Setting Clear Expectations and Goals for Remote Employees

Though remote working is not new, the COVID pandemic made moving from physical to remote work more popular. Most companies had to make the shift to ensure their employees and clients remained safe during the period. 

Over the last couple of years, more companies have embraced working remotely as an essential part of business. However, managing a remote team of employees takes work.

To thrive in this new environment, a company must understand how to set new goals and expectations that foster productivity. So, what should business owners do to align their objectives to the remote work environment? 

Strategies to Help Set up Goals for Remote Employees

Here are a few strategies to help managers set clear and effective goals for their team.

1. Layout the Business's Expectations

Before creating any goals, entrepreneurs and managers must lay out their expectations for remote employees. 

Not every employee in the business can work remotely. Business owners should help employees understand the duties and roles of every team member, ensuring that the company stays afloat, even with some employees working out of the office. 

2. Create SMART Goals

The next thing employers need to do is formulate SMART goals to evaluate the business's success. It is not enough for employers to declare that they want their remote team to achieve a specific objective. The best way to ensure that business goals are clear is by using SMART goals. 

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. SMART goals provide the structure and support for what employees, including remote teams, need to achieve. 

Employers should formulate specific goals that have trackable progress. Additionally, these goals should have deadlines that the remote teams can adhere to while working on tasks. 

3. Provide Clear Instructions for Information Security

Employers must create clear guidelines for performing tasks and resource use while the team is out of the office. Information security is a huge issue while working out of the office, and the team needs to have clear guidelines on how information breaches can affect the company. 

Business owners should provide the relevant tools and information detailing the use of these tools while working remotely. These guidelines should include how and when they can use remote working tools. Additionally, they should inform the team about their responsibilities to maintain data security even when they are out of the office. 

Employees can also train remote employees on the best practices for using remote working tools and tracking their progress while working. 

4. Build on Communication

Employers should set communication goals for remote teams. Like other traditional business models, remote working relies heavily on communication to ensure everything runs effectively. 

Because asking for information is not a stone's throw away, remote teams need to constantly and effectively communicate with each other to ensure every task is up to par. Employers must cultivate an environment where remote teams can freely speak about their progress and collaborate without challenges. 

Business owners can use messaging platforms like Slack and Teams, where remote employees can openly talk about projects, progress on tasks, ask questions, and share ideas and concerns.

Video calls can also be useful when teams need a meeting to report any issues they might face.

Additionally, entrepreneurs can also embrace the use of shared job boards to check the progress of a project. Job boards can also reduce meetings and reports as any duties and milestones can be actively tracked, improving work efficiency. 

5. Creating Milestones and Breaking Down Tasks

Employers should encourage remote teams to break down large goals into smaller tasks and objectives. Working remotely opens up more room for distractions. Employees are more likely to concentrate on other things than work while away from the office. 

However, small milestones are likely to keep employees on track as they are only required to handle specific tasks at a time. It improves their productivity and ensures employees finish work in a timely fashion. 

Another benefit of breaking down goals into smaller tasks and milestones is that it makes it easy for both employers and remote employees to track their progress. By using key performance indicators (KPIs), teams can set defined and measurable outcomes that they can track using smaller tasks as indicators of their progression towards the overall goal. 

6. Adapting to Different Work Styles and Preferences

Furthermore, remote working often opens room for a more diverse team. One of the major challenges facing remote teams is having to work around different time zones, personal preferences, and working styles. 

Employers and employees need to respect the working style and preferences of other members to prevent bumping heads.

One of the ways to do this is by removing the notion of one-size-fits-all. Employers should take a flexible approach agreed upon beforehand to accommodate the remote team's schedule.

It should include asking for feedback on the most appropriate time to hold and schedule meetings. 

7. Review and Adjust Goals and Expectations

It is important to note that setting goals for a remote team is not a one-time event. On the contrary, managers should keep reviewing their goals based on the results of the performance indicators.

Remote working tools like job boards can also provide a great overview of how employees manage projects and tasks, which can improve decision-making and reevaluate goals for the team. 

Additionally, employers should solicit feedback from the team on their experience and productivity while working away from the office. It can keep the team in the loop during the planning and decision-making. 

In Conclusion

As more companies make the shift towards remote working, employers need to find a way to set clear objectives for their remote teams if their businesses are to succeed. Employers must find an effective way to manage remote employees and ensure they meet the company's goals. 

Business owners must establish clear business expectations, formulate SMART goals, and provide security and remote tool guidelines to prevent information breaches.

Additionally, employers need to enhance communication channels within the organisation, find a way to break down tasks into manageable milestones, formulate goals that adapt to diverse working styles, and review their goals frequently. 

By implementing these strategies, employers can foster productivity, maintain team cohesion, and ensure the success of remote work arrangements.

Check out our blog to learn more about practices that can help in decision-making and how to manage your team in a business environment.