By Jessica Santos
The best way to go about implementing a monitoring policy is to:
- Establish a goal from the beginning and use it to guide your policy
- Remain transparent through the process to keep your team in the loop
- Tailor the policy to your team and acquire software that they’re comfortable with
- Adjust accordingly after evaluating the effects of your new policy
A good remote working policy comes down to what works best for you and your team.
Few people could have seen this coming; the importance of remote working to slow the spread of COVID-19. Many businesses had to send their workforce away to continue business operations at home. Working from home is a safe alternative to commuting to the office, but also creates new issues some project managers may not have faced before.
Work from home challenges
Transitioning to work from home has its own challenges since team members must practice even more self-discipline now that their colleagues are not around. It also requires employees to carve a space out at home to focus on their work.
On top of that, many may have stress and anxiety surrounding the state of our world and find it hard to push through the day.
Doctors and psychologists both recognize that our “new normal” is taking a toll on many aspects of our health and difficulty to keep up productivity, is expected. For project managers in the era of COVID-19, it’s important to strike a balance between being empathetic with our team while also keeping our projects on track.
Remote Work Policy
This balance gets tricky when deciding how to keep track of your team and project progress. A remote work policy can include a set of protocols to follow, protections for the business as well as increased monitoring.
Setting clear expectations and protocols might be all some teams need to keep projects on track and to keep project managers in the loop. Requiring periodic check ins and status reports might be enough to keep track of your team without keeping a closer eye on them.
However, this might not be enough if you start to see things falling through the cracks, deadlines not being met and other red flags. These red flags can signal issues with productivity or more serious matters.
Uncertainty with remote working can partly be mitigated by getting some protections for your business. If you don’t already, you should consider fidelity bonds. These bonds protect you and your clients from employees who commit things like theft and embezzlement. Although assuming the worst can put you down a rabbit hole, implementing protections provides at least some peace of mind.
Monitoring and time tracking
Remote monitoring software helps project managers keep a pulse on projects and how efficiently tasks are executed. Time tracking software is simple and can help manage project scope while more advanced software can track online activity to ensure your team members are on track.
There are many risks and benefits associated with monitoring. On the plus side, you’ll have clear, unbiased oversight of your team. Consequently, some team members may feel stressed and may interpret the increased monitoring as a lack of trust. You can consider a hybrid of self-reporting and software monitoring to streamline some tasks while giving your team some control.
Decide if monitoring is necessary
JW Surety Bonds put together this flowchart to help you decide if you should begin monitoring your remote team. This decision map walks you through key questions and scenarios to think of before diving headfirst into a monitoring policy. Take a look at the flowchart below and see if monitoring is the right move at this time for your team.
Please
include attribution to JW Surety Bonds with this graphic.
