BCA

Technology and business pressures have led to more and more managers needing to lead teams that work off site, in a different state, or are constantly in the field. Though a manager can no longer simply walk down the hall to talk to team members, the employee’s need for management is no less real. In fact, good management is even more important in remote environments than in traditional cubicles, conference rooms, and break rooms.

A distributed workforce requires different management techniques and skills to keep motivated, productive, on track, and trained. Although many management techniques and skills parallel those used in managing a centrally based workforce, there are 6 key additional techniques a manager needs to be successful in the remote environment.

1) Better communication

Often managers assume that they will have less communication with their employees when they are remote, but in fact, the reverse is true. Managers of a distributed workforce need more communication with their employees located off site.

Employees who work off-site can feel isolated, and they can have trouble adopting company standards and procedures. They can have higher turn-over, and even develop into loan wolfs that are unwilling to work in teams.

Increased communication counteracts this tendency, and helps each employee cohere with the rest of the company. Whether it comes by e-mail, text message, phone, fax, or a tin can and string, communication is essential. Remote managers need to make sure they are accessible to their employees by multiple avenues.

2) Establishing respect

Many remote managers make the mistake of trying to establish their credibility through demands and force- a type of “because I said so” approach. The managers fear their employees aren’t on the job, and this translates into overbearing micromanaging.

But when a manager has the employees’ respect and respects his/her employees in return, everyone benefits and the forcefulness of tone can be lessened.

Respect is created when managers give reasons and explanations for their actions, and the perspectives of the employees are valued. This doesn’t mean a manager needs to evoke consensus, but working to make sure everyone is on board or understands the reasoning behind a change will save time in the long run.

3) Building a team culture

Employees in a distributed workforce might not even have a desk in the main office, so it is no surprise that they may have trouble feeling like a part of a company or a team. Ironically, this feeling of inclusion is highly important to the success of company initiatives and overall motivation and morale.

Remote managers need to focus consciously on building a team community and culture for their employees. Managers can do this by fostering intra-team communication, creating partnerships amongst remote employees for projects, and by forming virtual water coolers and opportunities for small talk, re-living past successes, humor and experiences.

4) Creating accountability through self-monitoring

The hardest conundrum for most remote managers is how to ensure that the job is getting done without micro-managing. Many managers can overcompensate for the inherent disconnect of the remote environment by trying to control every aspect of their employee’s day.

This is, of course, counterproductive because it trains employees to be dependent on ever present management, when a remote employee actually needs the exact opposite skill. Remote employees need to be able to work independently, and managers need to train them along this end.

The key to growing an employee to work effectively in a remote environment is to help them be self motivated by providing clearly outlined goals, making them responsible for results, and generating individual accountability plans with a self-monitoring system.

5) Training

The speed at which a remote employee develops is more important than the speed of a traditional employee because cost of development is so much higher. Underperforming employees and miss hires can slip under the radar much more easily, and this can be very expensive.

On-boarding needs to be thorough and tuned to the employee’s position. Initial training should be conducted with face-to-face mentoring either by the manager or team peers to ensure the employee can work independently as soon as possible.

For all remote employees, on-going mentoring and training is critical to keep them connected to the company, goals and team. It also creates an opportunity to identify performance issues before they have escalated too far. Managers of field teams should think of each employee’s development as a continuous process, and use training as an opportunity for building relationships and evaluating performance.

6) Disciplining and conflicts

Resolving conflict between remote team members can be more difficult and take longer because there is less opportunity to build relationships and find common ground. The avoidance of good, productive conflict is also very tempting for remote teams who don’t have to interact daily.

Managers need to address conflicts as soon as possible, so the problems cannot grow and cause dissention among the team. It is important to address performance issues with individual employees as soon as possible.

Some remote managers try to ignore these issues until a more convenient time (out of sight, out of mind), but this can be devastating to a team’s morale.

Either someone is doing the extra work, or no one is doing it. Both possibilities are unacceptable.

The remote employee management environment doesn’t need to spell painful transitions for employees and corporations. By appreciating the difference in managing remote employees and implementing these unique skills, companies can be successful despite the challenges.

Please see http://www.mcstech.net/remote-employee-management.cfm for more information about managing remote employees.

