your business.

Kelechi Okeke
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