Working from home has become the norm in the last few weeks, and has allowed companies to remain competitive and productive.

Employees can now get work done, tend to personal obligations and spend more time with their families.

That being said, leaders have to maintain their objectives and keep an eye on their teams.

Wondering how to help establish remote working and lead your team from afar?

There are amazing benefits to having remote workers: you save money and office space, workers save time and energy from the commute.

It will certainly improve employee engagement and boost morale.

There are different ways that you can help establish remote working. 

1. Make a general assessment

Each company has unique needs. Therefore, you first need to assess the needs and the equipments of your company. 

Secondly, you need to assess the position and responsibility of the employee. The position needs to be suited for remote work. You may want to understand with whom they confer with, how long they work and what do they need to get work done.

2. Get to know your team

Should all employees be allowed to work remotely?

To allow employees to work from home, you have to know how well they produce work and how serious, disciplined, mature and autonomous they are.

Some employees may be new to the company, may need a lot of supervision, may have difficulty communicating from a distance or may not know how to balance their work and life.

You can put remote under a trial period to test their ability to produce quality work remotely.

Before sending them out to work remotely, you must be able to trust your team and know that they will be pulling their weight.

Remote workers are not that hard to supervise but it all depends on your level of trust.

4. Invest in new technology 

In order for you to keep up with your remote team, you may need to invest in digital workspaces.

These workspaces will allow you to schedule meetings, share documents, set deadlines, give instructions, train your team, communicate securely with your team and track their individual progress.

5. Clarify goals

Information can easily get lost when you are working remotely.

It becomes important for you to clarify your objectives and ensure that your team understands what needs to be done.

This will make it easier for them to stay on task, for you to track their progress and to address any issues.

6. Create a structure around your team

Let your team know at what time and for which activities they need to be available.

Working from home provides great flexibility but remote workers may have to also obey a code of conduct, a dress code and fixed hours to keep them engaged and far from burning out.

7. Plan in person meetups

Remote workers can get lonely and lose touch with their organization.

They will even have more difficulty keeping up and communicating with your team in the office.

Therefore, it becomes detrimental to make yourself available to them, keep them in the loop, encourage communication and include them in meetings and all meetups.

8. Deal with the legal aspects

You have to make sure that your team agrees with requirements and conditions of working from home.

Their information and data must be protected and they have to be safe, insured and properly equipped.

9. Equip your team

Your team may need a computer, a dedicated office space, a better and protected internet connection.