145: Challenges With Remote Employees

A Big challenge with remote employees is communication. Some managers fall victim to the “out of sight, out of mind” syndrome. Having remote employees away from your main or corporate office is nothing new. With today’s technology however, it has become increasingly more prevalent. Businesses are no longer forced to look in their local market for potential employees. As with most things in life, this can be both a blessing and a curse. You can really expand your pool of qualified candidates if you’re willing to look beyond your local market, but hiring employees out of state brings additional challenges for HR, as well as the remote employee’s direct supervisor or manager. Let’s take a look at some of the challenges you’ll face from hiring remote employees. HR Challenges: Conducting an interview for a remote employee may be a bit more challenging than a standard in-person interview. A telephone interview may be sufficient, however it’s difficult to get an accurate read on a potential candidate with out being able to see them. A video interview using a service such as Skype, may be a better solution if an in-person interview just isn’t possible. After the interviews are conducted and the decision is made to hire a remote employee, the on-boarding process comes into play. Some companies may opt to have a newly hired employee come into the office for the first few days of employment for on-boarding and training purposes, even though they will ultimately be working remotely. This is a great way to go if you can afford it. It’s an opportunity to properly introduce the new hire to their co-workers, as well as go through a proper on-boarding, where the employee learns about the company’s expectations and culture. You may also find in-person training to be more effective than remote training. If bringing out a new hire to your corporate location is cost prohibitive, then remote on-boarding is possible. Perhaps the most challenging aspect of remotely on-boarding a new hire is the completion of the Form I-9. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) requires the employment authorization documents to be physically examined. Because of this, you will need to utilize an authorized representative in the area of the remote employee to complete this process. The USCIS states: “You may designate an authorized representative to fill out Forms I-9 on behalf of your company, including personnel officers, foremen, agents or notary public. When completing Form I-9, you or authorized representative must physically examine each document presented to determine if it reasonably appears to be genuine and relates to the employee presenting it. Reviewing or examining documents via webcam is not permissible.” One additional note to be aware of: “If an authorized representative fills out Form I-9 on your behalf, you are still liable for any violations in connection with the form or the verification process.” Your other on-boarding processes can be completed remotely such as benefits enrollment, delivery and explanation of employee handbook, explanation of company policies, etc. Supervisor/Manager Challenges: Managers are tasked with many day to day responsibilities. The most important task is managing their employees. It’s a difficult aspect of the job to begin with. Managing all the different personalities that make up their team. Making sure that you have a cohesive team that works well together and is productive is not always as easy as some may think. Adding remote employees to the mix does not always make things easier. You may be able to avoid some of the day to day clashes between co-workers that maybe are not a...