Managing Remote Employees: Five Issues to Consider

Whether you're allowing or requiring employees to work from home there are significant benefits for employers and employees.

Even in a normal economy, working from home can improve morale, reduce real estate and facility costs — and even reduce traffic congestion and make the environment cleaner. However, when the appropriate oversight is lacking, fraud and abuse can result and wipe out many, if not all, of the benefits associated with a work-from-home program.

Here are some issues to consider to minimize the risk and maximize the returns associated with an optional work-from-home program:

1. Does working from home make sense for certain jobs? Obviously there are jobs that must be done on site,  despite pleas to the contrary from employees. But also, not all employees aren't suitable candidates for a work-from-home program.

For example, allowing a manager with a broad span of control to work remotely probably isn't a good idea. Managing by phone is far less effective than being physically present. Further, employees will likely resent the fact that their manager is allowed to work from home while they are stuck in the office.

Before announcing the creation of a work-from-home program, identify all of the positions in your company that won't be allowed to participate. Be sure to engage your company's legal counsel to ensure that the process doesn't violate employment law or create employee relations issues.

2. Not everyone can be eligible. For employees that are under performing or have a track record of discipline issues, a work-from-home program might be viewed as an opportunity to "hide out" and avoid the scrutiny that comes from working in an office. In partnership with your human resources department, develop criteria that employees must meet in order to be considered for the program.

For example, you might require that suitable candidates must have earned a "meets expectations" rating in their prior performance reviews and have no outstanding discipline issues. In a situation where you must let as many people as possible work from home, you may have to reduce your staff at least temporarily.

3. How will productivity be monitored? There is an assumption that once an employee is allowed to work from home that their productivity will at least be equal to their "in office" performance — or may even be better. This may be true but for employees who have never worked from home before, the distractions of home life (including a significant other, young children, noisy next-door neighbors or just plain loneliness) may be too much to bear and their productivity may actually decline.

This begs the question: Once an employee is out of sight, how will their performance be monitored? There are a number of technology solutions that can track keystrokes, periodically capture pictures of the employee's computer screen as well as record activity within specific software systems.

Regardless of the approach used, there must be some mechanism to track productivity and ultimately performance otherwise the employee's involvement in the work from home program may be short lived.

4. Should the employee use a company-issued computer? Since an employee's personal computer may not have the most up-to-date virus software in place, the risk that the employee could download a virus that could not only affect his or her device but the company's entire network is significant.

Since it is also conceivable that the employee's computer is accessible by other members of the family, the risk of data loss, theft or disclosure of customers' private information is also a real concern.

There can also be problems if an employee is working on a personally owned computer and the employer receives an e-discovery request.

Electronically stored information is routinely requested in civil and criminal proceedings. Complying can be difficult if, for example, an employer doesn't know what files or records employees have on their home computers or if an employee alters files or destroys them after an e-discovery request is received.

If at all possible, remote employees should only be allowed to use company-issued computers. Doing so ensures that the employee's computer is subject to the same virus and system upgrades as the rest of the company issued devices and therefore they will be less likely to contract an infection that could bring the company's information technology infrastructure to its knees.

Mandating that employees use company-issued computers also reduces the risk that your company will be unable to comply with an e-discovery request.

5. What happens if data does go "missing?" Allowing employees to work in their home offices can give them the false impression that no one is watching what they are actually doing with the company's data. Before your company launches a work-from-home program, think about the data that homebound employees will have access to as well what would happen if that data were lost, stolen or just misplaced.

For example, if an employee working from home decides to steal confidential data, how would your company know? What if the employee is the victim of a home invasion during which their laptop is stolen? How much of the company's data is stored on the employee's laptop? Is it encrypted? What could your company do to limit or mitigate the potential damage if such an event was to occur?

While you may not have much choice in the matter while the COVID-19 crisis continues, you may still be able to reap many benefits from a work-at-home program, with appropriate policies, management and safeguards in place. You may find that employees perform at their best, whether they are working down the hall or in an off-site office far away.