Even before COVID-19, remote workforces were on the rise. But now that employers have seen its effectiveness for the last year, many have decided to keep that structure going forward. While there are certainly challenges to managing a remote workforce, there are ways to solve them with workforce management (WFM) solutions. Here are 6 tips on how to better manage remote workers:
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Reports and data analytics
Workforce reporting software will pull data from multiple sources—from time tracking to employee database files—to create simple and detailed reports about your procedures and other valuable data. This will enable your HR team or managers to assess and improve your workforce management processes and practices. With the right analytics tools, you can increase efficiency and save money by gaining insights into what is directly impacting your bottom line, such as skill gaps or lack of talent. You’ll also be able to optimize your hiring practices to reduce expenses.
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Optimize schedule and shift coverage
By leveraging a good WFM system that helps with employee shift coverage, shift swapping, shift change requests, and other scheduling features, managers can prevent coverage gaps and frustrations. By mitigating shift confusion and understaffing, you’ll ensure better customer service and employee satisfaction.
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Manager oversight
Managers need to know what is going on with all of their employees to be productive. That starts with a SaaS WFM solution that allows you to schedule employees, view and edit time cards, manage leave requests, review job costing, and much more from anywhere. Geofencing can also be set up to ensure your remote employees are where they need to be when they need to be there.
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Create accountability for all employees
It’s less of a trust issue and more of an accuracy problem. When an employee fills out a time card at the end of a pay period, it’s impossible to know exactly how many hours they worked. With a time and attendance-hosted solution, you can make life easier for your remote employees and keep them accountable at the same time—and it ensures you and your employee are in agreeance on time worked.
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Employee self-service
Your time is valuable—you don’t have time to be dealing with simple processes. With a great time tracking app, your remote workers can easily plan and request time off, see and review their timesheets, view schedules, clock in and out, transition between departments, and much more. All the information is right there at your fingertips—you won’t ever have to email or call a remote employee to see if they’re available or on the clock.
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Accurate pay
Whether it’s risking a compliance violation by underpaying or going over your labor budget by overpaying employees, either way, you’re risking the relationships you have with your remote workforce by inaccurately paying them. One of the main advantages to employing a remote workforce is to save money, but if you’re overpaying them, that negates the cost savings—and if you’re underpaying them, they won’t want to work for you. With an easy-to-track and edit time tracking app, you can rest assured that your remote workforce is getting paid accurately.