(Part 3 of 5)

“I’ve allowed four of my staff to begin working remotely two days a week,” commented a manager, “but I still worry that some may spend too much time, gaming, mowing their lawns or taking kids to the park.”

Some managers hover over remote staff by employing rigid work schedules, screen checks, end-of-day-work reports, and time logs.  Such practices are more likely to alienate than to engage employees.

Several companies successfully employ some version of a “Results-Only-Work-Environment” (ROWE) where employees are paid for output—as indicated by KPI’s, metrics, dashboards, checklists, proof-of-work—rather than hours worked.

Fortunately, apps such as Sococo, Slack, Asana and Basecamp are very efficient tools for allowing managers to “trust but verify” remote worker collaboration and output.

One manager reported, “In our Monday video conferences, I ask team members to list six or seven of the most important tasks they wish to finish.  The following Monday we review the lists.”  Between Monday’s the manager and team members rely on the Sococo app to cooperate on challenges, surprises, updates, and whatever.

Bottom line—if you cannot trust your employees to work when you are not watching them, you probably need to get different employees.