The Ultimate Guide To Managing A Flexible Workforce

If you have been used to working alongside your employees in a brick and mortar location with set work hours, making the shift to managing a more flexible team can be challenging at first. When you are not in the same physical location as your employees or you are working different hours, to them, it can be difficult to track and monitor their performance. While the concept of remote working was becoming more accepted pre-pandemic, the COVID-19 situation undoubtedly accelerated the uptake of flexible working. As more businesses were forced to allow their employees to work from home, many companies realised the benefits of having a flexible workforce and this is a trend that is expected to continue.

Managing a remote workforce, in theory, is not all that different to managing an in-house team. You will still need to manage your employee’s schedules and keep track of their work hours so that payroll can be dealt with efficiently. Using a top rated employee time clock is key in this regard and is even more important in a remote setting where employees are not coming and going from the same office location day-in and day-out. In addition to managing employee rotas and payroll, you also need to track your team’s progress, stay in close contact with them and provide ongoing training and support. With the right approach to managing a flexible workforce, your business will continue to thrive moving forward. 

Let’s take a closer look at some useful tips that you can use to ensure you manage your flexible workforce as best as possible. 

Building Trust Is Key

For a flexible work situation to work, you need to cultivate trust with your employees. When you’re not working alongside each other, it’s not as easy for you to see how your employees are spending their time while they are at work. Micro-managing a flexible workforce is never wise. Instead, you need to learn to trust your team and develop mutual respect between management and your staff. With a good relationship established, you can be sure that your team will be more productive in their roles, regardless of where they are based or what hours they are working. 

Set Clear Expectations

In addition to trusting your team to deliver, you also need to ensure that they know exactly what is required from them. Setting clear expectations from the outset is crucial in keeping everyone on the same page. Expectations can cover a range of different things, including deadlines, tasks to be completed and communications. Setting clear expectations around these three areas will ensure that your team knows what they should be doing when they should have it done and how often and/or quickly they should respond to internal communications. If all of your team are following the same protocols in each of these areas, your business will continue to operate efficiently.

Have Regular Meetings

Communication and culture are essential when managing a flexible workforce. Just as you would have a weekly meeting in the office, it is equally important to have these meetings when your team is working remotely. There are countless video software tools out there that you can use to keep in touch with your team. When your team members join these meetings, encourage participation, share the highs and the lows of the week and make sure that everyone has their cameras turned on so everyone can see each other. Taking this approach with your meetings will help to build a better sense of team spirit that will help your employees to bond and feel like they are all an equally important part of the business. 

Use The Right Tools

There are countless online tools, platforms and software packages available nowadays that can help with everything from marketing to accounting to customer relationship management. As the needs of every business are completely different it’s important that you take the time to analyse your business processes to see which of these tools will benefit your business and help to streamline your operations. Cloud-based solutions work great for flexible teams as they allow your team to access the information they need when they need it, no matter where in the world they are located. This makes adhering to deadlines and managing projects much more straightforward, whether you are working on one project at a time or your team is working on multiple client projects at once. 

Put Systems In Place To Manage Your Flexible Teams More Efficiently

There are countless benefits to managing a remote team, especially in the current business landscape. If you have never worked with a flexible workforce before, it’s natural to feel a little overwhelmed in the beginning. However, by following the tips above and putting the right systems in place from the outset, you can be sure that your business will thrive with your flexible workforce at the helm.