Millions of employees work outside the office, whether on the road or from home. How can managers maintain the productivity of “invisible” staffers who are not physically in the workplace?

Advances in digital technology and telecommunications have led to a sizable chunk of the workforce leaving the office to work from home or on the road. Many of today’s employees spend at least part, or sometimes the majority, of their time telecommuting. But the physical absence of these employees from the workplace presents certain challenges.

How does a boss manage employees who aren’t there, track their progress and keep them productive without daily, face-to-face interaction?

Ten percent of workers in the United States telecommute at least once a week, up from 7 percent in 2007, while 6 percent telecommute for the entire workweek, up from 4 percent in 2007, according to a recent survey from CareerBuilder.com.

“With mass adoption of smart phones and advanced network technologies, telecommuters are connected to their offices like never before. As a result, we’re seeing more companies embrace the work-from-home option and more workers putting in full-time hours while at home,” Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, notes. “However, to avoid situations where telecommuters aren’t putting in the necessary time, managers need to be clear about expectations and establish daily objectives. The autonomy of working from home can be very rewarding so long as it doesn’t diminish productivity.”

Telecommuting employees tend to be divided about how much location affects their productivity. The survey found that 29 percent of telecommuters believe they are more productive when working from home, while 37 percent say they are more productive at the office and 34 percent claim they are equally productive in both areas.

However, 17 percent of telecommuters report working only one hour or less in a typical day, compared to just 2 percent in the overall workforce. At the opposite end of the spectrum, 48 percent of all workers report working eight hours or more per day, while only 35 percent of telecommuters report working that long.

There is clearly a disparity in productivity levels between those working from home and those working in the office, and much of that can be attributed to the wide range of distractions that present themselves outside the workplace.

According to CareerBuilder, the BNET explains. “But it’s folly to think that the workday will proceed exactly as it would if you did have childcare — and madness to try that every day, or even twice a week to save money.”

Closer managerial oversight of telecommuting employees can help overcome many of these obstacles to productivity and workflow. CareerBuilder’s Hiring Site blog offers the following tips for supervising “invisible” workers:

• Acknowledge any discomfort. No matter your personality type, you’re bound to feel a bit strange dealing with workers you rarely see. Use the opportunity to expand your managerial style to better fit the telecommuting culture.
• Evaluate work requests objectively. Handle telecommuter work requests like any other business decision, and always focus on the business’s needs rather than the requester’s reasoning.
• Explain your decisions. Whenever you say “yes” or “no” to a telecommuter’s idea, provide details about how and why you arrived at the decision.
• Set team values and document them. Outline the behaviors that are expected and agreed upon by the members of the team, and provide a physical document for remote employees to review. This is a useful way for team members to keep each other accountable.
• Harness technology. Use virtual tools, such as project management software and CRM technology, to enable remote employees to collaborate with each other and with workers in the office.
• Track performance. Set goals and specific deadlines, then communicate them clearly to every telecommuter to help make sure everyone is on the same page for an assignment. Check in regularly to track each telecommuter’s progress and keep them on task.
• Communicate deliberately. Body language is absent when communicating with telecommuters, so that makes it important to stay in close touch with them and be more forthright and direct than you usually would during in-person encounters.
• Build team unity. Telecommuters will perform considerably better when they feel a strong sense of community and united purpose with their team. If others are depending on them, they’ll be more aware that their work matters.

“It may seem that managing telecommuters is a lot of extra work, taking time that you don’t have to spare. In truth, it may take a little extra time at first, but you’ll find that the results that your telecommuters produce will make that time well spent,” Susan Seitel, president of HR consulting firm Work & Family Connection, writes at Microsoft.com. “And take it from those who’ve experienced managing this arrangement: These more results-oriented methods may help your non-telecommuting employees produce their best work, too.”

Earlier

The Rise of Digital Nomads

7 Tips for Productive Telecommuting

Resources

Nearly One-in-Five Americans Who Work from Home Spend One Hour a Day or Less Working…
CareerBuilder.com, Sept. 15, 2011

The Worst Reason to Work from Home
by Laura Vanderkam
BNET, Oct. 11, 2011

Managing People You Can’t See: A Cheat Sheet
by Mary Lorenz
The Hiring Site (CareerBuilder.com), July 5, 2011

Tips for Managing Teleworkers
by Susan Seitel
Microsoft.com