Since 2020, much of the world has been forced to adopt a work-from-home model, and post-pandemic, remote work continues. This has brought about many challenges, particularly as employers seek ways to track the productivity of employees working from home. If you are experienced in managing remote employees, you likely already have systems and processes in place for measuring remote employee productivity.

The line between tracking employees and micromanaging is not always clear. It’s crucial to communicate with your team about how you plan to track their performance. Ensuring visibility into the projects employees are working on is essential, while also providing them with the freedom and space to work. Establishing healthy communication with the team before implementing performance improvement plans and delivering results from home is essential. Make sure you are clear on the communication methods you plan to use and set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound) together with the team. Whether you are working with office-based staff or remote workers, ensuring your team is set up for success starts with setting SMART goals.

Managing Remote Team Performance

In the realm of remote team performance management, there are several key areas you should focus on:

• Four key areas of performance management
• How to set KPIs for remote workers
• Best implementation practices
• Tools for tracking work performance
• An effective performance management plan has many benefits, including cost reduction, increased productivity, and providing a healthy work/life balance. Before delving deeper, let’s first understand the practical implications of performance management.

What is Performance Management for Remote Workers?

Companies often find performance management confusing, thinking it’s solely about tracking tasks and supervising productivity. While this is a significant part, they fail to recognize the limited quantifiable metrics used for tracking performance management.

Performance management is not just about tracking tasks; it’s an ongoing process of assessment and reporting between employees and employers. Regular performance evaluations give employers the chance to reevaluate an employee’s progress and the actions they are taking to achieve overall company objectives. These assessments help companies gauge their employees’ performance to ensure the accomplishment of the organization’s strategic goals. They also provide an opportunity for realignment for both the employee and employer.

Simply switching to organizational tools isn’t the only solution for managing employee performance. The method for measuring the productivity of remote workers is to follow the four key areas of performance management and set well-defined OKRs and KPIs for your team.

The 4 Key Areas of Successful Performance Management

The four most important key areas for managing the performance of remote teams are:

1. Planning, Prioritization, and Goal Setting
2. Supervision and Reporting
3. Skill Development and Improvement
4. Rewards and Compensation

Planning, Prioritization, and Goal Setting

The best way to set up a remote team for success is by establishing clear priorities. Setting goals and Key Results (OKRs) will help break down the priorities for the quarter. Each remote employee should decide on 3-5 objectives that align with the company’s goals. The next step is to ensure that you know how to track the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each OKR (we will further explore this in this article).

Supervision and Reporting

Before you track the performance of remote employees, decide which supervision methods and reporting systems you will use. Here are some:

Managerial Reports – Comments from the employer’s superiors. Senior management assessment is crucial to ensure the achievement of KPIs and OKRs.

Self-assessment – Employees self-assess their performance.

180-degree and 360-degree assessment – One of the most accurate performance measurement methods, it combines self-assessment, peer assessment, subordinate assessment, and superior assessment.

Skill Development and Improvement

Through performance evaluations, employees can see areas they need to improve. Additionally, based on the information gathered from employee performance, employers can help support them in realizing their full potential. The responsibility for performance improvement lies with both the employee and the employer. If your company’s budget allows it, giving employees the opportunity to attend additional courses and/or workshops to enhance their skills will allow them to develop further in their roles.

Rewards and Compensation

Companies can choose to implement reward programs based on the performance level of remote employees. Some options for rewards and compensation are:

End-of-month bonuses

Thank-you gifts

Additional days off

Vouchers (for dining, coffee, shopping, etc.)

Tracking KPIs and Metrics for Remote Team Performance

Selecting the right KPIs and metrics to track the performance of remote teams ensures you stay on target. In addition to monthly KPIs, your remote team should also set weekly KPIs. Close monitoring of progress is crucial. With all your employees working remotely, it often takes longer to correct the course, making it essential to monitor progress closely and take action quickly when things shift.

Setting department-specific KPIs becomes even more critical when collaborating with remote teams to align with company goals. Aim to set between 5-10 KPIs. While KPIs will be shared across departments, most KPIs should be role-specific. For sales, track call volumes, customer conversion rates, or income per sales representative. For marketing, the number of marketing qualified leads generated, customer acquisition costs, and return on investment. Each team has its own set of indicators, and performance assessments should be based on this.

The best way to track team performance and monitor the established KPIs is to use performance management software. Automating the accurate measurement of productivity for remote workers and continuously monitoring performance becomes much easier.

How to Track Productivity While Working from Home: Best Practices

Managing remote workers isn’t necessarily easy, but it doesn’t have to be overly challenging either. With the right expectations, communication, employee supervision, and check-ins, tracking productivity and performance will prove to be smooth.

• Set Clear Expectations and Communicate: Tracking employee performance starts with clearly defining employees’ expectations and which aspects of their performance will be monitored. Let your employees know the frequency of these assessments and how they will be conducted.
• Ensure an Appropriate Workload: One reliable way to see your team succeed is to set realistic goals for them. This doesn’t mean setting simple, easily achievable goals but rather making them realistic.
• Support Their Autonomy: Tracking the performance of remote workers can seem overly intrusive if you’re using GPS trackers on their devices, monitoring all their communications, tracking the sites they visit, etc.
• Employee Supervision: Using software to track remote employee performance is crucial to understanding the needs and challenges of the team.
• Focus on Tangible and Intangible Performance Indicators: Some companies fail to see the full picture of performance, only focusing on the numbers. In many positions, essential performance indicators like customer engagement and customer satisfaction are often overlooked.
• Schedule Check-ins: Making time for regular check-ins is crucial for helping to correct the course when needed. Without regular check-ins, employees may feel unsupported, losing motivation, resulting in decreased productivity.
• While the above are a set of best practices, one of the most crucial practices for employers when tracking remote workers is to focus on employee attendance delivery. If employees perform well and consistently deliver work to the highest standard on time, strict attendance practices shouldn’t be required. Focusing more on deliverables rather than attendance not only allows employees to take control of their day but also makes them feel a greater sense of ownership. As a result, their performance often significantly improves.