5 Tips to Manage Your Remote Workers
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CREDIT: Dreamstime.com
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Technology has enabled employees to serve customers worldwide at anytime, from anywhere with an Internet connection. With these new possibilities comes a blurring of the lines between mobile, remote and office-based work.
Josh Clifford, a small business services expert and vice president and general manager with PlumChoice, a technology services provider, offers five tips to help manage employees’ remote access to your company.
Start with the right employees - To ensure remote and mobile operations success, it’s important to make sure the employees who work off-site have the right technical resources. Just as crucial is ensuring they have the discipline and commitment to work effectively without supervision.
Reduce risks and optimize access with secure connections - Employees with remote access need the ability to safely log on to systems without risking loss of confidential business data or creating exposure to online viruses. A professional review of your setup and a remote support team can help you ensure your systems and network are optimized for success.
Communicate frequently with employees -Regular communication is vitally important no matter where your employees work. It can become absolutely critical, however, for employees with remote and mobile access. Reach out to them regularly to understand whether they have the tools they need to succeed and to find out what works and what doesn’t within the remote access setup.
Provide Web-based collaboration tools - Employees with remote access may work off-site, but they will almost certainly need to collaborate with their peers and managers to effectively serve customers or perform their roles. Web-based collaboration tools can keep employees connected and productive.
Consider productivity- and quality-monitoring tools - It’s important to make sure employee interactions with customers are appropriate and of the highest quality – particularly if you’re in the service industry. There are a number of tools available that can help you record and monitor voice or online customer interactions for staff using remote access.
Remote and mobile access capabilities allow businesses to expand operations, enable productivity worldwide and reduce overhead costs. By following these tips, you can take advantage of remote access while mitigating risk exposure and controlling quality.