According to Statista, 17% of employees in the U.S. operated from home before the COVID-19 crisis, but this surged to 44% during the pandemic. As a result, most companies have continued to accommodate remote or hybrid workforces.

While these set-ups meet the need of the hour, they have visibility and reporting challenges, leaving employees and managers in dismay. So, how can you solve this?

Here are six tips for better visibility and reporting for the remote or hybrid workforce that will scale your business!

1. Keep in Touch

Are you aware of what is going on in the working lives of your remote employees? Do you know some issues in their lives can affect their productivity?

Often, managers can be extremely focused on the company’s ultimate goals, overlooking the importance of their employees’ well-being. Consequently, workers may suffer in silence and perform poorly in their tasks.

One of the main ways to ensure inclusivity and visibility is to keep in touch with your remote workforce. Learn about their work-life balance and burnout levels as it will help you make changes that will improve their performance and make them feel cared for.

Remote work can also make an employee feel isolated, impacting their morale and efficiency. So, how do you solve or prevent this? By ensuring your managers have regular check-ins and catch-ups with the employees to discuss different issues.

This will inform your leadership what they can do to create favorable working conditions for your remote workforce in every aspect and to provide the support they need. Ultimately, both the workforce and the company will benefit.

Learn more in 5 Tips for Remote or Hybrid Workforce Collaboration.

2. Virtual Meetings

Another way you can enhance visibility and reporting for the remote or hybrid workforce is by utilizing virtual “eye-to-eye” meetings. Ensure you formalize the meetings and conduct them as you would in a face-to-face meeting.

If you normally conduct weekly status meetings, you can have them more often and leave extra time for your team to highlight their concerns and ask questions. For instance, teams can have daily face-to-face stand up to discuss their main priorities and tasks for the day.

This will not only enhance visibility and reporting to the managers but also help employees to be determined to accomplish the company’s goals since they are part of them.

Sometimes, tasks may overlap, leaving teams in a predicament. Waiting until the scheduled meeting may mean delays and poor collaboration. But with a virtual meeting, you get to clarify how such roles will be handled effectively!

Using a tool like Microsoft Teams can help. Microsoft Teams is an application that has proved extremely useful to attend online meetings, share files, and stay connected with your colleagues and clients. Get some Microsoft Teams tips.

3. Enhance Team Cohesion

What’s your company’s recent big win? How did you celebrate it with your remote workers?

Such business experiences can be utilized to enhance team cohesion. For instance, you can mail every person on the team a small gift, then follow it up with a more celebratory treat like budget permitting to involve remote employees.

This will make your workers feel part of your business, becoming more committed to their roles in the company. It will also improve team cohesion since they will acknowledge teamwork, making them believe and uphold collaboration more.

4. Customize All Processes

Most processes that work for onsite jobs do not suit offsite duties. How can you ensure that you have a clear outlook and report from the remote workers? By defaulting all processes to meet their needs!

Most remote companies have mastered this; that’s one of the reasons they keep scaling. However, if your company has been operating on-site, you need to adjust your processes.

What should you do if you have a hybrid workforce?

  • Provide parallel perks to onsite and offsite workers.
  • Develop team-building practices that are inclusive.
  • Make your basic meetings asynchronous (all employees don’t have to meet at the same time)

Wondering how you can achieve asynchronous meetings?

  • Have the program and documentarian.
  • Move the wide-angle video from the conference rooms.
  • Have the in-office staff dial into video calls with their own devices.

With these in place, you can analyze which workflows fit the onsite setting and brainstorm strategies to customize them. Finally, don’t forget to document all the new processes where each member can access them!

5. Define Collaboration Policies

The remote setting has numerous collaboration settings that you can utilize. For instance, Skype, Slack, Zoom, and Go to Meeting. Some employees have learned how to sync all these while others have not.

To ensure the team collaborates effectively, you have to set rules while keeping in mind your employees’ different software proficiency levels. Below are best practices to enhance visibility and reporting of your remote or hybrid workforce with these tools:

  • Train your workers about the collaboration software.
  • Clarify when you will need a group conference.
  • Give the appropriate response time for direct messages and emails.
  • Teach your workers to update their availability status (on vacation, at lunch, or working).
  • Ensure the internet quality does not affect your schedule by having the IT rep speed up the internet for the members facing slow internet challenges.

6. Bridge the Gap for the Hybrid Workforce

How can you include in-person and remote employees to ensure their safety?

While experts are divided over the time workers will return to the office after the pandemic, most firmly agree to staggered return to safeguard the workers. With these setups, companies enjoy significant advantages like reduced office density and prevention of overcrowding on mass transit.

However, some employees feel less connected to the entity. So, how can you bridge this gap?

You can make remote and in-person workers feel included through a blended office format. In addition, continue using video and chat tools that enhance collaboration. For example, videoconferencing gives conversations a face-to-face mode.

Those are the 6 tips for better visibility and reporting for the remote or hybrid workforce. You can start with a few or utilize those you’ve not implemented yet. With these, you will enhance collaboration and help your employees to reach maximum productivity.

As a result, your company’s performance will scale, helping you stay ahead of your competitors. And while some of these tips may seem a bit expensive, like gifting workers, it is worth it in the long run!

MIBAR Set Your Remote Workforce Up For Success

Learn how to future-proof your business and catapult growth with business systems and processes that support remote workforce collaboration, real-time reporting, data security, fast set-up, scalability, and lower costs from MIBAR. Schedule a free consultation today.

Additional Remote Workforce Resources

7 Data Security Tips for Your Remote or Hybrid Workforce

5 Tips for Remote or Hybrid Workforce Collaboration

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