Empowering Remote Employees to Be Part of the Team with Tech

Working from home has become more widely accepted as technology has improved and the ability to work from home has become more accessible. According to research, 2.5 percent of the workforce spends at least half of their time working from home, a 6.5 percent increase from 2013 to 2014 and a 103 percent increase since 2005. This suggests that more companies are allowing employees to work from home, and more employees are taking advantage of this perk.

The overwhelming sense is that employees working from home are happier, most likely due to the fact that they are grateful for the flexibility working from home allows. Employees are more satisfied, less stressed and ever better at their job – likely due to the fact that they are working harder to show that they aren’t abusing the fact that they are working from home.

According to Sarah K. White in a recent article from CIO.com, one of the downsides to the new telecommuting workforce is that work from home employees have struggled in maintaining strong relationships with coworkers. This is a problem, as collaboration and small-team efforts have been emphasized across the board in many companies. It’s important for employees to remain in contact, even if that contact is remote, in order to facilitate the open-office, collaborative style that many companies (especially those that allow telecommuting) have adopted.

Even more so, establishing a good relationship with coworkers and employees builds trust, which leads to a more cohesive work environment (digital and physical) and better results on whole. White mentions that it isn’t terribly difficult to establish these relationships, even while working from home. Remote employees want to become more than “a name on an email chain.” This means reaching out to coworkers to ask how their vacation went, how their sick relative is doing, how their child’s dance recital went – the same stuff you would do in the office, just a more concerted effort to do so. It also means utilizing technology that brings you closer to your coworkers and employees.

Videoconferencing is the biggest proponent of building strong relationships for remote workers. While audio conferencing makes it easy to communicate, becoming a voice in a box can be just as problematic as being a name on an email chain. Videoconferencing allows people to speak ‘face-to-face’ through a digital medium. This means adding body language and facial cues to the conversation. It also means putting a face to the name and the voice, creating a fully-realized person that coworkers can consider, work with and trust. Microsoft Lync, Google Hangouts and Skype are all cheap ways to introduce videoconferencing into the office, while more sophisticated systems like Polycom’s RealPresence or Cisco products can add quality, reliability and security for a premium.

Collaboration technologies can also be introduced to add value to employee relationships. Working together on a project brings people closer together, but starting and stopping, waiting for one employee to finish his portion so you can finish yours, and constant back and forth can slow the process and frustrate employees. Remote workers that are able to log into presentations and participate by introducing or manipulating content become a benefit to teams where they could have been a hindrance. Just make sure to purchase a system that allows for user devices to participate (once again Polycom Realpresence is a good fit for this, but Cisco, Prysm, Oblong, Jupiter Systems, and many more companies offer products that fit these needs as well).

All the technology in the world won’t help if remote employees aren’t available, though. Setting a schedule for when you are available and maintaining that schedule is a must. By working together, being on time and utilizing technology, remote employees can be as successful as those in-office, and maybe even more productive.

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