Managing a Satellite Staff

So what can you do to ensure that your off-site employees' productivity and success don't falter? First, you must clearly communicate your expectations of remote workers, including key milestones and deadlines. The milestones should be firm and short term to ensure that work is acceptable, timely and coordinated with on-site employees. Feedback on progress should be specific, measurable, timely and action-oriented. Above all, your remote workers should feel that they can easily seek out a supervisor for advice, counsel and input.

To further ensure accountability, goals must be clearly stated and written to guarantee agreement between all parties. An oft-stated truism applies here: "If you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up somewhere else." Starting off on the wrong foot or in an inappropriate direction can spell disaster, especially when working at different sites.

In addition to goals, agreed-upon standards and level of quality will help eliminate any doubt about what's required. Reporting relationships also should be outlined; each employee must clearly understand to whom he or she reports. Having the line of authority and responsibility clear greatly improves the intensity, effectiveness and quality of the reporting relationship.

The final aspect of off-site management to consider is communication. Often, email is the easiest and the quickest way to communicate, but it can make expressing emotion difficult and can lead to misinterpretation. Someone who is always succinct in emails may come across as rude to a friendlier co-worker, while a good-natured joke might lose its intended humor and be read as an insult by the recipient.

The most effective means of sending and receiving messages is a combination of email, faxes, regularly scheduled telephone conference calls, and video and Web conferencing. The latter are particularly important since they contain the all-important aspect of seeing the people with whom you are speaking.

While this visual component can help facilitate personal relationships, nothing can replace the quality of a face-to-face meeting. To maximize interpersonal interaction, create rapport between employees, and improve working and personal relationships, in-person meetings should be scheduled at least quarterly.