Many businesses in today’s changing work climate have remote or telecommuting employees. This is where the company has agreed to allow the employees to perform their job duties usually from a home office. Telecommuting can have great benefits for the employees, such as saving on fuel and wardrobe costs. This type of employees also saves the company money, as many times the employees agree to become a contractor. Contractors are generally not given benefits, such a sick pay, vacation pay, or health insurance. However, there are a few other issues associated with remote employees and are as follows.
Defined Communication – HR managers need to define communication policies. For example, the times the remote worker needs to report in to his or her manager and how the worker should communicate, such as via email, chat, video or phone.
Workload Primacies – There has to be clear workload priorities for all remote employees. In other words, the employees has to know which daily tasks need to be performed first and who much time should be given to each task. This will keep production levels up and make having telecommuting positions worthwhile.
Full or Partial Remote – The HR department has to determine if the remote position is going to be a full at home position or if the employees will need to report into the office on occasion. Partial remote employees are often sales personnel who check in to report their sales, turn in contracts, or replenish products. However, it will be up to the HR manager if the worker must make an appearance or if all duties can be performed out of the office.
In order for a company to have a successful remote employee program, the HR manager must establish strict rules in productivity and keep the above issues in mind as well. If there are not proper procedures, telecommuting workers can easily get off track causing low productivity for the company.
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