Do you have REMOTE employees? Let's discuss

[BigRomeDawg]

Our team is very mobile but we've always been in the same city. In the next couple months a couple of our team members moving to remote locations but remaining with the company. We've been working from home several days a week to prepare and it's gone well, we built our processes and infrastructure from the beginning with being mobile/remote in mind.

I think it starts at hiring - our team's all go-getters who don't need to be micromanaged.

I'm half way through this book and it's interesting:
Remote: Office Not Required: Jason Fried David Heinemeier Hansson: 8601418186649: Amazon.com: Books

As we get closer I'm doing more research to see what other companies are doing. I'd love to hear your experiences with having remote employees and any tips to make the best of it.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[biophase]

Our team is very mobile but we've always been in the same city. In the next couple months a couple of our team members moving to remote locations but remaining with the company. We've been working from home several days a week to prepare and it's gone well, we built our processes and infrastructure from the beginning with being mobile/remote in mind.

I think it starts at hiring - our team's all go-getters who don't need to be micromanaged.

I'm half way through this book and it's interesting:
Remote: Office Not Required: Jason Fried David Heinemeier Hansson: 8601418186649: Amazon.com: Books

As we get closer I'm doing more research to see what other companies are doing. I'd love to hear your experiences with having remote employees and any tips to make the best of it.

Make sure that they actually work from 9-5 and don't leave or stop responding at 3pm or starting their day at 10am. Do you have access to their emails? If so, you can easily see when they start and stop replying to emails. Or which voicemails don't get returned until the next day.

 

[BigRomeDawg]

Make sure that they actually work from 9-5 and don't leave or stop responding at 3pm or starting their day at 10am. Do you have access to their emails? If so, you can easily see when they start and stop replying to emails. Or which voicemails don't get returned until the next day.

He's a manager and we're super result-based, I don't care how long he works if everything gets done and we hit our metrics. Good point for lackies, though.

 

[ApeRunner]

He's a manager and we're super result-based, I don't care how long he works if everything gets done and we hit our metrics. Good point for lackies, though.

Biophase is joking my friend.

I have a remote team and it rocks. The best tip is hiring the right people with the right values.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[CareCPA]

Biophase is joking my friend.

I have a remote team and it rocks. The best tip is hiring the right people with the right values.

I don't blame him, I couldn't tell either...

I'm currently doing remote work from the employee side. If you are results-oriented, that goes a long way since you don't have to babysit. Just make sure training is set up well for when you bring on new staff. Depending on the industry, it can be difficult to train without physically being in the same office - so make sure your lines of communication are set up well.

Programs like Basecamp work well so you can all be up to speed on the progress of projects without having to do meetings and status updates all the time (especially helpful since I think most meetings are a waste of time).

 

[BigRomeDawg]

Biophase is joking my friend.

I have a remote team and it rocks. The best tip is hiring the right people with the right values.

Haha I wasn't sure. I literally know people who do that kind of stuff to their employees.

 

[BigRomeDawg]

I don't blame him, I couldn't tell either...

I'm currently doing remote work from the employee side. If you are results-oriented, that goes a long way since you don't have to babysit. Just make sure training is set up well for when you bring on new staff. Depending on the industry, it can be difficult to train without physically being in the same office - so make sure your lines of communication are set up well.

Programs like Basecamp work well so you can all be up to speed on the progress of projects without having to do meetings and status updates all the time (especially helpful since I think most meetings are a waste of time).

I could imagine that hiring will be the hardest part. Haven't hired anyone remote-from-the-start yet.

We use a software similar to Basecamp but specific to our industry. You are so right, there is no way we could've done remote before we implemented it. Is there anything your employer does that you love, regarding you working remotely?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Bearcorp]

Make sure that they actually work from 9-5 and don't leave or stop responding at 3pm or starting their day at 10am. Do you have access to their emails? If so, you can easily see when they start and stop replying to emails. Or which voicemails don't get returned until the next day.

Sounds like a few of my old bosses!

Programs like Basecamp work well so you can all be up to speed on the progress of projects without having to do meetings and status updates all the time (especially helpful since I think most meetings are a waste of time).

Thanks for that suggestion Basecamp is the type of program I'll need to implement in the coming months, I have a remote employee (part time) and a few people that do free lance work, tying it into one place will make projects a lot easier moving forward.

Good luck @rogainer look forward to following how it works for you!

