Performance metrics. Keeping track of your team has a new twist now, courtesy of the Coronavirus. COVID-19 has made it so many must work away from the office in order to uphold social distancing.
It’s challenging enough to measure performance of team members when you work face-to-face with them. How must performance metrics be adjusted to assess how remote team members are doing? Let’s take a look at how that can be done from afar.
How well?
One of the most important performance metrics is how well a member of your team is doing. After the initial training period, you want your folks to be able to work independently, to ask questions if they can’t answer them themselves in 15 minutes, and to strive for the best work they can do.
You’ll need to spell out what quality means to you. Most people do well if they have three items to focus on. Perhaps you won’t provide the same list of three to each of your team members. An excellent strategy is to provide a personalized list of three. When possible, create tasks for the various members of your team that will enable them to excel. For instance, one on the team may do a phenomenal job keeping track of details, but isn’t top-notch when it comes to sales techniques. Assess success on what the teammate does well. Give him or her additional reading or training for the details that are not done quite so well.
As for working remotely, go into detail about what your expectations are for each team member. Since your team cannot just run into your office to ask a question, you may find yourself relying more heavily on documentation. Create manuals and guides complete with links to videos and instructions illustrated with screenshots. In that way, written guidelines will reinforce the quality standards included in performance metrics.
How much?
Numbers can be so important to business when the focus is on performance. Most importantly, your focus may be on revenue. How are sales doing in this time of social distancing? Are there gaps somewhere in the budget that can be filled in some other way?
When it comes to your team, other numbers may be important. Have team members been engaged with you, with other team members, and with the task? Has a team member been skipping meetings and training sessions, taking more sick or vacation days than is normal?
As for working remotely, schedule enough time with each team member to create a close connection. Because your team is not in the same room with you, make sure that you build camaraderie with some small talk at the start of a call. Next, answer questions and provide explanations. And, finally, provide feedback on which tasks have been completed and any advice necessary for what is being worked on. In that way, frequent interaction will encourage the five-star results assessed in performance metrics.
How often?
It may be challenging for some of your team to be efficient during this time of solitude. Extroverted teammates may suffer with a lack of face-to-face contact. During this COVID time, should you increase contact, you may be surprised at how well and perhaps even how much better you will get to know your team.
Think of how often you communicated before the shut-down. For instance, if you had one meeting with the entire team per day and a touch-base with each member daily, do that and more. Perhaps you could have two sessions with your team–one in the morning, and one at the end of the day. As for one-on-one contact, explore different ways. Send texts throughout the day. Call to chat once a week. Spell out various points by email, one that could be reviewed throughout the day or week.
Each person will need closer attention during this time of working in isolation. Ask each team member how often he or she would like to meet. Discover what works best for each one. Describe how you work best, too, so that you stay in the know and are available to discuss issues. In that way, more contact and communication will boost performance metrics for success.
How now?
Little, if anything, can be done face-to-face in this virus-frozen world of ours. Even still, for a business to flourish, performance standards must be upheld. Training and communication must be done remotely, even if you and your team member live next door. In fact, keeping in close communication with your remote team is essential for the success of your business.
We have a product that will keep you in touch and allow you to keep track of your team. Business Glu provides a platform to communicate with a remote team and to train them. Your videos and other materials will be available to your team whenever they’d like to review them.
Discover more about how using Business Glu will keep you in close contact with your remote team. Track performance metrics for each team member by using your own team’s training app. Check on progress, gain accountability, and train on-the-go from the palm of your hand. Glu helps leaders and teams grow!