MCS Training is based in Denver Colorado. We train in Management, Team Building, Softskills, Microsoft Office, and Project Management. We customize and design materials for clients nationwide. Please contact us for more information.

Drug use in the United States is rising at an alarming pace, and this is being felt in no greater place than the small American business.

While substance abuse is a valid concern for businesses of any size, smaller businesses are at a greater risk of drug abusers damaging or completely destroying the company. More drug abusers work there.
As far as American employees go as a whole, about half work at large corporations and the other half work at small business.

 The landscape shifts dramatically when looking at drug users. 90% of drug users work at small businesses. There’s more than one reason for this:

1: Smaller businesses often do not require new employees to undergo drug testing during the hiring process. Drug users have a better chance of ‘slipping through’ to jobs than at a larger corporation.

2: Small businesses often do not have an established drug-free workplace policy.

3. Owners of smaller businesses often have a more personal relationship with their employees than larger business owners. This creates a more difficult and complex situation when dealing with a drug abusing employee. Small business owners are more likely to turn a blind eye to drug abuse and give more ‘second chances’ than owners of larger companies.

The large amount of drug users leaves small businesses extremely vulnerable to high costs of employing drug abusers.

-The ‘dead weight’ costs. Drug users are more likely to miss work, be less productive, and be less focused. While the cost of these actions is difficult to quantify, it can add up to lots of dollars down the drain.

-The ‘lost customer’ costs. An unproductive employee may mishandle customer requests, needs, and complaints, causing disgruntled customers to take their business elsewhere. A small company most likely cannot absorb losing customers as easily nor can attract customers as quickly as a larger company. These losses can greatly impact the bottom line.

-The legal costs. Smaller businesses pockets are not as deep as larger corporations. If an impaired employee causes an accident or injury, the resulting lawsuits, workers comp claims, and property damage could devastate a small business much faster than a large corporation.

-The co-worker costs. Employees of small businesses work closely together, and a drug abusing employee can strangle the productivity. Knowing other employees are abusing drugs can bring down morale. Workers may also have to redo work or cover for a drug abusing co-worker. The top producing employees may become disgruntled by the drug abusers performance to the point that they may leave the company.

Smaller business owners need to be aware of this trend and take steps to protect their company from drug abusing employees.

Step 1: Implement drug screening as part of the pre-employment screening process. A good portion of drug testing is relatively low-cost. This step can bring about a high level of benefit by screening out drug abusers BEFORE they are hired.

Step 2: Check out OSHA’s website. There are lots of free tools and resources available to create a drug free workplace.

Step 3: It’s advisable to have a written plan of how and on what occasions your company screens for drugs, and the actions that will be taken if an employee has drugs in their system. Stay consistent with that plan.

These 3 steps are low cost to the company and a good starting point to minimize a company’s risk and expense of employing drug abusers.

Having a program in place can play a vital role in increasing productivity, minimizing accidents, decreasing theft, and improving safety and attendance. And, for small companies, this can be the difference in thriving or going out of business.

Susan McCullah is the Product Development Director for Data Facts Inc, a 22 year old Memphis based company. Data Facts is a leading nationwide provider of employment screening solutions. http://www.datafacts.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dfempscreening.

• Love blooms between a manager and a subordinate, creating ill feelings among other team members.
• Excessive public displays of affection (what we called PDAs in high school) cause other employees to feel uncomfortable.
• A bitter worker in an office romance gone bad files false sexual harassment claims.
• A manager who is a serial office dater creates the perception of favoritism for those he or she dates.

Dianne Shaddock is the Founder of Easy Small Business HR, Employee Hiring and Managing Tips. Through the Employee Hiring and Managing Tips podcast, blog, and weekly ‘quick tips’ e-newsletters, Dianne offers expert advice on how to make better hiring decisions, manage difficult employees, develop employee policies, motivate staff, and so much more. No stuffy, corporate HR policy lingo; but straight forward, easy to understand and implement advice for businesses just like yours. Stay ahead of the curve and go to Easy Small Business HR.com for more tips on how to hire and manage your staff effectively.

Clear communication is great; consistent communication is better

Many experts focus on good communication, reminding us to communicate well, be clear and succinct, “don’t waste people’s time!” However, an even bigger, often overlooked, factor in business is LACK of communication.

