How to Manage Remote Employees

Remote employees are those who generally work from home. At times, remote work may be referred to as telecommuting. These employees generally communicate with their employers and coworkers via email, phone calls, video chats, and digital messaging. Although these employees are working remotely, there's still a need for an efficient method to properly manage their hours worked. Employee time tracking tools, such as OnTheClock, are a great step in the right direction when managing remote teams. 

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Having trust in your employees

If you're a small business owner, then you understand the importance of trusting your employees. This is taken to a whole new level when you allow employees to work remotely. Unlike a traditional worker, you're unable to keep an eye on him or her to see if he or she is actually working or not.

This is where the trust element between you and your employees comes into play. Although you should have trust in your whole staff, it is normal to wonder and have questions about telecommuting workers. However, as a successful business owner, it's your duty to make the appropriate decision to hire and choose who works from home.

What to Expect in a Remote Worker

Let your remote workers know in advance what your expectations are and how the company depends on their efforts when working from home. It is important to be on the same page while understanding and acknowledging the agreements that are laid out beforehand. This can help give you and the workers a piece of mind without you having to worry about micromanaging.

Be confident in who you hire and ensure you're selecting the proper people for the right positions. Pick their brains and see if working from home is meant for them. Perhaps one individual prefers being around people and would enjoy working within the office. This could be what improves his or her personal working skills and increases productivity.

Lastly, you have to expect that some mistakes are going to happen, at least during the beginning. All of us are human, and none of us are perfect. Errors occur, and they usually happen at the beginning of employment. Depending on the position, it can take time to learn what the best approach is for that particular company and industry. When a mistake is made, talk to that person and let him or her know the correct way instead of scolding or yelling. Focus on delivering the message in a way that can increase an employee's confidence.

Are Remote Workers More Productive?

Although this topic is debatable, research shows there was a 13.5% increase in productivity per day. This would amount to nearly a full day's worth of work per week per employee. In addition to increased productivity, a 2016 survey taken from American remote employees stated that 91% feel they get more accomplished working from home than they do when working in an office. Again, this can depend on the worker and the type of work they are completing.  

We are not taking a hardline stance on remote workers; however, we encourage you to do what you feel is best for your company and employees. Trust can help a company succeed greatly.

How to Track Remote Workers' Time and Attendance

One of the chief concerns many employers have when they make the decision to hire remote workers is how to properly track their time. This could be due to a variety of reasons. For example, what steps should an employer take when an employee forgets to log his or her hours? If your company does not have an employee time tracking system, do you simply ask employees to manually log their time? Proper time tracking is important and could protect your business from litigation.

What if your remote employee is paid a salary rather than hourly? It's still recommended to have documentation of all your employee’s hours in the event you are ever requested to provide them. The Department of Labor, a court-ordered lawsuit, and other legal actions could ask you to provide documents. The last thing you would want is not providing accurate time sheets.

Many small business owners need a reliable time clock calculator that will do all the work for them when it comes to adding up accurate logged hours. An online time clock system presents many options, features, and benefits to remote employees, including the ability to punch in or out by the use of a phone, tablet, computer, and/or a downloadable mobile app.

Once a remote worker clocks in, that exact time is saved in the cloud-based system, which allows the business owner to have access to it at any given time. The employee's time is added up at the end of the workweek and is recorded on individual timecards. This allows for accurate payroll, a better understanding for hours worked to the amount of work completed ratio, and less time that you (the business owner) have to do when it comes to adding up hours. Also, it can save money since the time is down to the exact minute. You can now say goodbye to punch rounding and hello to accurate time tracking down to the minute!

Useful Tools to Track Remote Employees' Time Worked

You and your remote employees will experience many benefits when implementing a time management system. This will provide you with a resource to manage time, bill accordingly, understand how much time is being spent on specific projects, and much more. Time tracking tools also provide accountability to remote employees. 

Some popular features included with OnTheClock’s time tracking system:

• Time data automatically tracked, calculated, and stored. 
• IP address recognition that can be assigned to the remote worker’s Wi-Fi that only allows him or her to punch in and out while connected to that specific IP address. 
• A project and job costing feature ensures accurate billing.
• Paid time off (PTO) tracking, so employers can see, approve, or deny PTO requests. 
• Employee scheduling and attendance management.
• GPS tracking to ensure remote employees are where they need to be while working.

For additional features and benefits, please visit our time clock features page.

Remote Workers Being Dishonest with Their Timecards

For the sake of this passage, let's assume you've started your free, 30-day trial for your new time clock system, and you suspect that some individuals are being dishonest with their timecards. You see that they are putting in 40 hours per week, but their work production is not where it should be for that amount of time. Well, you are in luck because OnTheClock offers the latest in geofencing technology, allowing you to set up a perimeter for a specific address that will not allow an employee to punch in or out if he or she is outside of that geofenced area.

For example, let's say you have a worker who works from home, and he or she lives at 123 Buckeye Lane in Columbus, Ohio. You can go into your time tracking account and set up geofencing for that address. If that employee is not home or within the specified perimeter, he or she will not be able to clock in or out, even if the individual is using the free mobile time clock app. The GPS coordinates will be recognized to be outside that boundary, and, therefore, the employee will not be allowed to punch in. This is an excellent way to curb time theft. You will also have the option to have the employee use the system from a specific IP address. This means employees will only be able to punch in or out using their home's Wi-Fi or internet connection.

In conclusion, we encourage you to make the proper decisions that will be the best fit for your company’s needs. Weigh out the pros and cons and speak with your staff to see what's best for your business. Remote employees can be a great asset, and we are here to help when it comes to tracking their time.