Communicating with Offsite Workers

How do you, or would you, communicate with employees who work offsite?

Perhaps you have telecommuters reporting to you, or sales reps who work out of offices in other cities. How do you communicate with them?

Let's start with the strategic issues: what do you want to accomplish by communicating with them? And, why would they want to communicate with you?

Strategic means you'll probably want to deal with issues like productivity, accountability, and predictability. You want to know what the offsite employee does, how she does it, and what she will do in the future.

Still in the strategic vein, you'll ask yourself why she would want to communicate with you: some reasons might include the need to maintain human contact with the office, to get resources from you, or to work on her productivity.

To return to our sales reps example, you might want them target the certain prospects or to focus on high-margin products, From the other side, you might ask them about their needs and discover they need to know about product availability and a competitor's new products.

Once you have a clear, articulated understanding of why you're communicating, you can move to the tactical issues. Issues such as: how often, what issues to raise, and by what means.

Normally, you'll find the tactical matters tend resolve themselves if you do a good job on strategy. That is, the answers to tactical questions tend to flow out of the decisions made in setting up the strategy.

Using our offsite sales reps example, you might decide to send a group email once a week, and in it provide information the sales reps want. You'll also add information that you want to convey to them, especially information about the benefits of targeting and margins.

In addition, you'll also call each rep individually once a month to review his or her personal performance. In these calls, you'll deal with their individual performance. You'll also ask about their particular needs and wants, and try to satisfy those needs.

As well as developing strategies and tactics, you'll also schedule some evaluations. Periodically, you'll sit down and ask yourself how well the offsite people are targeting and what proportion of their sales come through high margin products.

If they're doing well, you'll stick to the course you set earlier. On the other hand, if performance doesn't meet your standards, then you could look at increasing the number of contacts, and the duration of each contact. Maybe you need to bring everyone into the office once a quarter, while still maintaining your weekly group mailing and individual contacts monthly.

In summary, as the number of offsite employees and service providers increases, the pressure to develop plans to communicate with them will grow as well. To make the most of this communication, start with strategic issues that define why you want to be in contact with them, and why they would want to be in contact with you.

Robert F. Abbott writes and publishes Abbott's Communication Letter. Learn how you can use communication to help achieve your goals, by reading articles or subscribing to this ad-supported newsletter. An excellent resource for leaders and managers, at: http://www.communication-newsletter.com

---

7 Steps To Hire The Best

You can use this step-by-step method to hire applicants who... Read More

Why Soft Skills?

The industrial age is over. Organizations still stuck in the... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Senior Management and Directional Change

This article relates to the Senior/Top Level management of an... Read More

When Being A Facilitator DOESNT Help

I talked with a group of internal consultants last week... Read More

Innovation Management ? Rigorous data analysis

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Group Discussion Guidelines

DISCUSSION METHODS: There are two basic types of discussion methods;... Read More

The Seven Cs: Partnership Danger Signs - The 5th C: Control Issues

A series of articles exploring the seven critical areas that... Read More

Quality Staffing: Stop Placing the Wrong People in the Wrong Jobs

You can possibly teach a turkey to climb a tree... Read More

IT Expenditure - Why Businesses Spend Huge Amounts on Ineffective IT Investments

Another IT White Elephant!It seems that almost every day we... Read More

Managing Employees Is A Little Like Herding Cats

Q: I started my small business about a year ago... Read More

Too Much Time Treating Symptoms

A man drives down the highway each day on his... Read More

One Bad Apple

One Bad Apple I know what... Read More

Dealing with Marginal Performers: The Therapeutic Approach

--PREPARATION: The purpose of the therapeutic approach is to spark... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Management ? Psychological Reward

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Four Corners of a Triangle: Why Organizations Succeed or Fail

When we want to hire people for a corporation or... Read More

Employees Commit Corporate Fraud

Imagine the following scenario; Ten years ago you decided to... Read More

Hiring Tip -- Picking The Best Candidates

I often hear leaders from all types of organizations ask... Read More

He Hate Me: Turning Their Bad Attitude Into Your Great Results

"He Hate Me" was the nickname of Rod Smart, a... Read More

Vampire Meetings and How To Slay Them

Meetings can be like mythical vampires ? sucking the life... Read More

The Higher You Go

The higher you go, the cooler it becomes. Really? Let... Read More

Performance Evaluation: How To Create Change

STEPS TOWARDS GIVING A GOOD APPRAISAL INTERVIEW: Give specific feedback.... Read More

Loyalty, Motivation And Work-Life Balance

Managers who aren't loyal to their people can't expect loyalty... Read More

Survival of the Fittest: The Road to Human Extinction

I was watching a TV program some months ago about... Read More

What Every Manager Should Know About How to Overcome Boredom

Do you find yourself easily becoming bored or tired at... Read More

People Are Our Most Important Asset!

How many times have you heard or uttered this phrase... Read More

Innovation Management ? idea selection, development and commercialisation, what are the differences?

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

The Ivory Tower Syndrome

"His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows... Read More

Interviewing Applicants Can Be Hazardous to Your Wealth

1st Fact: Interviewing applicants is the most common way companies... Read More

Quick Tip - Effective Meetings Begin With Goals

Goals are critically important for the success of a meeting.... Read More

You Get the Behavior You Reward

On consulting assignments, here are some of the questions I... Read More

Never Hire Anyone Dumber Than You Are!

In a previous life I was a Navy Pilot. Great... Read More

Five Defining Characteristics of Great CEOs

1. Personal insight. Great CEOs are great leaders. They know... Read More

Turbo-Charge Your Rollout with ERM

Employees are the often-neglected stakeholders in the success or failure... Read More