Remote management. Training "remote management of employees"

Actively developing companies with an extensive branch network sooner or later face the problem of remote control by region. Geographically scattered divisions that are not united in common links of one chain cause many problems for managers.

What hinders effective branch management?

• Insufficient access to information about what is happening in the remote unit
• High independence in operational decision-making. This is a consequence of insufficient awareness: it is easier and faster to react to a non-standard situation on the spot on your own than to use standard scheme interactions with remote management
• Difficulty in personnel control and building business processes

What will help the manager to control the work of the branch?

• Well-established, automated and operating system accounting and reporting
• All possible means links to facilitate communication with a remote unit
• Planning, forecasting, monitoring the state of affairs in companies operating in a similar way
• A simple system of motivation for the result
• Competent risk management, their timely forecasting

What is the head office for a branch?
An even more distant universe, to get into which is a privilege and a test at the same time.

Let's stop at linear functional system remote control regional team. It is based on a hierarchical principle: the headquarters is responsible for strategy and tactics, and employees located in the regions are responsible for field, operational work.

Such a system works well if the main factors are met:

• high professional level employees
• clear standardization of management processes and distribution of functionality in the field,
• efficient and high-quality decision-making,
• the possibility of attracting specialists high level for individual functions.

These moments should be clearly spelled out and fixed by the relevant regulations in order to avoid duplication of functions among specialists. The development of regulations and their precise implementation with such a management system is one of the important tools. This helps to avoid the loss of information and not to lose the quality of work for employees who are far from the representatives of the central office.

Headquarters managers make decisions, develop strategy and, due to their professional competence, can influence line managers in the field without being directly involved in operational tasks.

Each division has its own goals, but the region has a general plan that takes into account local goals as components of a common one.

KPI system
The management team responsible for tactics and strategy and the regional manager working with field staff have common KPIs. For field employees at the regional level, KPI is calculated separately by function, and general KPIs work, tied to the specifics of the work of a particular region.

For example, when introducing a new product, each employee at his level has a set of tasks assigned to him. The regional head is responsible for the specific result of the product implementation in the region subordinate to him. Trainer - for teaching sellers of the whole region about the characteristics of the product and methods of its promotion, merchandiser - for the competent display of goods at the points, document management department - for the general documentary support of the process. There is a system of building work in the city and region. The time for the introduction of a new product in city and regional divisions will also differ. All this should be taken into account when calculating key performance indicators.

Planning
Planning plays an important role in managing a developed branch network. Goal planning is yearly, quarterly and monthly. A well-built reporting system helps to track the real state of affairs and their compliance with the strategic objectives and goals fixed in the plans.

Setting goals and control
Tasks in the region are set weekly. Task management systems, technical means in the form of audio or video conferences are used. The work of the departments is built in accordance with the established regulations, which means that there is general system and operational problems occurring on the ground in different regions may have common causes.

Audio-video conferences
If it is possible to choose between an audio or video conference, the priority is the video option, this makes it possible not only to read the text, but also to see facial expressions, gestures, speakers, and therefore have more information.

When preparing for a video conference, the task of the organizer is to provide all participants with the same documents, respectively, the files are sent in advance, people are given time to familiarize themselves. And then all conference participants have the opportunity to simultaneously see the same document, which is being discussed.

The maximum duration of the event is 1 hour. If the videoconference lasts longer, people get tired, concentration decreases, and hence the effectiveness of the event. At such a reporting meeting, the reality of the figures is not discussed, they have already been accepted as a fact, agreed by all authorities “behind the scenes”. Only documented results are discussed. For example, according to the sales plan of the macro-region as a whole.

The event begins with a speech by the head of the macroregion and overview of what is happening. Since the time of the event is limited, each performance has a strict time limit. The rule of three applies. First, the representatives of the three most successful selling regions speak and talk about the events that have helped to achieve such high results. And the leaders of the three regions with the lowest results report the same way. They share problems, voice how they see solutions and terms for correcting the situation. The time for these performances also has a strict framework - both the “excellent students” and the “losers” have five minutes to report. The rest of the meeting time is spent on summing up and setting tasks for the macroregion for new period time until the next event.

Formation and selection of a team
How more strength and time invested in human resources, the more efficient the team is. Primary selection on the ground is carried out by HR and regional leaders, but the head responsible for regional tasks should know for himself who works in his team, the final decision on each of the candidates for a vacant position should remain with him.

When conducting audits, it is important to communicate with field staff, this will help to understand their true roles and the effectiveness of their work in the field.

Regular visits to regions
The control of the work of the branch is carried out at different levels, but the main tool for managerial interaction with people is personal, face-to-face communication.

