If you’re in the HR industry and cut your teeth in a conventional office environment where the need for a remote work policy was never a thing, it’s safe to say you’re one of billions of humans who were thrown for a bit of a loop this year.
Fortunately, there are reasons to be optimistic – 2020 has been a wild ride, but then again there were plenty of silver linings as well.
For one thing, the extremely wonderful and much swoon-worthy Chris Hemsworth recorded this little motivational gem (just do yourself a favour and bookmark it straight away), and for another, many businesses have realised that working with a distributed team can actually improve everything from customer satisfaction to employee engagement.
In fact, according to statistics gleaned from the most recent Gallup State of the American Workplace report, the engagement levels of remote workers stand at 32%, which is a small but significant step up from the 28% reported by office workers.
Read more: The HR manager’s guide to managing remote teams
However, while flexible work and remote collaboration holds a variety of benefits for businesses and employees alike, it also calls for a very structured approach to both people and time management from a human resources point of view. This is why every forward-thinking company should have a remote work policy in place.
Here are ten things that should be included in your business’ remote work policy:
1. Who is eligible?
First things first, it has to be acknowledged that not every employee will be eligible to work from home, simply due to the nature and responsibilities of many positions. Companies should analyse their work and operational models to determine which positions can and should be fulfilled off site, and state this clearly in their remote work policy.
If none of the jobs offered by a given enterprise can be performed remotely, this should be stated during the interview process to eliminate the likelihood of requests in future.
2. The ins and outs of availability
Expectations with regard to availability should be plotted out clearly for remote positions. Depending on the nature of your business, this could be a standard 09:00 to 17:00 arrangement, or it may have to be agreed upon and firmed up with each employee individually if there is the potential to accommodate your workforce with flexi hours.
3. Rules regarding responsiveness
Responsiveness can quickly become a sore point among a dispersed team if there are certain employees who take too long to respond, which, in turn, can affect their co-workers’ ability to complete their work on time due to certain dependencies that aren’t in place.
As such, a remote work policy should clearly state which modes of communication are to be used for inter-employee communication, and specific rules should be in place with regard to acceptable response times (both inside and outside of standard office hours).
4. The measures of productivity
Productivity can be measured in a number of ways among remote teams. Whether you choose to look at time or hours spent per project, number of calls logged, or whatever makes sense for your business in particular, you need to be clear about KPIs and how this will be measured straight off the bat.
Speaking of productivity – employee recognition and reward should not be neglected just because your team happens to be off site. Take a look at our innovative SaaS-based employee engagement platform to see how easy it can be to recognise good work in a timeous and individualised way. There’s even a FREE trial so you can try before you buy.
Read more: How to build high-performance teams for enhanced productivity
5. Equipment agreements
The ability of a remote worker to do their job well hinges on the tools they have at their disposal. As such, a remote work policy should clearly state what type of equipment will be provided by the company, and which tools employees will have the option of buying/renting for themselves with or without financial support from the business. In certain cases, companies could also ‘rent’ equipment from employees.
6. Remote tech support
Be sure to stipulate whether employees who work from home are eligible to receive tech support from your on-site IT team and how they should go about logging.
Read more: 3 Ways SaaS supports the distributed workforce
7. Termination guidelines
As with any employee agreement, a remote working policy should address the matter of rightful termination and what this means for a dispersed team member. Since there are many managers who prefer to work with an on-site team, it’s important to provide remote employees with written proof that they cannot be terminated simply for choosing this option.
8. Guidelines for a physical environment
In most cases, employers may not have an express preference when it comes to the physical environment their employees choose as a home office. However, there are certain companies who like to approve it due to certain health and safety issues pertaining to the nature of the work an employee may conduct in the course of their daily duties. If this is the case at your place of work, it needs to be clearly stipulated in the remote work policy.
9. Data security
Data security is one of the most important aspects employers should address with remote employees. Secure networks are tricky enough to maintain on-site, so when data is handled from a remote destination there have to be clear rules in place about firewalls and working on private Wifi, etc.
10. Confidentiality of client work
Client confidentiality goes hand-in-hand with data security and also has to be a part of the written agreement with remote workers. By stating directly that employees who work remotely aren’t allowed to conduct meetings with clients in public spaces (for instance) it makes it easier to control behaviour that could become risky down the line.
Following these guidelines when you tailor a remote work policy will make all the difference when it comes to supporting your distributed team.
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