How to get remote employees to actually do their jobs so that I don't have to make them come in the office?

[Anonymous]

1 employee, she’s the problem. All the employees, boss is the problem

What exactly is not getting done? How would being in office improve productivity? In office is good for collaboration, handoff, and synergy. It sounds like thee are each individual solo workers, so RTO is wrong medicine

[Anonymous]

Why on earth do you people have such a hard time with this??? Being in the office makes no damn difference—people that don’t work at home, don’t work any better in the office, and I don’t have time to hold their hands.

^^Disagree 100% with the above statement. I have hybrid worked for 20+ years, was in a federal agency’s inaugural telework program, and have found some people just aren’t good at WFH in part due to the distractions mentioned by OP. My current company has a remote work policy that in many respects mirrors the policy I signed with a federal agency 20+ years ago . . . “Remote work will not be used in lieu of childcare [in other words, if you have small kids you need to have child care that is not you], will be available during [stated] core hours, will be available for in-person meetings on short notice, etc.” I manage a few employees now that I need to check in on frequently, i.e., a weekly team meeting, at least one one-on-one meeting to run through tasks and more frequent check-ins.

[Anonymous]

My experience is that employees that have to be micromanaged at home also have to be micromanaged in the office.

[Anonymous]

Keystroke monitoring and login monitoring, email monitoring and phone use monitoring (through VPN.)

[Anonymous]

OP, You need to tell the workers up front when you hire them that you monitor their logins, you monitor their keystrokes, they login and start at 8:00 am, they logout for lunch, they log back in until 5:00.

Work is kept in a file that you can access.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, You need to tell the workers up front when you hire them that you monitor their logins, you monitor their keystrokes, they login and start at 8:00 am, they logout for lunch, they log back in until 5:00.

Work is kept in a file that you can access.

Going all 1984 on their a$$ is a bad plan, job market isn’t that bad esp for lower tier employee like data entry.

What is typical profile of your staff Op?

[Anonymous]

I fully believe young employees need to be in an office. It’s how they learn and motivate.

If they’re more experienced workers then they need more kpis to be held accountable - and it’s up to you to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, You need to tell the workers up front when you hire them that you monitor their logins, you monitor their keystrokes, they login and start at 8:00 am, they logout for lunch, they log back in until 5:00.

Work is kept in a file that you can access.

Is there even a concept of 8am or 5pm in WFH?

And log in that so funny. When I quit my remote job in May I was on line 24/7 for the last 11 months. I shut off the log off feature and people have mouse jugglers and key stroke things.

My company did have roadmaps, epics SLAs, and strict KPIs automatically tracked with real time reporting for all to see. We also had it closely tied yo comp and getting fired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why on earth do you people have such a hard time with this??? Being in the office makes no damn difference—people that don’t work at home, don’t work any better in the office, and I don’t have time to hold their hands.

^^Disagree 100% with the above statement. I have hybrid worked for 20+ years, was in a federal agency’s inaugural telework program, and have found some people just aren’t good at WFH in part due to the distractions mentioned by OP. My current company has a remote work policy that in many respects mirrors the policy I signed with a federal agency 20+ years ago . . . “Remote work will not be used in lieu of childcare [in other words, if you have small kids you need to have child care that is not you], will be available during [stated] core hours, will be available for in-person meetings on short notice, etc.” I manage a few employees now that I need to check in on frequently, i.e., a weekly team meeting, at least one one-on-one meeting to run through tasks and more frequent check-ins.

Weekly meetings are normal, those should be happening in office too.
I don't have a problem with anything you stated re: availability, that's standard. But IME, WFH has really shone a light on workplaces that don't treat management as a real, separate job rather than an afterthought. Managers are supposed to be in regular touch with staff, planning work, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree with above, how do you measure productivity? If they need to be micromanaged (in person or remote) that’s the real problem. I would talk to the individuals not performing and put them on notice.

+1. In our office, there are set numbers you have to hit daily and it's obvious if someone is off the mark.

[Anonymous]

How do you make them do their work when they are in the office?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keystroke monitoring and login monitoring, email monitoring and phone use monitoring (through VPN.)

If it comes to that, you have to look at the way you're managing.

[Anonymous]

Accountability. Deadlines. Progress reporting.

Our policy is that you can WFH as long as you can adequately perform your job in that setting. I have tasks and projects to do each day regardless of where I work. If I don’t complete them when I’m WFH and can’t explain to my boss why they’re not done (or detail another thing that came along and took priority) then I am not “adequately performing” and will first lose WFH options or, if I can’t get them done in the office either, I could lose my job.

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm sorry you are getting attacked. You SAID you want to continue the WFH culture and are looking for help making that work. I'm sorry you aren't getting good advice.

One thing is to set clear deadlines and to require frequent status updates. That is difficult for some, particularly new managers and small business owners, to do that because they assume/expect as much dedication and passion for the work as they have. It will feel uncomfortable, but it is the job.

And I also acknowledge that not all businesses are the same, and in some it IS more complex to manage, and at a minimum takes some adjustments to how you manage. I hope posters will give you actual advice on your situation that is helpful.

[Anonymous]

People who don’t work remotely don’t work in the office.

There are 3 issues with employees.

1) undertrained but motivated and smart. Train them and mentor them
2) in the wrong job, if you don’t have a better fit job you let them go
3) not good workers … you fire them

Don’t expect someone making $50K to work autonomously at first, nor are they working at the level of someone making $100K.

Give your workers deliverables, if they miss the mark you fire them.

If they deliver on time consistently you keep them and give them jobs with more autonomy.

It has nothing to do with this “generation”.

Just hire better people.

Temp agencies are good to try out employees.