Top 5 “Never Do’s” When Dealing With Remote Workers

Arrangement of work with remote workers is a very complicated and challenging task since you cannot see those people in the office every day and cannot solve the existing issues on-the-spot. Therefore this task needs a lot of patience and developed communication skills. In this article you can find several tips on dealing with remote workers. We hope that they will be useful for you.

Five fundamental rules of dealing with a remote worker.

#1. Never assign tasks without fixing a time limit.

When you are going to assign a task to a remote worker, explain in details what he/she should do, if it is possible, try to split the task into several, easier parts. It’s highly important to set a specific date when the task should be completed. Set clear goals and let your remote workers know your expectations.

#2. Don’t forget to inform your remote worker about changes in the project.

If you are working with a project manager who constantly introduces alterations in the project, make sure that all your colleagues, especially remote ones are informed about these changes. Give them enough time to think these alterations over and make some suggestions.

This will help you to avoid situations when your employees work on obsolete tasks only because you forgot to notify them about the project changes.

#3. Don’t give soldier like instructions.

A remote worker loves and appreciates his freedom. Absoluteness of his actions inspires him greatly. He hates the words like “must” and “should”. Any order will be considered as the attempt on his freedom. Formally of course he realizes his subordinance, but it is not the subordinance of a soldier to the general.

#4. Never treat remote workers as separate part of your team.

Dropbox, Teamer and similar services and messaging services not only make the work easier, but also will help to achieve the sense of at-oneness of all remote workers who live and work all over the country or even world. Ideally, all employees should be integrated into the corporate network with functions of Facebook. A closed forum can perform this function. Remote employee should have the opportunity to share jokes, comprehensible only for those colleagues who worked on the same project or with the same client.

#5. Don’t lose communication with your remote workers.

This simple rule will help you to track the progress of their work. Remind your remote workers, that they should be available during the office hours so that any existent issues could be fixed as soon as it possible. Learn more on how to improve your communication with teams scattered across the globe.

In conclusion we’d like to say that though the work with the remote employees is a very hard task, if you follow these simple rules, you will manage to establish very strong partnership with the best specialists from all over the world and your cooperation will be easy, convenient and productive. Good luck!