It’s not easy for employees to
work under the conditions set by the pandemic. But, it’s not easy for
companies, too, when their employees can’t work on their premises.
Pre-pandemic, communication was
easy. Do you have an announcement to make? Easy. Just call for a meeting or go
to a team member’s desk or office. If management needs to get involved, it’s
also easy to include them in any event at the building.
But, it’s the pandemic already,
and things are very different now. However, managers and supervisors still need
to ensure that they meet their tasks and goals, even if everyone is still
limited by the situation.
It’s not just about the
facilities, such as the problem with computers and internet connections. Mental
health also matters, as it’s known that mental health can suffer when people
work from home without interaction with other people. It may look easy from the
outside, but it’s another story inside.
If you’re having trouble managing
your team and don’t know how to monitor their productivity, we have prepared a
guide for measuring the productivity of remote employees. Using this guide, you
can make sure that they’re doing well and help them if they have any issues
that prevent them from being as productive as they can be.
Create clear policies that everyone can
understand
When the policies at work aren’t
clear, there’s bound to be some confusion. For example, when your team is
unsure about goals and deliverables, they won’t be able to do everything they
need to do. You will also spend time and resources on unnecessary things.
In a corporate setting, clarity
is an essential thing that isn’t always prioritized enough by many companies.
By making sure that you give clear policies for everyone, you can prevent
guesswork and frustration with your clients and employees. You can also ensure
that your company will only use time and resources for important things.
Also, make sure that you instill
clarity in the entire company, so things will always be clear, communication
won’t be an issue, and so you’re clear about your company’s short and long-term
goals.
Create customized KPIs
Each employee or team in a
company has a different job with different deliverables, which means you can’t
use a single statistic to measure everyone’s performance.
If you’re a manager or
supervisor, it’s vital to create specific key performance indicators (KPIs) for
every employee. By doing so, you can have a clearer idea of how employees perform
depending on their position, tasks/assignments, and deliverables.
By having KPIs, your employees
will know what they need to do, which is the opposite of what will happen
without KPIs, where employees decide what to do on their own. Furthermore, it also
means that you can ensure that the tasks they need to do are in accordance with
the company’s strategy and goals.
Set milestones
It’s not just about giving the
right tasks to employees. You also need to make sure that they know and respect
their deadline. It also ensures that they’ll know which tasks to prioritize.
However, you can’t measure
performance just depending on whether employees meet deadlines or not. You also
have to track progress as it happens by tracking your progress daily or weekly,
so you can see how employees are performing at a deeper level.
Furthermore, tracking progress
will also allow you to see if you’re really making progress and if you can meet
the deadline. By knowing these things, you can make adjustments if necessary.
You can also know how your team
performs when doing specific tasks and deliverables, which can help you and the
other managers plan future projects because you know which tasks take more time
and how many people you need for a project.
Keep track of your employees’ working
hours
It’s hard to keep personal life
and work matters apart when working from home. Since you’re not there to keep an eye on your team, it’s vital to adjust by tracking the time and attendance of your employees.
Just because employees work extra
hours doesn’t mean they’re productive. To see if they’re really making
progress, you can look at the timesheet and their work to see if they’re really
working hard and being productive in the time they put in.
Establish a reporting system
If you have an established
reporting system, everyone will be on the same page about projects. With an
efficient reporting system, you can know any issues and implement the necessary
action.
If you don’t have one yet, you
can use a daily, weekly, or monthly reporting scheme. If you want to monitor
everything, you can use daily reporting. But, if you need a more big picture
type of reporting system, you can use a weekly or monthly reporting system.
Other than that, you also have to keep the work your team does in mind.
Of course, this type of system
can be stressful for your employees, so make sure to establish it slowly to
afford them time to adjust.
Use a project management software
Using project management software
doesn’t just make managing a team or project easier for you. It also makes
things easier for your team members, as it streamlines everything in one
platform.
You can use a project management
feature in many ways. For example, with WorkSavi, you can see what everyone is
working on and how you’re managing your resources, among other features.
With a project management
software like WorkSavi for
entire teams or the entire company, you won’t just monitor productivity. You
can improve it, too.
