How to Use Employee Monitoring to Create Thriving Remote Work Culture

Remote work has gained huge popularity over the past two years for all the right reasons. Businesses can save money they would otherwise spend on renting expensive office space. Employees may enjoy the chance to organize and do the work of their own accord, spending more time with family and friends instead of wasting it on commuting and being stuck in traffic.

However, one of the major questions business owners have when managing their remote teams is:

“How to create a remote work culture based on mutual trust and cooperation?”

The significant downside of remote work is the lack of direct communication and the social interaction between coworkers that is essential for making highly productive tight-knit remote teams.

Luckily, you can rely on a PC activity tracker that you use for remote employee monitoring to help you build a remote work culture that will make your employees happy and your business thriving.

Availability

The remote work model allows employees to organize their work hours to best fit their plans for the day. This means they may not be available for work during the regular 9-5 office hours. This is where an employee time tracker can help you keep an accurate record of employees’ attendance.

More sophisticated time-tracking tools will do this automatically, counting the first keystroke as check-in and the last computer activity as employees check out without interfering with employees’ workflow. By looking at the attendance data, you’ll know when your remote employees are working so that you can organize a meeting, or talk with them about ongoing work.

This insight will have a positive impact on your culture. Namely, numerous remote team managers believe that remote workers need to be at their disposal whenever needed, tending to call them back asking to do “one more thing” after they’ve finished working. And this can be really frustrating as it disrupts the necessary work-life balance. By limiting the work-related communication only to their tracked work hours, you’ll show respect for your remote workers’ private time and make them feel less pressured about their workload and more motivated to keep up the good work.

Flexibility

One of the major benefits of remote working is that it allows people to organize and do their work the way they want to. However, while remote workers cherish this flexibility, numerous managers fear that they’re left in the dark, not knowing whether their employees are making progress, or what task they’re working on. Instead of trying to constantly check up on them to see what they are doing, try using a computer monitoring system to keep real-time track of their activities and progress.

In this way, you’ll abandon the culture of micromanaging that makes employees feel stressed and controlled and reflects negatively on their productivity. What’s more important, by encouraging employees’ autonomy at the remote workplace, you’ll base your culture on mutual trust, building a rock-solid foundation for your remote team success.

Coordination

One of the major challenges you need to tackle when leading a remote team is the lack of communication and social interaction between team members. Namely, without regular communication, employees may often be puzzled about who’s doing what, and this confusion may lead to timing and overlapping issues. In the worst-case scenario, this lack of effective coordination may cause conflicts between coworkers.

Employee monitoring will help you track progress on all your current projects, giving you a clear picture of who is doing what. This insight will help you delegate upcoming tasks better, distributing workload equally among team members.

By knowing exactly what they need to do to reach set goals, employees will become more focused and more productive. At the same time, you’ll avoid frustration in the workplace which may lead to unnecessary conflicts.

Communication

Even though you’ll be able to see what your remote team is doing at any moment of their workday, keep communication channels open to offer support and guidance or give credits for the job well done. In this way, you’ll let your employees know that their hard work is appreciated and that you’re ready to help those who are struggling.

Building interpersonal relationships based on empathy and understanding can go a long way, making your employees happy and motivated to give their best at work.