There is a need for a clear schedule for the travel of central office staff to each region. Based on the results of visiting the branch, a report is drawn up on all areas of the branch's activities, on all the pluses and successes, minuses and difficulties. Based on this analytics, strategic and operational management decisions.

Both scheduled and unscheduled field trips of the head of the macro-region for meetings with partners, personal communication with regional leaders, field employees and conducting a general audit of the region are required.

What gives such a system of remote management of branches
Minimization of risks, the ability to understand the reasons for the work of a loss-making division and turn the lagging region into a sales leader.

As an example
For a long time, one of the regions, as part of a large macro-region, was considered unprofitable. The reasons were not clear, since the reporting was carried out correctly and the people on the ground did not change.

During one of the planned inspections of a troubled branch, the manager, after talking with employees and the head himself, found out that the head of the branch does not divide his field specialists according to functionality. All his field employees are involved in all processes, no one takes responsibility for anything specific.

As a result, mistakes and shortcomings are not revealed, and the bonus part is not distributed transparently, according to the developed KPI for the region, and according to the personal sympathies of the head.

Branch manager changed. Following him, the team was updated, assigning each function to a separate responsible person. Quite a lot of time passed, almost a year, until the machine worked as expected, and the region turned from unprofitable and lagging behind into a profitable division.

Remote management of a regional team is an interesting task for a leader, requiring excellent management skills, efficiency and the ability to think strategically.

Summarizing all of the above, it is worth once again paying attention to the main tools for effective management of a regional team:

• An individual approach to the selection of personnel from the head responsible for the overall results.
• A transparent, simple system for setting goals and objectives.
• Financial motivation tied to the final result.
• Quantitative rather than qualitative evaluation of results.
• Regular remote monitoring (audio-video conferences, well-functioning reporting system).
• Regular face-to-face monitoring (a clear schedule for the weekly presence of representatives of the headquarters for each region).
• Systematic analysis of work based on reports in all areas following the results of each visit to the branch.

The training is intended for managers of different levels whose competencies include communications and management of employees located outside the office and / or at a considerable distance.

Training program:

1. Introduction
   • The influence of employees on the efficiency of the company
   • Manager's functions
   • Leadership styles
   • Remote control principles: planning, motivation, control, delegation
2. Features of working at a distance
   • Who can work remotely: employee competency profile for remote work
   • Features of the search for remote employees, discussion of conditions
   • Criteria for the effectiveness of the work of employees at a distance
   • Features of labor relations at a distance
3. Setting goals and planning the activities of employees at a distance
   • Why is it important to set goals for employees?
   • Rules for remote goal setting. SMART as a tool for effective management
   • Employee prioritization. Definition of outcome criteria
   • Resource planning. Finance, marketing, events, product line management
   • Plan individual work(PIP): application conditions and threats
   • Major Goal Setting and Planning Mistakes
4. Remote monitoring of employees
   • Types of control
   • Frequency of control. Features of remote control
   • Control of income and expenses
   • Manager's visits: technique, mistakes, areas of use
   • Feedback on the results of employee performance monitoring
5. Feedback
   • Feedback as a management tool
   • Time and place of feedback to the employee
   • Effective employee feedback algorithm
   • Feedback errors
6. Remote communication with employees
   • The importance of communication with employees at a distance
   • Types of communications and features of use
   • Errors in communication with employees at a distance
   • Laws of remote communications. Fading effect, “broken phone” principle, message hoax
   • Technique for conducting tele- and videoconferencing
7. Work with documents and e-mail
   • Goals and objectives of the formation of documents and emails
   • Writing a letter as a time management tool
   • Appointment of addressees of letters and documents. Logistics Information
   • Responses to employee emails
8. Delegation, or is it easier to do everything yourself ...
   • Delegation principles
   • Indicators of underdelegation
   • Myths about delegation. Delegation errors
   • Delegation Techniques and Performance Evaluation
9. Employee motivation at a distance
   • Motivational field of the employee
   • Correlation between company goals and employee goals: finding a common denominator
   • Manager representative of the company in front of an employee
   • Ways to manage employee motivation at a distance. Demotivating factors
   • Signs of professional burnout. Ways to deal with burnout
   • Doing Nothing as a Tool to Increase Motivation
10. Training results
    • Formation of the plan further work and individual development participants

Author and presenter - :
Business coach, management consultant, executive coach.
Specialization: managerial skills, negotiation, sales and work with clients, personal effectiveness, HR technologies.

Cost of participation in the event: 27700 rub.

Location.

