Remote Workforce Strategy for a Winning Team

Distant work is now not a brand new idea, so why are groups nonetheless combating their distant workforce technique? 

In line with Statista, by Could 2020, the variety of distant groups within the U.S. alone had elevated to 48.7 million additional employees working from home, excluding these working from residence pre-pandemic. 

Distant work has turn out to be the norm for the reason that pandemic, and successful firms are transferring quick to undertake the pattern whereas implementing the very best distant workforce technique accessible. Nonetheless, distant challenges like productiveness slippage, time theft, worker disengagement, and lack of visibility can typically tank distant work settings and depart administration trying to return to a conventional workplace house. 

At Hubstaff, we’ve seen a completely distant group develop from scratch whereas we discovered what works finest for our folks. From Slack catch-ups to each day Stand-ups, we empowered our folks with belief and autonomy whereas holding an open communication channel.

This put up will share design and implement a distant workforce technique that drives accountability, efficiency, and long-term scale, and helps you keep away from returning to an workplace setting.

What’s a distant workforce technique — and why most firms get it improper

Distant workforce technique isn’t simply a few office insurance policies however a strategic framework — a step-by-step method that defines every part distant groups must be profitable of their jobs: 

• When and the way they might function
• What sort of tech stack you’d present
• Clear coverage outlines and pointers that empower distant group members. 

Moreover, transparency round worker time monitoring and monitoring instruments can profit your backside line by boosting group productiveness, job satisfaction, and total morale. 

Widespread misconceptions round distant workforce technique

1. Distant workers are much less motivated and engaged: Some of the frequent misconceptions about distant work is that workers are much less motivated when working from residence. This has been a driving issue behind the current pattern of firms transitioning again to in-office setups.

Nonetheless, knowledge tells a special story. In line with BambooHR, 42% of workers who returned to the workplace after working remotely reported feeling like they’re exhibiting up merely for visibility.

The reality: With the correct distant work setup (that features productiveness monitoring and strategic workforce optimization know-how instruments that assist distant work), distant workers will be equally, if no more, productive than their in-office friends. Hubstaff analysis discovered that 85% of leaders agree that distant groups are simply as productive when managed proper.

2. Workers in distant settings are simply replaceable: One other dangerous false impression about distant work is proximity bias or the assumption that distant staff are extra expendable than these working onsite. Leaders might unconsciously favor in-office group members just because they see them extra typically.

A SHRM survey revealed that 67% of remote team supervisors believe remote employees are more replaceable than onsite workers.

The reality: Bodily presence doesn’t equate to worth or productiveness. Furthermore, distant efficiency will be tracked and optimized utilizing dependable productiveness instruments. Distant workers turn out to be equally important contributors when output and outcomes are the main target.

3. Isolation and burnout: Working from residence is taken into account lonely, and an absence of clear boundaries between work and private life can result in isolation and potential burnout. A 2022 article within the Journal of Organizational Effectiveness confirmed that absenteeism attributed to emphasize and loneliness prices U.S. employers an estimated $154 billion annually. 

The reality: This difficulty will be successfully addressed with the suitable instruments and tradition. Hubstaff’s time monitoring and productiveness analytics assist distant groups visualize their contribution, serving to increase motivation to do even higher. As an example, process administration instruments like Hubstaff Duties can make clear priorities, encourage significant objectives, scale back overwork, and enhance work-life stability.

4. Complicated instruments with technique: Many organizations undertake time monitoring or communication instruments and assume they’ve “gone distant.” However instruments alone don’t make a technique. Implementing digital instruments is a enough answer for managing a distant workforce.

The reality: Instruments are enablers, not methods themselves. And not using a well-defined distant work coverage, clear expectations, efficiency metrics, and powerful management, even the very best instruments will fall flat. 

A distant workforce technique should be intentional, combining instruments with distant workflows that prioritize belief, accountability, transparency, and group alignment. Additional, platforms like Hubstaff can empower such a technique, however the strategic implementation in the end drives success.

Key parts of an efficient distant workforce technique

The perfect distant workforce technique comes from understanding your distant groups’ wants. It’s much less about setting a work-from-home schedule for workers and extra about fostering clear communication, collaboration, and a secure work surroundings by means of transparency. 

Listed below are some actionable distant work finest practices for management:

1. Belief and autonomy

The primary constructing block of a high-performing distant workforce is a office that promotes belief and autonomy. Belief in a distant group works so much just like the placebo effect in medication. When sufferers consider a remedy will work (even when they have been simply given sugar capsules), their mind responds to it as if it have been actual. 

Equally, when leaders consider of their group’s means to carry out and take duty with out fixed oversight, it boosts autonomy, accountability, and motivation. 

