Working from home can bring a wide range of benefits for both businesses and employees, but it needs to be properly managed to be successful. Monitoring and assessing the performance of people who work at home is perhaps the most significant managerial challenge. It can be helpful to measure their effectiveness in terms of their output rather than the hours they work.

Training can prepare employees and help them develop the skills they need. This might include:

• self-management skills, e.g in time management
• general skills, e.g in using IT more effectively or writing reports
• job-specific skills

For staff who work alone, a sense of isolation is one of the factors most likely to make home working fail. This is because some workers are prone to complacency when they are not being monitored. Some also underperform because of lack of motivation. As a result, it’s important to put formal systems in place to ensure people feel part of the team. For example:

• frequent two-way feedback sessions about work and work-related issues
• regular scheduled visits to the workplace
• inclusion in social activities
• clear procedures to follow and people to contact if things go wrong

These are among the most important things that you must do if you want to manage your virtual workforce properly. This does not mean that bosses should be imposing and that the workers should be at every beck and call of their superiors. Rather, this means that a trusting professional relationship between boss and worker should be developed so that the team can function smoothly even though the workmates are located in remote places.

What are other issues that business owners can encounter with regards to virtual staff? Share with us how you manage your work-at-home employees!

If you are looking for a reliable contact for outsourcing, you can check out the services offered by iStaffSource. This company can help you source, train, hire, and monitor your future virtual workers. Hiring can be a lot easier for you. Ask iStaffSource how you can find the best virtual employees fit for your business needs. Leave us a message or an email via the comment box below!

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