5 Remote Work Management Fears

If your brick-and-mortar company is considering going remote, there are sure to be some concerns that will arise. One such concern revolves around the remote work management. And while it might seem almost impossible to make the transition—it isn’t!

Some of today’s top remote companies shared their own management fears about remote work with Remote.co.

Here’s what they were most afraid of in going remote—and more importantly, how they handled it to become successful remote organizations!

A remote staff might mess up your brand.

You’ve painstakingly taken the time to build your business from the (virtual) ground up, thought out your mission statement, and created an image that represents your company. Now, you’re concerned that a remote worker might come along and screw all of that up. Amie O’Shaughnessy, CEO of Ciao Bambino, feels your pain. “Trust is a big fear and challenge,” said O’Shaughnessy. “At the end of the day, as a business owner of a remote team, you aren’t there to babysit what your team is doing and saying…and they are a reflection of your brand.” To ensure your brand stays sparkling clean, take time during the job hiring process to find candidates who align with your company’s mission, culture, and plans for overall success—not candidates who simply want to get hired so they can work from home.

Your team is sooo far away.

When you have all of your coworkers in the same office, it’s easy to reach out and ask a question. But what if that person is thousands of miles away? “My first opportunity to manage a full-time employee came at Fire Engine RED! I had previously supervised contractors and freelancers…but now I was going to have my first actual direct report! And he lives 3,000 miles away!” says Chuck Vadun, communications director at Fire Engine RED.

While you might think that having distance—and oceans—separating you from your team will make management difficult, think again. Utilizing technology and fostering strong communication between you and your staff can help make the miles melt away. Vadun found the same to be true: “I’m happy to say that none of the drawbacks I’ve read about with regard to managing remote employees have manifested. In fact, my direct report and I have developed an excellent rapport, via IM, conference calls, and one-on-one Skype chats.”

They’re not going to be productive.

By far, this is one of the biggest fears of any (and every) remote manager. You might do your due diligence during the interview process, hire one of the top talents out there…and after awhile, find that his productivity plummets. That’s initially what Brian Patterson, partner at Go Fish Digital, thought, too: “Our biggest fear was that if we weren’t sitting right next to employees, it would be hard to ensure they are executing at the level we would expect,” admits Patterson. “However, we’ve found that if you hire the right people and empower them to be successful, they will work at or beyond what you expect of them because they view remote work as a privilege.”

You won’t be able to find them.

Having a remote workforce means that your employees can really work from anywhere, not just their home office. Thing is, what if you urgently need them—and can’t find them? “I think my biggest fears are when we lose touch with someone,” says Ann MacDonald, director of content strategy at LoveToKnow. “Every once in a while, someone will just ‘disappear’—they don’t answer emails, phone calls, or other contact. In those instances, I’m left wondering—“Are they dead or just flaky?” Jokes aside, it’s no laughing matter when remote workers go MIA. But Inspired HR’s CEO & founder, Debby Carreau, found a solution using shared calendars, telecommunication, and shared technology to help keep virtual workers connected, and more importantly, reachable!

Your team will be unhappy—and you won’t know it.

Without having a proverbial water cooler to hang and chat around, it can be hard to gauge how your remote staff is feeling. Are they being challenged in their roles with the company? Have they outgrown their positions? Do they feel like they are an integral part of the workforce? Are they having personal issues that you don’t know about? It’s important to know if your staff is happy or not, says Anthony Thomas, CEO of Sticker Mule. “My biggest concern is worrying about the happiness of our team members. It’s easy to tell how someone is feeling in person,” says Thomas.

So take the time to schedule regular check-ins with your staffers, for both business and personal assessments. Find out how they feel about their workload, if they are happy with their position, or if there are any particular assignments they’d like to be doing but currently aren’t. In addition to professional meetings, create some fun virtual coffee chats with your workers where you can talk about anything except work. Not only will it give them a sense of community, but you’ll also be able to tell who is happy and engaged—and who isn’t. Thomas says he’s been contemplating creating a survey “to gauge internal satisfaction to overcome the challenge of monitoring workplace happiness with a remote team.”

There will always be challenges when managing any kind of staff, and a remote workforce is no different. It’s easy to see, though, that any concerns you might have can be easily solved so that you can create a powerful, cohesive, and happy remote team that is productive and up to any challenge!