Our group at Hubstaff always delivers, taking full accountability for his or her assigned duties with out micromanagement. Furthermore, leaders work with their groups to resolve the difficulty if one thing isn’t working. Additional, Jira time monitoring integration helps managers assign duties, observe hours spent on Jira points, and collaborate on process updates. 

2. Clear async communication protocol

Probably the greatest distant work practices when managing globally distributed groups is sustaining clear and open communication. Consider implementing asynchronous communication instruments on your distant workers. This might embrace sharing paperwork amongst group members so as to add enter on a subject with out breaking the timezone barrier or attending a name at midnight. 

Implement seamless group collaboration by means of venture administration and communication instruments like Asana, Trello, Slack, Microsoft Groups, and Google Docs. At Hubstaff, our globally dispersed group stays always related by means of Slack prompt messaging and sends out each day Stand-ups by means of Hubstaff Duties (our native process and venture administration software). 

3. Give attention to end result, not enter

Set efficient productiveness metrics, KPIs, or SMART objectives to research worker productiveness. Outline success on your distant group primarily based on outcomes, not enter. A transparent visibility into your distant group’s workday will assist you to improve total effectivity backed by knowledge.

With Hubstaff Insights, you’ll be able to view and examine exercise benchmarks and outline productive and unproductive apps and URLs. Use it additional to categorise work time primarily based on the core (targeted, productive duties) and non-core (ad-hoc duties, or extreme conferences) to drill down productiveness into granular ranges. 

4. Time monitoring and work visibility

Have your distant group observe time spent on every process to higher gauge the common time to completion. This can assist you to allocate sources extra effectively and stop burnout. In consequence, you’ll acquire peace of thoughts by monitoring venture progress with out always checking in along with your groups. 

Time and Exercise report gives insights into your group’s time spent on tasks and duties, exercise ranges, complete billable hours, and idle time alerts, and a lot extra.

5. Safety and compliance

Safety and compliance are two essential elements in a distant workforce technique. Whereas distant work presents a wider expertise pool, 24/7 buyer assist and availability, and a slew of different advantages, it does make safety and compliance tougher. The suitable distant technique is essential for stopping potential cyberattacks and knowledge breaches. 

Cyber threats can emerge when unsecured private gadgets are used on public Wi-Fi networks and not using a correct VPN, particularly and not using a strong, cloud-based infrastructure for managing knowledge throughout a number of places.

In line with an IBM report, organizations with a distant workforce skilled a rise within the common complete knowledge breach price, rising by almost $137,000 from the baseline of $3.86 million to roughly $4 million.

Distant doesn’t must imply weak. With the suitable instruments and protocols, your workforce worldwide can keep productive and guarded. With SOC 2 Sort II, HIPAA, and GDPR-compliant insurance policies, infrastructure, and safe time monitoring, Hubstaff manages your knowledge responsibly with out sacrificing flexibility or productiveness. With role-based entry, two-factor authentication, and detailed exercise logs, you’ll be able to see how and the place work occurs. 

Distant workforce technique instance: How SupportNinja scaled onboarding and retaining high-performing distant workers

A distant workforce technique instance could possibly be SupportNinja, a worldwide outsourcing accomplice for buyer assist and back-office options, which used Hubstaff time monitoring and productiveness monitoring instruments to scale with ease. Their fast development led them to a typical problem: scaling a distributed workforce with out sacrificing productiveness, accountability, or tradition. 

The problem: Scaling quick with out shedding readability and alignment 

As SupportNinja grew to a group of 500+ distant workers worldwide, the management group shortly realized that scaling headcount was solely half the battle — the actual impediment was sustaining readability, tradition, and productiveness at scale. 

“Many instances, there are workers who’re appearing out of the unique ideology that the corporate has tried to create.”

—Cody McLain, Founding father of SupportNinja

This disconnect typically occurred throughout onboarding, resulting in confusion, miscommunication, and inefficiencies that slowed momentum.

Typical challenges of hiring and managing international groups:

• Onboarding new distant hires constantly
• Correct work hours monitoring
• Monitoring productiveness with out micromanagement
• Paying globally distributed freelancers and workers with ease

Burnout and missed expectations turned actual issues. The management wanted a scalable technique to regain management with out micromanaging. 

To proceed scaling efficiently, they wanted a better, streamlined distant workforce technique that might present progressive methods to onboard new hires, observe work hours, and pay freelancers as the corporate grew.

The method: constructing a high-performing distant group

Earlier than Hubstaff, SupportNinja turned to different time monitoring instruments like Time Physician, ActivTrak, and Desktime for workflow and productiveness administration, however Hubstaff modified the story.  