 

[ApeRunner]

With my remote team, these are the tools I swear by:

• Slack
• GoTo Meeting
• Dropbox

 

[CareCPA]

I could imagine that hiring will be the hardest part. Haven't hired anyone remote-from-the-start yet.

We use a software similar to Basecamp but specific to our industry. You are so right, there is no way we could've done remote before we implemented it. Is there anything your employer does that you love, regarding you working remotely?

Mostly what you've already noted about being results-oriented.
They tell me what needs done, when it needs done by, and then don't care when or where I do it. To me that's about the best an employer/employee relationship can get.

As I noted before, obviously this only works with experienced employees. New ones will require better training, and anecdotally, think they can get away with less work for the same pay. You need to make it clear from the management perspective that you know what a reasonable workload is for what you're paying them.
Now that I think about it, this may be the trickiest part: making sure you're giving your employees enough work for what you're paying them, but not expecting more from them that what their salary commands.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ZCP]

+1 for slack
Very useful. Allows anyone to get stuff done while still being flexible for hours / schedule.
All time stamped.

 

[Raaa]

Check out WebWork Tracker
It's a time tracking tool for remote workers (free too for up to 5 users)
Takes a couple of screenshots every hour or however you set it. And you can track hours.

 

[CareCPA]

Forgot to mention...
I've found myself using Google's tools a lot. Hangouts for calls/meetings, Drive for document sharing, etc. All free the way I use them (I don't remember if they have higher tiers you can pay for or not).

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[SteveO]

Biophase is joking my friend.

I don't believe his comments @biophase were meant to be taken lightly. An employee that does not do their job correctly can have serious negative affects.

More than once, I have had to travel halfway across the country to deal with apartment managers not doing their jobs. Unfortunately, it was easy for them to hide the lack of productivity for a while before it began to show up in the financials. Trying to turn that back around was challenging. Keeping tabs is very important.

One time I had to take my truck and tools and stay at the location for 3 weeks. When I got there, I found that the manager had another job and was basically collecting a salary while not working. I could not leave until another manager was hired and partially trained.

Your situation sounds different but my experience is that tracking is important.

 

[SteveO]

I have employees that make over 100K per year and others at minimum wage. There is a big difference between them. Some of the lower paid people can be found sitting in the shade looking at their phones. I could be THAT GUY (monitoring excessively) at any moment. Over the years, I have fired quite a number of people. Almost always for productivity reasons.

I have about 30 employees now including one that is about 3 hours away. He has worked for me for years but I still need to check his results. Things are not always completed as stated.

 

[G-Man]

Keeping tabs is very important.

I have about 30 employees now including one that is about 3 hours away. He has worked for me for years but I still need to check his results. Things are not always completed as stated.

This is extremely true. Everything in the world tends toward entropy, including people. If left with no accountability for long enough, even a good person will slack, and that's the good people. The other 50+% of people, well, you know the saying: When the cat's away, the mice dick around on youtube all day.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ApeRunner]

could imagine that hiring will be the hardest part.

I think one of the most critical (80/20) parts of a business is hiring the right people. The right values, skills and experience. People that add/complement your abilities. And when doing remote, it's even more important. I see many people don't invest enough time in the hiring process. TRUST is crucial, so you can do your own thing instead of micromanaging.

When I got there, I found that the manager had another job and was basically collecting a salary while not working.

Sorry to hear about that, I know that is a common reality. I still think that could be avoided in the hiring process. You can teach skills, but you can't teach values.

If left with no accountability for long enough, even a good person will slack, and that's the good people

Totally agree with. We need keep track of results, KPI's, signals. And in a remote team those can be easily measured.


I find this piece of advice most valuable. The "$10,000 per hour job", done only when necessary:

(From Perry Marshall's "80/20 Sales and Marketing")

 

[SteveO]

Sorry to hear about that, I know that is a common reality. I still think that could be avoided in the hiring process. You can teach skills, but you can't teach values.

Tell me the process. I have been involved in the hiring more than 100 people and have a decent sense of people. I was trained as a manager at HP on hiring techniques and processes.

Over the years I have come to the conclusion that there is no real science to hiring. All you can really go on is past performance and instincts. Plus some people work their asses off with great intent. That can change with time though.

Oversight is necessary.

btw... I don't need an apology for inconveniences with my businesses. They are expected and worked through. This was posted as an example.

 

[bonitachika]

The simplest way out to you is time management software, which your remote workers can use. It keeps records of all the actions on the computer, when it is switched on, thus you will see everything, which a person did.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.