Consider the following situation:

I recently had a problem with my health insurance. When I called my agent, he had lost my file and couldn’t answer my question, then became confused over whether or not I had the coverage in question. He said he’d check on it, only to leave me hanging for weeks without a response, despite numerous calls and requests for return calls or e-mails (to help eliminate phone tag).

When I met an agent from another agency that also handles my health insurance provider’s policies, I explained the situation and asked him to have someone call me, intending to switch companies and use them. I later discovered that he did pass my name on to a colleague who handles health insurance (since he did not).

A week-and-a-half went by with no call. Now frustrated by the new company, I called my own agency again. When my agent wasn’t there, I asked to speak with someone else – and got the President of the company, who is now handling my problem personally.

After I’d re-contacted my current company, I received a call from the new agent, who explained that I hadn’t received a return call because “she’d been out sick the previous week” (by this time, half of the current week had also gone by). Since I thought she’d either forgotten about me or didn’t have time for me (and had gone back to my old agency by then), our opportunity to work together had passed.

A conversation with a respected colleague caused me to ask myself, “Uh-oh, am I being intolerant?”

If she had simply called…

The bigger – and more important – question is whether or not the new business person had lost the opportunity for new business by allowing a potentially “intolerant” attitude to be fostered, when it could have been nipped in the bud – and actually converted into a very tolerant one – with a simple phone call. If she had simply called me (or asked someone else to call me) to say:

“I’m so sorry – you’ve called at a time when I’m (or she’s) out sick [or I've just gotten back from being out sick, or I'm in the middle of a big situation that needs resolving - or almost anything at all!]. May I call you back in a couple of days when I can catch my breath and serve you properly?”
Would I have understood? Of course! Would I have been more inclined to cut her some slack? Absolutely (I’ve been there, too!) Would it have cut off the thoughts/feelings that I was either being ignored, forgotten or wasn’t important to them? Yes. Would it have given her time to both handle more urgent matters AND gain new business? Yes.

In an effort to continually improve our service, we must ask ourselves:
How do our customers feel when we don’t answer their calls in a timely manner?
Even if we know the status of a customer’s situation and know that we’re working on getting it resolved, if we haven’t called to tell the customer (often for days or weeks at a time), do they know it?
Don’t our customers deserve not to be “left in the dark”?

Call to let them know you haven’t forgotten them

Wouldn’t it help to call, even if we don’t have a full answer yet, or just to say, “I’m waiting for an answer from someone else and haven’t received it yet – but I wanted you to know that I haven’t forgotten about you”? Would it further help to tell them it may be a few more days before we can get back to them with an answer?
Why would we want to give our customers any chance at all to “build up negative scenarios” in their own minds, when timely contact (even if it contains nothing new!) could prevent that from happening? 

Are backup systems in place to handle customers and potential customers in case we’re out for a period of time… even if it’s just to call people to ask for more time until we return?

By keeping in touch, we let customers know:

They are important to us

We have not forgotten them

We are working hard to get their issues resolved

We are probably just as frustrated as they are (building commiseration and empathy from our customers; we’re in this together!)

The nuances of customer service can be tricky to recognize and difficult to remember, especially when we’re overloaded. But we must take advantage of every opportunity to differentiate ourselves and allow our customers to think, feel and say (to everyone they know), “Wow, when I worked with him/her, I never had to wonder what was going on. I was always kept in the loop, and always felt valued by that person.”

Everyone’s overloaded

We’re all overloaded. And no one is perfect; no one knows that better than I (sigh!). We may not be able to give this level of service every time. But if we strive to learn and improve a little bit from every situation that arises, trying to do better at least sometimes, set expectations up front, then follow through with them, that’s when we get the biggest bang for our customer service buck, and when we stop allowing overlooked nuances to create negative scenarios in our customers’ minds (and subsequent actions).

Try this and watch your customer loyalty – as well as your business – soar!

National speaker, trainer and coach, Sandy Geroux is an award-winning salesperson who helps others achieve breakthrough performance through her programs on sales, customer service and effective risk-taking. Visit her on the web at http://sandygeroux.com/ or e-mail her at sandyg@sandygeroux.com.

Lack of performance has a price, and it’s probably more than you realize. Motivating performance of your employees isn’t just something to talk about; it’s essential for the success of your business. As leaders you recognize that lack of performance causes projects to be delayed and redos be common. Have you ever stopped and thought about the actual cost as a result of this? Cost overruns on projects are easy to recognize.

