Remote working has long been present in the employment industry. But, the challenges of the recent times have pushed remote working into higher popularity. It’s safe to consider remote working as a norm in some places, and for some business organizations. This presents both advantages and disadvantages, as more mobile workers are hired and remotely managed.
Whether this is a change that’s new and sudden to your company, or you’ve been practicing it for quite some time now, there’s no difference in terms of employee engagement and satisfaction. It doesn’t mean that because you’re employing a mobile workforce rather than having them report to your physical office, you don’t have to strive to empower them and keep them happy with your organization.
As your guide, here are four ways you can empower your mobile workforce:
1. Set Clear Expectations Regularly
Employees need to be guided by clear and well-defined goals and expectations, without necessarily micromanaging them. Especially when you trust in the capabilities of your mobile workforce, this remote working arrangement can work to give them that flexibility over their tasks at hand.
Often, it’s hard to keep employees locked on a fixed working arrangement every single day. When they feel their capabilities aren’t trusted upon as they have to be regularly micromanaged, they may lose engagement and satisfaction with the job they do.
In managing remote teams, it’s okay if employees don’t get to the results in the same means as you do. For as long as the results are there and the process your employee did is justified, then that empowers them to use their initiative in an organization where such as valued.
2. Recreate The Office Experience
One of the challenges of remote workers is not having a dedicated work station at home. Especially as of late when children are also learning from home, all the more that the situation can be a lot more challenging for mobile workers. This situation doesn’t just affect the workers themselves, but also your organization when your employees’ productivity is affected.
If this is your very first time switching to a remote working arrangement, one of the best ways you can empower your employees is by giving them financial aid or provision to recreate the office experience at home. You don’t have to offer office equipment and desks for free. But, at least give them some leeway for discounts and an interest-free loan to make it easier for your mobile workforce to create their own, productive workstations in their own homes.
3. Build Teams
Your mobile workforce shouldn’t have to feel as if they’re all alone, or that they’re working on a remote island. Rather, your mobile workforce should also feel like they’re still an active part of your organization as a whole. This begins with building teams for better collaboration.
There are so many online tools and software you can opt to use, such that even when you’re working on a remote arrangement, you can still communicate well enough with everyone on your team. It also helps to still have that grouping into teams, either by department or job function. That way, these little teams can also communicate effectively with each other when there are issues they encounter in their daily tasks.
The more your mobile workforce can feel they’re involved in a team, the higher the likelihood of these mobile workforce staying engaged and happy as they feel they’re, indeed, a part of a family in your organization.
4. Give Constructive Feedback
Along with not micromanaging your mobile workforce, one of the biggest challenges you may also encounter has to do with how you can encourage your mobile workforce to continue performing well. Your mobile workforce will still need supervision, such that their efficiency and work quality won’t suffer.
Hence, the need to provide constructive feedback, whenever needed. Just be careful with your approach so as not to make it seem demeaning or insulting to the employee. Remember that because you don’t actually see your mobile workforce in person, you never know what they go through in their working day at home. Some may have so many distractions, no matter how they steer clear away of them, and all the other challenges remote working brings.
In providing constructive feedback, keep it limited towards actionable tips. This can help give your mobile workforce a sense of direction on what to do, and what not to do for their forthcoming tasks.
Conclusion
As more businesses continue to navigate through a remote working setup, this also presents new challenges in managing the mobile workforce. Without a doubt, this kind of setup requires its own standards to ensure that even the remote workers are kept satisfied and happy. Like a physical office, productivity and efficiency suffer when the employers are no longer empowered and engaged. If you see that need for that boost in your mobile workforce, the tips above are a good place to start with.