Seven top tips for managing your virtual employees

Working with virtual employees can be difficult at best, and an experience that turns out to be an absolute nightmare at worst! When things go wrong with your virtual staff, you’ll want to rip your hair out of your head with complete and utter frustration.

At times, it might feel like it’s impossible to track your team and keep on top of everything that they are doing. Sometimes a team member will start off strong and then slowly fade away as time goes by. Other times team members will quit out of the clear blue sky without any warning.

With our years of experience working with dozens of virtual employees, we’d like to share our tried-and-tested strategies to make it easier to manage global virtual employees remotely.

Here are our favorite tips, in no particular order.

Set up a chat room for virtual team members

Keep it open at all times. If you have multiple teams, set up individual chat rooms specific to each team. Encourage members to ask questions, leave messages important to the team, and enjoy conversing with each other. This will help your team stay connected and on the same page at all times.

Recommended reading: set up an HRMS which works for your remote workers with our nine steps to HRMS implementation success.

Use screen sharing tools with your virtual staff

At times, virtual employees might find it hard to figure out what you’re asking of them. You can use screen sharing tools that will allow you to share your screen with everyone. It will make it easier for you to show and explain what’s needed so that your staff completely understand what is required of them.

Set up and use a project management system

It’s one thing to create a project management system, and a whole other thing to actually use it. Set the system up so that everything is organized and in its right place. This will make it easy to share files and keep the whole project structured.

Use video when necessary

It’s often hard to explain something to someone in text form. Video tools will help you create materials that you can share with your staff through the training module in your HRMS. These make it easier for staff members to understand your point, and are excellent tools for managing the learning and development of your remote workforce.

Track output

It’s always important to measure workflow and productivity. By tracking output, you’ll know exactly what each team member is doing and can adjust your practices accordingly to compensate in areas that are lacking.

Use time tracking productivity tools

Creating a virtual timesheet is a crucial step towards success. Use a time and attendance tool to track hours worked, productivity, attendance and more. You’ll know exactly what you’re virtual team members are doing and how much they need to be compensated for their work.

Pay your virtual team members a fair wage

The better you pay your virtual employees, the harder they’ll work for you. If you want the best effort from each member of your team, keep them happy by paying them a fair wage typically above the norm.

Use these virtual employee management tips to create a team atmosphere. Not only will it help you easily manage your team, but it will create camaraderie and a sense of belonging.