The market for remote services is growing by 10-15% annually. The market for remote services in marketing, software development, website design and promotion is developing especially rapidly. This growth is driving the accelerated recruitment of remote workers and the formation of work teams. To make the mechanism of remote cooperation effective, in managing remote personnel, the manager or manager needs to apply team building skills and special software, which optimizes team work on the project and control of the time spent on it.

Benefits of managing remote teams

Outsourcing in any form saves resources for the enterprise, it does not create additional jobs, does not bear the cost of renting premises and equipment (). Outsourcing remote staff services has several other advantages:

• the ability to hire the best specialists on the market and pay them only for the hours actually worked, and not for the full day;
• the opportunity to work with the best professionals from different cities and with different mindsets;
• the ability for one manager to manage several projects for several customers at the same time.

Modern methods of hiring (see), adaptation and motivation of personnel will help to make the project team even more effective.

The search for employees is most often carried out on freelance exchanges or using the mechanism social networks. In the second case, the advantage is more often given to those candidates who have already proven themselves in work in one of the remote teams or someone they know. This recruitment mechanism does not always work successfully.

When choosing an employee, you need to focus on his personal qualities, including:

• initiative;
• readiness for teamwork and independent interaction with team members;
• ability to work with technical means of communication and software products;
• willingness to work on the result, not on the process.

Pre-prepared surveys and tests will help identify such employees.

Adaptation and motivation of remote employees

A new team member is not immediately able to fit into an already established team. You need to spend time and effort on it. For this you need:

• create and provide them with a support service capable of promptly answering all questions;
• adapt newcomers to the established corporate culture of the team and its knowledge base with the help of webinars and trainings (see).

A team member already contributing to the team should have the potential to grow. This will become the main core for his motivation. Other motivational tools can be:

• introduction of a system of grades (levels career development), in which the employee grows from a beginner to a guru;
• the assignment of managerial functions to him;
• training in related specialties and expanding the scope of work, and, hence, the pay fund.

Remote training for remote employees

Remote employee training is becoming the primary means of enhancing the remote employee. Small teams cannot always afford to pay for additional courses. The solution to the problem can be the organization of webinars and trainings, corporate training, following the successful completion of which the employee's grade will increase. It is important that training does not become a waste of time, which, moreover, will not be paid, but a natural stepping stone for growth. Its results should be recorded in the employee's portfolio and reflected in his remuneration.

Remote staff management

Any team requires quality management. No one will work independently more efficiently. Management includes:

• goal setting;
• distribution of responsibilities (see);
• allocation of resources;
• project progress control;
• acceptance of the result of work;
• quality control of work.

There are a number of principles, the application of which will make the work of a manager more efficient, more about them later in the article.

1. Establishing stable working channels of communication. This can be any group chat in the messenger or Skype, or some CRM systems allow you to hold group meetings. For group communication, the time must be determined initially and not change throughout the work on the project.
2. Voice communication. The voice has the ability to convey more shades of meaning than the text, and with its help it is easier to motivate or convey the most important messages. In addition, voice communication increases the sense of ownership among employees.
3. Collegiate discussion. All important project milestones should be discussed in a group chat. This creates an understanding of common tasks among employees and responsibility for their implementation.
4. Using programs for joint work (or platforms like WeVue) for collaborating on a project, where everyone can see its stages and the share of their work and responsibility for it.
5. Creation of an internal project blog. This communication and feedback mechanism can easily be turned into a means of informal communication and creating a team with its own traditions and entertainment.
6. Formation of a unified corporate culture - cm. .
7. Use of video conferencing. This allows you to create a sense of unity.
8. Unobtrusive but total control remote employees and project time with the help of modern technical means.
9. Arrangement of part of the control functions on employees.
10. Accounting for differences in traditions and cultures different members of the team, some of the Muscovite's jokes will not be understood in Tyumen, and the artist will not always appreciate the developer's humor.

10 common mistakes in management. How to control remote employees without typical problems?

Manager's mistakes can lead to the failure of the project. Better not to do them. Among the most typical:

1. Imposing your opinion. Any manager always considers himself smarter than his employees, since he is the boss. At the same time, when hiring a professional, it is a priori assumed that in terms of their competencies, he is superior to other candidates and knows a little more. We must let him show his own skills, and not impose the opinion of the boss.
2. Too much control. In managing remote employees, meetings, final, intermediate and daily reports often take an employee more time than working on a project. This burden must be reasonable.
3. Errors over time. Employees can work in different time zones and communication time should be convenient for everyone.
4. Lack of feedback. Each employee should be able to reach out to the manager with their tasks and problems.
5. "Mushroom management". The slogan “Keep them in the dark, feed them false information and hope they grow up doesn't work with professionals. Information about the progress of the project and its objectives should be timely and reliable.
6. Insufficient remote control of the work of employees. Without strict deadlines and control over their observance, without analysis of the time of work on each stage, the deadlines for the project can be disrupted.
7. Use of different platforms and software tools for different team members.
8. Selection of favorites and losers. The grading system should be objective and transparent.
9. Lack of clear quality criteria acceptance of work.
10. No contact manager any time of the day.

