Is he really working from home?

Rajeshwari Dave might have made a mistake allowing the newest recruit of her public relations firm to work from home.

While she is fairly satisfied with her employee's performance, she is unable to manage her.

"I do not know when she clocks in to work and when does she clock out. Unlike other jobs, her responsibilities include calling and pitching for clients which cannot be gauged in terms of output. I can only take stock of her capabilities once in three months. I would also know how polite are her conversations and if she is offending someone," Dave laments.

Far away from the ideal scenario where work-from-home options decrease employee travel time and increase productivity, managers are facing challenges. Apart from a rogue employee who misuses the option, team leaders say that they are unable to motivate employees and efficiently differentiate good performers from slackers.

Arun Vishwanath, founder of Trainers Forum and an executive coach too agrees that not everything is hunky-dory with remote working. "It offers an advantage to the employees but there will be issues. In a group of 100, there will at least be 5% to 7% who will take advantage," he says.

In spite of good intentions, many employees find it difficult to focus on work due to increased household responsibilities mixed with distractions. The most important challenge for managers is to drive teamwork where colleagues support each other and offer insights.

However, the convenience that the model offers far outweighs the challenges. Human resources (HR) experts say that organisations should evolve team management methods to suit the needs of the future. Team managers will have to use technology aids to gauge their team members.

"We have a tool which allows team managers to unbundle or split a job into parts. It helps identify which jobs lends themselves to remote working compromising ultimate productivity of the organisation. E-working is yet another tool which offers a secure login to their employees. It replicates the computer desktop whether at home or at the office and the employees' exact productivity is measured by a tool which reports back how many units were done or many transactions were done," says Saundarya Rajesh, founder of HR consultancy firm, Avtar Group.

Software companies have been implementing the option of remote working be at home or at client's site. They use a chat option which shows if an employee is active or not. If the employee steps away for a long time, the team leader can spot it. Further, the team leader organises frequent group calls with the team and engages in group chats to bring them all together on an issue.

Vishwanath suggests hybrid models where an employee works remotely three days a week. The rest of the days can be used to organise team meetings, weekly stock-taking meets and divide responsibilities.

"Remote working is important because it allows an employee to discover one's own comfort zone while working. Some work better in the night, some others early in the morning. It leads to improved productivity in the long run," he says.