ย #RemoteWorkPolicy #WorkFromHome #EmployeeProductivity
Hey all! ๐ How do you tackle the challenge of crafting a remote work policy that ensures employees stay focused and productive during work hours? Here’s the situation:
– Half the company is remote, and management wants a policy that prevents employees from doing personal activities during work hours.
– Some teams work remote while others don’t, leading to a lack of accountability and frustration among employees.
– Monitoring mouse cursor activity on PCs is one option, but what else can be done to ensure work is being done during work hours? ๐ค
Possible Solutions:
– Implement a clear communication channel for remote teams to update on their progress and tasks.
– Set specific goals and deadlines for remote employees to measure their productivity.
– Provide training and resources on time management and productivity for remote workers.
What do you think? Any other suggestions on how to effectively manage remote work policies and ensure productivity? Let’s discuss! ๐ฌ #WorkFromHomePolicy #EmployeeEngagement
The focus needs to be more on employeeโs results, not how many times their cursor moves per minute. If the work is getting done and is of good quality, then they are doing what you pay them for.
Everyone does other activities besides work during work hours. Everyone has to go to the restroom at some point. Everyone stops to grab a drink refill or a snack eventually. Everyone has an off day occasionally where they find it harder to concentrate. Everyone occasionally needs to take a personal call, or reply to an important text. Life does not stop happening because it is work hours.
Anyone who claims they don’t do anything but work during working hours is lying, and worst of all, lying to themselves most of all. The Nile ain’t just a river.
Besides, there is not a mouse cursor activity monitoring system that can’t be overcome in some way, and probably way easier than you imagine. The IT guys at my company made a game of it after it was suggested we get some of that. Most of the ways they overcame those monitoring setups were surprisingly low tech and inexpensive, too. You will just be fooling yourselves you are monitoring what they are doing without actually achieving anything of value.
As others already told you good employees leave bad bosses. If your company puts in a bunch of petty rules you will become the bad bosses. There will always be another company that instead trusts in their people, and they will be eager to hire your best off you. Your best move is to ensure you’re one of the good boss companies. Train your management to monitor their team’s production instead. Build in accountability that way.
Had someone in my department absolutely rabid to put in all sorts of monitoring insistent other people didn’t work as hard as her. Spent a week keeping an accounting of exactly how much time each of my people spent on things like trips to refill their coffee cup, visit the restroom, or just chatting. Turned out she spent more time on those things than anyone else.
She was also my most productive employee in the department and still is. People need breaks to be productive simple as that. Some people need a bit more than others, but that should not matter as much as results.
Ok, so, let me tell you how this goesโฆ
You donโt trust your remote employees. You incorporate monitoring software and whatever inane crap you can find to make sure people are โworkingโ for 8 hours because you canโt look over their shoulders. You DONโT do this in the office because you can look over peopleโs shoulders.
Butโฆdo you?? Do you โcatchโ people inventing work or looking busy? I promise you – everyone does.
*EVERYONE*
Ok, so, your best employees get a single whiff of this. Theyโre grown ups, and know they deserve to be treated like grown ups. Theyโre also top of their game.
They hop on LinkedIn or whatever job board, interview at a company with a remote policy that consists of โget your work done and we donโt care,โ and then they tell you to pound rocks.
You get stuck with the people who canโt get offers anywhere else, which are, in this scenario, the B-team.
You miss corporate objectives, overall. Valuation goes down. Stock prices crash. Your employees that left cashed out and donโt care about you. You left sour taste in their mouths.
Iโve seen it happen 3 times. Iโm one of the ones that left at the first whiff.
Just trust people.
What’s the goal of the document? To attempt chain people to their home desks and micromanage them or to provide a basic do’s and don’t’s common sense reminder about practice along with a few red lines, like no out of country/out of state working, online during core hours, must not be doing childcare or second job while performing this job at home, and must have decent WiFi. It should also probably outline the company’s commitments as well, such as provision of ergonomic furniture, and computer equipment (or not, if you’re that way inclined).
Personally I’d take it as creating a document that managers can point to when someone is really taking the piss, rather than attempting to control the majority of the workforce.
If your policy involves petty stuff like staying off your phone and donโt listen to music people are gonna leave. Focus on deliverables and trust adults to be adults
Have you tried tools like hubstaff? they are really solid to keep a track for remote employees. I have known companies using it for more than 3 years remotely and it works wonders
Accountability should focus on deliverables and participation in company culture, not mouse clicks and time sitting at their computer. Educate management on employee engagement and performance. If they are not able to get in touch with an employee, they are not delivering what is asked, or their work isn’t up to par, focus on getting to the bottom of that issue. Accountability isn’t just butts in seats, it’s solid, strong work performance.
I just had to craft a more stringent WFH policy per C-Suite’s request. I focused on availability and professionalism (having a designated workspace free from distractions, adequate childcare, availability by phone, email, and Teams during scheduled/core work hours, etc.)
That was enough to satisfy them.
As others have pointed out, the proof that employees are working comes with them completing their deliverables, and that is an issue to be managed at the supervisory level.
SHRM has a policy. I just downloaded the template, changed the verbiage to match what C-suite wanted to exactly convey.
whatโs your policy to ensure the non-remote staff do nothing other than work during the day?
How is it enforced? If there isnโt one and/or thereโs no one actively monitoring each individual to make sure no one is at the water cooler too long then it should be based on work product and performance.
Also, assuming these are exempt employees, I would be careful you arenโt moving toward a system that looks like time monitoring.
This needs to be measured by tasks completion and deliverables, not how many key strokes someone makes. If management really trusts their employees so little that they want to do in depth monitoring of all PCs, they aren’t going to have a work force for much longer.
you either trust your employees or you don’t. Your good employees will leave with petty rules. How much time to do people actually work in the office vs “shoot the shit” with co-workers.