Offsite Labor Providing Offsite Solutions
“I think COVID forced a large portion of our industry to explore remote workers when they were neither willing nor prepared to do so,” says Casey Carey, VP of manufacturing at Builders Warehouse Manufacturing. “Yet, they discovered that some employees can thrive working remotely and there are several benefits to the company having a portion of your workforce be able to work from anywhere.”
BCMC Session: How Do You Build Employee Loyalty in the Age of Remote Workers?
Speaker:
Casey Carrey, Builders Warehouse
sbcacomponents.com/bcmc2021-sessions
Casey has been using remote designers for over a decade and suggested that one of the keys to success is making sure remote employees feel like full employees. “They need to feel just as much a member of the company as the person who works in the office every day,” says Casey. “A big part of that is regular communication with them, understanding where they are at on projects and assessing their workloads and stress.”
Some employees can thrive working remotely and there are several benefits to the company having a portion of your workforce be able to work from anywhere.
Some employees do their best work from here. Setting them up for success from home takes equal parts forethought and follow-through.
For Casey, another key is establishing a good set of metrics that remote workers can use to measure their performance based on expectations. “Those metrics need to be tailored to each individual, based on what you both know they are able to accomplish,” says Casey. “They shouldn’t be used to compare one employee to another, but really against themselves so they are doing the best work they can do, whether working remotely or at the office.”
“They shouldn’t be used to compare one employee to another, but really against themselves so they are doing the best work they can do.” Used in this way, the metrics become more important than the actual hours they work.
Beyond good communication and tailored metrics, it’s important to provide good IT support. “First, you need to stay on top of hardware limitations, don’t let equipment get too far out of date. Second, have a system in place to ensure everyone is up to date on software upgrades,” says Casey. “Third, make sure you have an internal support structure to help them when they get struck so they don’t have to wait long to get the answers they need.”
“Our customers are looking for offsite solutions to solve their labor woes,” says Casey, “it makes sense for us to look for similar solutions to our own labor challenges.”