10 useful services (programs, applications) to control employees and organize their work

It is impossible to manage remote personnel without technical means. 10 software products will help you do this effectively:

1. Wrike. Service for project management, setting tasks and controlling the time of work on them. With Rayk you can work with large teams, set priorities, track the progress of tasks. It is available both as a web version and as an app for iOS and Android.
2. worksection. Ideal System for digital companies. Allows you to take into account time, control collaboration, has CRM functionality. With its help, you can conduct large system projects.
3. asana. A web application with versions for mobile devices, with which you can set the work of small teams. Simplified analogue of Wrike. Uber is successfully used in working with taxis.
4. Slack. Program for team communication. A corporate messenger positioning itself as a "killer of Skype" and intracorporate mail. Suitable for all team-building tasks and reporting.
5. Bitrix 24. Free system for project management and time control. The paid version has project management capabilities in teams, similar to Microsoft Project, in free - group chat and messenger integrates with social networks. Allows you to set tasks and track progress.
6. Megaplan. Russian cloud collaboration program, there are paid and free versions. You can set tasks and track progress, there is a time control function.
7. Jira. Program for teamwork, a system for resolving operational issues and tracking errors with advanced capabilities for project management.
8. Trello. Program for organization design work small groups developed by Fog Creek Software. Based on the business ideology of the Kanban project management system, work with mobile devices is supported.
9. Kickidler. A program for monitoring human behavior at the computer. Its installation makes sense if the manager is interested in the time spent at the workplace, and not in thinking about the issue or creating an idea. AT certain cases may be regarded as an invasion of privacy.
10. staffcop. A program for monitoring working time, it monitors and analyzes all actions on the computer, but for analysis it offers to use the reports of the user himself. Increases the discipline of employees.

Remote Employee Management - Interesting Facts

For those learning how to manage a remote team, the following facts may be helpful:

• over the past 10 years, the number of employees working remotely in the US has increased by 115%;
• media company Makeshift, which works with remote employees in 80 countries, has become the world leader in the number of exclusive materials, sometimes obtained from dangerous locations;
• a "no-work-at-home-work" memo issued by Marissa Mayer, a top executive at Yahoo, urging workers to return to the office had no success and was cancelled.

Remote teams are the future! The task of the present is to effectively build their work!

Managing remote employees is hard, but the right books and methodologies can make the process a lot easier. Toggl HR manager Evelyn Andrespok spoke about the mistakes she made as a remote team leader.

1. I didn't work remotely myself.

The first remote employee joined our team two weeks after me. We continued to actively hire remote workers for the next fifteen months. All this time I worked in an office in Tallinn. This was partly due to the fact that I performed the duties of an office manager and I enjoyed interacting with people in real life.

Then I went on a long trip to the USA and worked from home there. It was very difficult to be in a different time zone - to wake up eight hours after the start of the working day in Europe and read tons of discussions in the morning. Sometimes the team made big decisions while I was sleeping. I couldn't communicate properly with colleagues and missed all the fun. This isolation made me feel abandoned and alone.

After the trip, I increasingly began to work from home. It helped me figure out how to strike a balance between in-office and remote staff. Today I hardly go to work. I can say the same about my other colleagues who live in Tallinn. We can collectively stop working in the office at once, and productivity will not suffer from this.

Lesson learned: as an HR manager, you need to put yourself in the shoes of your employees and immerse yourself in their work environment. This should be done as early as possible. In fact, anyone who works side by side with remote workers needs to spend more time away from the office in order to better understand their colleagues.

2. I didn't document processes

In a small company where all employees work in an office, it is always clear how the organization works and what its policies are. If you don't know something, you can ask a colleague. In a remote team, this is much more difficult.

When we switched to remote work, it was obvious that it was difficult for new employees to understand how the company worked. And while I created a document that covered basic HR topics, everyone still had a lot of questions.

At the very beginning, I could not foresee how a lack of information could slow down our progress. Now I understand that when things are not documented, you will spend a lot of time answering the same questions over and over again. Lack of clarity and transparency will definitely lead to misunderstandings.

Lesson learned: there must be one true source of information that will concern everyone. Document as many processes as possible and explain company policies in clear and understandable language.

