Managing Remote Teams: Employee Monitoring Software and Strategies for Success

Remote work does not lose its popularity. According to the Pew Research Center's recent study, approximately 22 million employed Americans, or 14% of the adult workforce, work from home all the time. (link title: Remote Work Statistics) This number is expected to reach 32.6 million in 2025.

At first glance, remote and hybrid work is a blessing for employees and a curse for employers. But if we dig deeper, we will see that this work mode significantly benefits organizations.

Businesses get access to a wider talent pool and can recruit specialists from anywhere without geographic limitations.

Remote work improves employee morale. According to Quantum Workplace's report, Remote work helps employees achieve better work-life balance and reduce stress, which leads to higher job satisfaction and retention.

Finally, employers can save significantly on office space, utilities, and other operational expenses.

However, the benefits of remote work come with a set of challenges for employers.

Managing a remote team presents unique difficulties that require careful consideration and strategic approaches. Here are the key challenges of remote work for employers.

Ensuring remote team members understand their roles and responsibilities can be more challenging without regular face-to-face interactions. The same is true about evaluating their performance. Without direct supervision, managers may not fully see work processes, accurately assess employee work, and provide timely and constructive feedback.

Finally, remote work arrangements make ensuring employees meet deadlines and complete tasks more challenging.

As we mentioned above, remote workers show the highest levels of engagement, although this work mode may not be inspiring for all. According to the Pew Research Center's survey, 53% of remote employees feel disconnected from their co-workers, which may lead to isolation and loneliness.

Besides, if employees are not physically present in the office, they may feel that the management does not notice their achievements and contributions. Feeling unacknowledged and underappreciated can significantly impact employee morale and motivation.

Staying in touch with co-workers and informed about project updates and relevant news is vital for both in-office and remote workers. However, remote work makes communication difficult due to time zone differences, unreliable conferencing tools, issues with internet connection, and the lack of face-to-face interactions.

Deriving from communication barriers, building team culture is another challenge of remote work. Challenges start in the very first stages of onboarding a new team member. New employees cannot physically approach their mentor or co-workers and ask for help. Difficulties in the initial steps may negatively affect the employee's morale and loyalty to the organization.

Creating opportunities for team members to connect personally, such as office-wide parties, birthdays, and casual get-togethers, is also challenging without a shared physical space.

Managing a remote team is a daunting task. With employees scattered across different time zones and locations, ensuring productivity, accountability, and team cohesion can be challenging. We suggest several proven strategies to overcome these challenges and build a highly performing team.

Everything starts with a goal. Employees should understand what is expected of them, their responsibilities, and performance goals. As a manager, you can arrange weekly or bi-weekly check-ins to ensure everyone is on the same page and updated on the latest news and changes.

Technology makes managing remote team performance easy and efficient. Employee monitoring software tracks attendance, work hours, and inactive periods automatically - the employee only needs to clock in and out.

But modern programs, such as CleverControl, go beyond simple time tracking. CleverControl is a powerful employee monitoring software that can help you address the challenges of managing remote teams. It collects detailed employee activity data and offers insight into their typical workflow. For example, CleverControl's newest feature - AI Scoring - can help pinpoint time-wasting activities and unproductive habits. The powerful AI provides individual productivity scores with short personal work analyses for each employee. These insights are excellent for revealing inefficiencies and areas for improvement.

A manager should notice not only struggling employees but also top performers. In the remote setting, it is easy to miss employees' achievements and outstanding work. Employee monitoring software is designed to cover this blind spot as well. Detailed activity summaries and productivity scores help reveal and provide proper acknowledgment to those employees who deserve it.

Finally, tracking tools also increase visibility in the workplace, motivating employees to be more accountable for their work.

Out of sight - out of mind? It is not the best strategy to manage a remote team. To keep the team motivated, accountable, and productive, the manager should conduct performance evaluations and provide actionable feedback.

Gathering and analyzing individual productivity data is already daunting and time-consuming; in remote settings, it becomes even more challenging due to the lack of direct observation. Employee monitoring software is a great tool to streamline this process. It provides objective data on productivity, activity patterns, and workflow and automatically analyzes it in seconds. These insights will serve as a great foundation for feedback.

To conduct effective performance reviews in a remote environment, consider using video conferencing tools for face-to-face discussions instead of emails and chat messages. Regular check-ins and one-on-one meetings will help address potential concerns and problems.

The importance of communication increases ten times in the remote environment. Regular, scheduled meetings, such as weekly team check-ins, can help keep everyone aligned and informed. While written communication is convenient, face-to-face interaction through video conferencing tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams can foster stronger relationships and deeper understanding. Video calls allow for nonverbal cues, such as facial expressions and body language, making communication more personal. This way, employees should feel more connected to their colleagues and management.

However, it is important to balance the frequency of meetings and their usefulness. Let's be honest, endless Zoom meetings have become a meme among remote workers. If you have five meetings daily, when are you supposed to complete your tasks? The answer may lie in the combination of synchronous and asynchronous communication. Asynchronous tools like Slack or Jira can be used for quick updates, questions, and file sharing, reducing the need for constant real-time communication. Asynchronous communication is also perfect for geographically distributed teams in different time zones. This way no one gets to sacrifice their sleep or personal time for a work meeting.

A remote environment makes motivation methods more challenging. Yet, a manager should not ditch them completely. One of the effective methods is giving employees autonomy and freedom to manage their own time. Poor work-life balance is a scourge of our time and the reason for low job satisfaction and burnout. The freedom to choose work hours allows employees to balance their personal lives and work responsibilities better, ultimately leading to increased motivation, job satisfaction, and productivity.

Working outside the office should not mean denial of professional growth opportunities. Consider providing employees with personalized remote courses and training, and you will see their motivation and engagement grow.

Finally, do not forget about acknowledgment and recognition. Publicly reward employees' achievements, even the small ones. Just a simple thank-you note or a virtual gift card can do much to boost morale.

Remote work does not mean you cannot organize a coffee break, a quiz, or other team-bonding activity. Only in this case, it will be virtual. For example, services like CoffeePals or Mystery Coffee offer convenient platforms for matching employees for virtual coffee breaks.

Virtual escape rooms and trivia challenges are other great activities that can bring your team closer. In the first case, employees solve puzzles to "escape" a virtual room. In challenges, employees join teams to compete in trivia on various topics.

There are dozens of virtual team-building activities that you can explore: book clubs, at-home scavenger hunts, show and tell, and even talent shows. Choose those that suit your teams' personalities best, and you will see the positive effect.

Managing a remote team presents a unique set of challenges, yet these challenges are not insurmountable. Clear communication, insights from employee monitoring software, and regular check-ins will help organizations reveal potential problems and find timely solutions. By fostering a strong company culture, recognizing and rewarding employees, and providing opportunities for growth and development, employers can create a thriving remote workforce that drives innovation and success.