Right here’s how they structured a distant workforce technique grounded in readability:

A greater onboarding expertise for distant workers

With easy time monitoring and productiveness monitoring for outsourced group members, it was simple to grasp how group members are adopting new instruments and efficiency through the onboarding course of. 

Automated payroll helped them play international freelancers/contractors throughout varied fee instruments like PayPal, Sensible, and Gusto concurrently — with out ever leaving Hubstaff.

Productiveness monitoring whereas onboarding

Management started measuring productiveness primarily based on outcomes, not enter. Throughout these first few weeks, productiveness monitoring by means of seeing apps and URLs used, exercise ranges, and elective screenshots taken at a set interval helped SupportNinja determine roadblocks and the most efficient members of its outsourced group.

With Hubstaff, they might monitor hours labored, observe task-specific time, and use Insights to optimize workflows — with out micromanaging or disrupting autonomy.

Final result: Scaling enterprise with confidence 

• Improved workforce administration with clear visibility into time and productiveness.
• Simpler efficiency measurement, serving to groups keep aligned and accountable.
• Streamlined international payroll, decreasing guide effort and errors.
• Elevated total productiveness throughout distant groups.
• Extra time for management to give attention to strategic, high-impact tasks.

As distant groups develop worldwide and outsourcing turns into the norm, demand for efficient distant work collaboration instruments retains rising. Whether or not to spice up asynchronous communication, enhance productiveness measurement, or preserve safety, you want the suitable distant toolset to run a profitable group.

• Communication. Communication instruments akin to Slack, Loom, Notion, and extra allow async communication, updates, video calls, and clearer workflows.
  
• Visibility. Time-tracking instruments like Hubstaff helps with productiveness benchmarking for calculating output towards enter ratio and measure data-driven efficiency with out micromanagement. 

• Engagement. Collect suggestions and observe group sentiment utilizing instruments like Qualtrics, which is constructed for high-performing groups. 

• Documentation. Creates a single supply of reality, collaborating in a group workspace constructed on platforms like Confluence to collaborate and share information. 

Methods to consider and alter your distant group technique over time

Distant workforce technique isn’t static. Leaders who evolve and implement new methods are those who discover themselves forward. Technologically advanced workplaces are moving faster than earlier than, and the leaders who fail to maintain up will fall. Whenever you make data-driven selections, optimize workflows, and implement effectivity, distant groups scale efficiently. 

Listed below are some actionable steps to optimize and enhance distant group administration methods:

Step 1

Evaluate the info

Whenever you’re evaluating distant workforce efficiency, look past the uncooked knowledge to grasp context. Use instruments like Hubstaff’s pattern dashboards and weekly productiveness summaries to determine frequent patterns, akin to spikes in idle time, dips in exercise, or low engagement in particular groups or roles. 

Professional tip: Pair this with attrition, attendance, and workload distribution knowledge to uncover the “why” behind the numbers. As an example, instruments like Hubstaff may assist spot a correlation between exercise dips and an absence of PTO utilization. 

Step 2

Get group enter

Use retrospectives or 1:1s to collect qualitative suggestions, however be sure to look past it and make steady suggestions a part of your group’s tradition, too. Making a day-to-day method to skilled improvement helps us all higher embrace distant work. Whenever you create a tradition dedicated to steady studying, you’ll see distant workers purchase in and think about distant work preparations as stepping stones to broader profession objectives. Use pulse surveys, nameless types, and async check-ins to collect trustworthy enter. Guarantee your group feels secure sharing their successes and struggles with out worry of judgment or consequence.

Ask questions like:

• What’s going effectively for you in your present workflow?
• What’s slowing your work down proper now?
• Are your present instruments serving to or creating friction?
• What would assist you to really feel extra targeted or supported?

Step 3

Modify technique

Search for patterns, burnout indicators, time mismatches, and low output and realign workflows, objectives, or instruments accordingly. Whenever you make modifications, share the insights that led to them. Clarify what the group shared, what the info confirmed, and the way that formed your resolution. Then, refine distant work methods. The “set-and-forget” method will make extra give you the results you want in the long term. 

Listed below are some examples of minor however high-impact changes for creating profitable distant work methods:

• Shifting assembly schedules to align with peak focus hours
• Changing underused instruments with extra intuitive ones

Professional tip: Modify workloads primarily based on productiveness insights to stop silent burnout. 

With the suitable distant workforce technique, groups don’t simply work—they thrive

Distant group success isn’t nearly implementing a sophisticated tech stack however constructing a technique that drives readability, accountability, and belief. Excessive-performing groups ship outcomes and talk asynchronously, whereas leaders acquire visibility with productiveness measurement instruments to streamline operations and scale confidently. A profitable distant workforce technique helps worker morale and enterprise development, not vice versa.