The shift from an in-person workplace to working from home may have been so sudden for some employees that it lacked clarity and guidance. Clearly defining what you expect from their performance can prevent the need for conversations about underperformance in the first place.
Sometimes, an employee might be underperforming because they don’t have a clear understanding of your expectations for remote work. However, if this is not the case, it is useful to convey your standards for their performance regardless. Communicating your expectations when discussing underperformance with an employee will help them recognize their own shortcomings.
In addition, you may want to explain appropriate work hours for your remote staff, so that they get a better understanding on things like deadlines, projects, and so on. Just because remote work is flexible for your staff, doesn’t mean that they should slack off when it comes to upcoming projects and deadlines. You should still remind them about being on time and never procrastinating. Many businesses now use automated tools to support this: marketing teams rely on campaign tracking dashboards, logistics firms utilize GPS for delivery coordination, and mobile teams benefit from solutions like
work hour tracking for field teams, which help ensure accountability without constant oversight.