But what about other, less obvious costs related to lack of performance? If a project is delayed, the likelihood is that other projects are pushed farther out on the calendar. Employee morale is affected when projects aren’t completed or they are asked to redo some parts of it.

Morale can have a direct impact on performance, as well as turnover, and thus the cycle continues. Lack of performance is costly at many levels, and I’ve touched on just a couple. So how do we ensure we are motivating employee performance as much as possible? A few points I want to make.

1. I believe we have a greater chance of de-motivating employees than motivating them. There are numerous ways to de-motivate an employee, and frankly we do it without even recognizing we are. I’m certain many of you reading this post will disagree and site a variety of options to motivate employees.

2. In 20+ years as a recruiter, I found employees left their companies due to culture, challenges with management style, not clear career path, no ability to change/improve their skills, dissatisfaction about the work itself, and a host of other reasons that were “de-motivators.”

3. If we want to improve employee performance, we have to look at our company and recognize what is interfering with their performance. Consider things such as poor communication, ineffective leadership, a culture that punishes mistakes, limited opportunities for career progression, a culture where employees should be seen but not heard…you get the point. What are the parts of your organization that can negatively impact how employees feel about their role or the company in general?

Great companies don’t just happen. Superior employee performance isn’t just luck. Both are the result of leaders who consider their employees as true assets to the organization, not something that is easily replaced, like toner for your printer. These leaders invest in their people and understand the investment will yield rewards such as top performance, creative thinkers, minimal turnover, and a company where people are excited to come to work.

Lack of performance has a price, and it’s more than you might realize. Take the time to invest in your people, andmotivating performance will not be something you have to do; it will be something that happens naturally.

Linda Finkle, CEO of INCEDO GROUP, works with innovative leaders around the world who understand that business needs a new organizational growth style. These innovative leaders know that powerful cross-functional communication is the highest priority and the strongest strategy for building organizational effectiveness. To find out more, visit: http://www.IncedoGroup.com

When a company moves their business online, they enter a new world, a world that never sleeps. The days of writing a letter to a company or calling them for help are gone. Clients expect instant service whenever and wherever they currently are. They are equipped with internet-enabled smart phones and tablets and their business never closes.

One of the most fundamental parts of customer interaction is communicating with the client about resolving issues. This usually involved a lot of paperwork and a team of people to accomplish, but not anymore. Customer support software, also called IT help desk software, is here to simplify customer interaction.

Web-based IT help desk software allows clients to save time by avoiding lengthy phone calls made even longer by being switched around from one department to another. Now, a client can submit a set of questions and get along with life while the support staff compile quality answers in a timely fashion. Since the service is email and web-based, customers can submit questions via online forms 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Majority of issues can be handled quickly

The majority of customer issues can usually be solved in a matter of minutes. This is where knowledge base software comes in handy. The knowledge base contains articles and instructions that answer a client’s questions or solve his problems without even having to contact the support staff in the first place.

Using the knowledge base is as simple typing in a question or a short description of a problem and instantly getting answers. This feature allows both parties to save time and money while still getting an issue resolved. An employer may open the system to his own employees, which means a more efficient and faster system to handle any internal inquiries ranging from company policy to technical support.

Automation of work is the benefit

The most important part of help desk software is the automation of work. The trouble ticket software will quickly and easily convert question emails into tickets which allow tracking of each customer’s problems with ease.

This streamlines the whole support process and rules out any chance of mistakes or delays. Also, the customer support software keeps a record of all tickets created, thus providing the support staff with a history of each client’s interaction with the company.

To top it all off, it is possible to simply purchase a web-based software solution from a professional company. This way, the people that know everything about running customer support software are in charge of security, uptime and keeping everything running smoothly.

Clients can receive help irregardless of  location or time

To summarize, web-based IT help desk software is the product of the future. It allows clients to receive help irregardless of where they are or what time it is. It also automates and normalizes the whole process, saving time and money for all parties involved, while providing a high quality support service to the client and ensuring a long and healthy business relationship.

Wasp help desk software provides a user-friendly, robust method to manage help desks for all your organization’s departments and groups whether they are internal or external. The built-in knowledge base allows you to answer commonly-asked questions and provides full-featured trouble ticket software.