Recently, more and more companies are moving into remote staffing due to several economical factors – use of technology in the workplace, cost-cutting to reduce the need for office space, personnel’s’ demands for flexibility in work schedules and various other reasons. While many are still doubtful of this rather dispersed work force, several Human Resource Departments have managed to adopt new skills and ideas on how to manage employees despite the difference in location. Whether a company is starting up or is an established entity, there’s certainly more ground for improvement with regards to remote staffing services.

For every business who wishes to use remote staffing to their advantage, here are a few very important guidelines:

QUANTIFY

As a manager, it is difficult to manage what you can’t measure. Record or let your virtual assistant find ways to quantify important details such as the tasks completed, time spent to finish each as well as idle minutes.

OPEN COMMUNICATION

Communication plays an important role when managing remote staff but it does not necessarily mean you need to talk to your employee 24-7. Urgency is perhaps one of the main reasons why a communication is necessary. A good way to keep the lines open while also balancing time is to set a scheduled time every week where you can both agree on goals and resolve issues should they arise.

RESULT-ORIENTED

Varied individuals handle work differently, but more often than not employees can better perform when managers put less pressure on hitting specific targets. As an employer, you must allow workers to tap into their creativity and initiative when carrying out tasks. What matters most is that a manager and worker agrees on an outcome and how much time will be spent for it’s completion.

CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP STYLE

If you are the type of manager who prefers to get hands-on with your trainees and subordinates, then this is the time to reconsider changing your manner of handling people. Since this business model paves the way for measuring deliverables over activities, you will need to put focus more on how much a worker can yield rather than how busy he looks.

UTILIZE TECHNOLOGY

Technology may have replaced a lot of things over the decades, however one thing is sure; it can never replace humans as managers. Technology can only complement management tasks by quantifying data easier, processing them, monitoring staff and making communications possible despite distant locations.