3. I focused on remote work, not remote management

Four years ago, none of our team had experience working remotely. We've spent way too much time figuring out how to stay focused and maximize productivity while working from home. We just didn't know what to do.

At that time, there was little information about remote work, but we found some inspiring examples. For example, we gave each employee copies of the books “Remote. Office is not required by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson and Scott Berkun's Year Without Trousers. These stories gave us confidence that we did not go crazy with our idea.

In retrospect, I realize that we probably put too much effort into figuring out how to work remotely, but didn't figure out how to manage remotely properly. The secret of effective management in any company is good leadership and effective feedback. Almost anyone can easily work from home if the manager clearly defines the goals and gives clear feedback.

Managing remote teams is more difficult because communication is severely limited. How can you determine the mood of an employee in a Slack chat? Also, it's hard to keep track of everyone's goals and progress and not waste time micromanaging and checking.

Soon after the formation of the teams, the team leaders had to have regular one-on-one conversations with their employees. Now I understand that it would be possible to invite coaches - an independent opinion helps a lot. It is impossible to become a good leader by reading just one book. Only systematic training will help managers develop faster and adapt to the new environment.

It would be unfair to say that the team leads were not able to quickly adapt to their new roles, but I could simplify this process. Now I'm doing more trainings and compiling a guide for team leads. Of course, there is still a lot to be done, but it is clear that all leaders need a support system from day one.

Lesson learned: in a remote team, building a strong management culture should be a top priority. Professional leaders will set the right goals, support and inspire employees to do their best, no matter where they come from.

Small businesses and start-ups often have to rely on the services of remote employees, which greatly reduces the cost of doing business. Especially often designers, accountants and support staff are hired remotely. Many people are suitable for successful coordination of such employees. general principles personnel management. At the same time, in order to make the work of this kind of team as efficient as possible, in addition to traditional methods management needs to use new strategies, as well as modern digital tools. In this article, we will share a few tips for managing a remote team.

Make Serial Communications Your #1 Priority

To be successful with a remote team, you need to make your employees feel as engaged as possible. When they are not in your sight, this is not an easy task. The key to its solution is constant communication, thanks to which each employee will feel part of a close-knit team.

1. Daily meetings will help employees feel that you really care about how their work is going and show that you support them.
2. Equally important is the weekly Feedback. Especially if you give it not in the form of strict and formal meetings, but in the format of online meetings, in which you sum up the results of the week together, discuss tasks and ideas for the next week, and also praise your employees for their current work.
3. Quarterly reviews also contribute to strengthening the remote team. During them, you can analyze the current performance, outline further plans for development.

Choose the best digital tools

Whether you are a large company or a startup, you will benefit from using modern technologies and services. For efficient work, you will need services for setting and tracking tasks, collaborating on projects and discussing them, sharing and editing documents.

1. To discuss projects as a corporate communication channel, you can use group chats in Slack, Telegram, Whatsapp.
2. For collaborating on documents, scheduling meetings and video calls, Google services - Drive, Hangouts and Google Meet are suitable.
3. To manage the tasks of a remote team, we recommend using
4. For joint discussion of projects online, there are such tools as Join.me, GoToMeeting.

Spare no resources for face-to-face meetings

When working with a remote team, it is very important to make time for face-to-face meetings. Hold offline events in which all your employees will participate. This will allow you to more effectively rally the existing team.

Clearly allocate roles and responsibilities

When you clearly distribute the roles in the team and determine the sequence of work, there will be much less cases of misunderstanding, and your employees will be able to plan their work correctly. working time and prioritize your tasks. Most people who successfully work remotely are self-organized and disciplined. But even the most confident organized employees may feel anxious if their roles and responsibilities are blurred. Therefore, before starting work with each new remote employee, indicate what expectations and requirements you have for him. Be sure to provide the following information in a timely manner:

• A clear statement of tasks and weekly tasks, contacts of team members who can help
• Where tasks are fixed and what is an indicator of the effectiveness of their implementation
• Monthly/quarterly plan to be followed
• Contacts of the company's internal support service (or a competent person) for resolving questions and any remote problems, as well as a superior person who can always be contacted
• Information sheet for employees: positions and contact information (email, phone numbers, social networks, etc.)

Visually demonstrate their contribution to the development of the company

Now is not the time when people stay working in the same company for decades. Therefore, it is important to motivate employees to develop in a particular company and clearly show how much they contribute to its growth. When people feel involved in the success of the company, their work continues to produce results and be effective for a longer time.

The main advice for managing a team is to know each employee well and perceive him as an individual, because there is no team that would consist of the same people. Use the best tools available to stay connected, clarify expectations and roles, and remember to support and guide employees. Then your remote team will become a truly valuable asset.