How Do You Measure the Effectiveness of Remote Working?

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic sent millions of people from working in an office to working remotely. This sudden shift left team managers, leaders, and business owners confused and worried about keeping the business up and running. This explains the sudden need for innovative KPI solutions with leading indicators for measuring organizational success, which begs the question: how do you measure the effectiveness of remote working?

KPI Strategies to Boost Your Team’s Remote Work Efficiency

Working remotely has suddenly become the new reality for so many businesses and working professionals, as seen in 23 Canadian Working from Home Statistics. Measuring the success of your remote team and making sure they’re working efficiently is hard when you don’t share an office with them.

But, with some improved Key Performance Indicators (KPI) solutions, you can manage remotely using business metrics to keep things under control and even revolutionize the way you’re collaborating. To help you out, we’ve put together this guide with the utmost KPI strategies to boost your team’s remote work efficiency. Let’s take a closer look.

Remote Team Communication

The first thing you need to cover to be able to track and measure your remote team’s performance is to think about their communication.

Here’s what to ask yourself:

• Do we have a communication/collaboration tool we’re going to use?
• Does everyone know how to use it?
• Can we organize a workshop for those who don’t know how to use it and teach them?

A team communication tool is essential to make sure everyone in the remote team is on the same page. That’s the only way you can even set clear KPIs and ask the team members to work hard on them.

Regular Information Flow

The second step you need to take in order to keep track of the KPIs is to ensure there’s a regular information flow between you and the team members.

To stay in regular contact with your remote team, you should schedule regular activities:

• daily reports
• virtual events 
• weekly meetings
• briefings
• video calls
• feedback sessions

On these meetings, you’ll need to clearly elaborate on:

• what are the team’s goals
• what are the deadlines for achieving them
• what is everyone’s role
• new business ideas 

A steady communication flow will enable you to set goals and assign tasks. This way, everyone will know what they’re expected to do and will work hard to meet the expectations. This will boost your KPIs and leave no excuse for the employees to perform poorly.

Setting Individual KPIs

Employees who are working remotely often feel confused and not informed enough. They need more support and clear instruction than when they’re working from an office. This is why you should introduce individual KIPs.

That means you’ll give each team member:

• clear instruction on their tasks and obligations
• what you expect from them to do
• KPIs you’ll be using to measure their success

This will take a lot of burden off of their shoulders and give them a chance to focus on the tasks that are primarily set for them. They’ll know what to do and how to do it.

Working on Remote Productivity

If you’ve ever tried working remotely, you know how hard it can be to stay productive. You’re in your comfy clothes, there’s your dog, or your phone, or your TV tempting you to take a break. Plus, there’s no working atmosphere that will keep you going. And, if your team’s productivity decreases there’s no way you’ll meet the KPIs you’ve set.

This is why you should think of different ways to boost their productivity:

• use tools to improve remote productivity
• create schedules with daily duties and deadlines
• have people pair up to do certain tasks together
• schedule specific break times

With more defined working hours, your employees will feel much more ready to step it up and work harder. This will be a boost for their productivity and thus a boost for the KPIs you’ve set.

Defining Remote Changes

If the team has recently shifted from the company office to their remote home office, this change might be hard to adapt to immediately. They’ll need your help to move past it and get to doing some great work. Your job is to help them adapt.

Here’s what you should do:

• recognize the changes in their individual experience
• recognize the new remote tasks they’re facing (online team collaboration, daily reports, video calls, etc.)
• ask them to share their remote experience with you
• discuss home office ergonomics and organization
• provide mentorship and leadership in this remote process

By recognizing the changes we’ve listed above, you’ll also be recognizing the changes in their efficiency and your expectations. This will help you help them meet those expectations and still manage to perform brilliantly. 

Improve Remote Organizational Skills

With a new type of workplace, everyone will have to work on adapting new skills and knowledge. One of the most important skills they’ll need is organizational skills.

Try and motivate everyone to learn how to:

• manage their time better
• stay productive longer
• prioritize tasks
• help each other
• respect deadlines
• take smart breaks
• organize their shift

Everyone needs to put in the individual effort to make the overall organization of the team much more productive and goal-oriented. This way, they’ll be able to perform at their best and you’ll be happy to see the KPIs results.

Evaluate & Reevaluate Being Remote

Evaluation is important when it comes to any transition or change. You’ll all learning and nobody knows what’s the best formula.

So, if your KPIs aren’t looking that great, do an evaluation of:

• individual success
• remote team success
• changes in the specific metrics
• difficulties you faced
• opportunities for improvement

Together, you need to work on a formula that will help you overcome the obstacles and strive. And, even when you find this formula, you shouldn’t stop. Keep evaluating on a monthly basis and make sure there’s a clear record of the process of building a strong remote team with high work efficiency. 

KPI Strategies Boost Remote Work Efficiency 

Going from an office to working remotely is a huge change for working individuals. Therefore, it’s a huge shock for a remote team and can significantly impact how everyone performs. That means you could end up with poor results and a demotivated team. This is why you need to reconsider your KPI strategy and adapt to the new situation to effectively lead a virtual team.

Use the tips we’ve shared above to set new KPIs, rules, tasks, and strategies. Measure them regularly and keep track of the progress you’re making. That’s the best way to boost your team’s remote work efficiency and have them continuously develop. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Estelle Liotard is a business communication specialist and a freelance writer with years of experience. She’s passionate about topics such as professional advancement, career opportunities, and business strategies. She currently works as an editor at an academic writing service that can answer your question “Who can help me write my paper?”