How to Transfer Employees to Remote Job: Step-by-step Guidelines-Publication

Hiring remote employees reduces office-related expenses. With the propagation of internet technologies and mobile devices, organizing remote work is as easy as ever. Virtualization technologies allow one to deploy a work station anywhere in the world. Additionally, the government has passed a law to regulate the work of remote workers. In this feature, I will speak of how to transfer up to 15% of employees to remote jobs. The company’s managers are allowed to work remotely once in two weeks, while other employees may stay home for personal reasons as agreed with their managers.

Four Steps to Transfer Employees to Remote Jobs

Step 1. We connected our employees to virtual desktops

For the virtualization project, we’ve purchased IBM devices: three modern servers, and an external disk array. In 2013, we’ve launched a testnet and connected 60 employees to virtual desktops. Having ensured correct operation of the network, we connected everyone else over the next six months. There was no haste with switching to virtual machines as we had to make sure that all databases in different items of software like 1C, Boss-Kadrovik etc. were correctly transferred to virtual servers and worked flawlessly.

How employees connect to the corporate network. A virtual desktop allows one to connect to their computer and network from any mobile device. The display shows a window with all usual icons. We usually use VPN, a virtual network created on top of the internet. It is separate from the main network and encrypted to ensure safe access to the internal network and resources. A real computer has no trace of software or data after the work on a virtual desktop. Implementing a virtual work environment is also possible with a cloud, however, taking virtual machines on lease would be unreasonable in our case. Buying and setting the equipment up is cheaper in our case. Paying for hosting proved to be six times as high compared to monthly expenses on implementing the system after a purchase on 36 months credit. Additionally, one has to note that once the credit is paid, we’re free from any payments whatsoever. We used work groups in order to reinforce information security. It means that all employees working with the same customer use the same virtual machine and connect to the same server. Any data copying is controlled by the IT department.

In two years, we abandoned Microsoft-based VPN connection for RDWEB (Remote Deskshop Services) as the latter can be easily set up by the end user. In fact, only the connection setup has changed for the employees: it became easier. The interface remained the same.

Task management system. In order to ensure group work with remote employees we use task assigment systems partially based on 1C Bitrix, and partially on Asana.com. In order to exchange documents, we’ve launched a corporate portal and took Webex service on lease. For our purposes, the plan of 5,300 rubles a month is quite sufficient, with up to 20 people simultaneously using the conference service. Employees can use voice and video calls, chat, show their computer, and collectively work on documents.

Step 2. We adapted our labor contracts to provide the employees with everything they need

If an employee works remotely, the company doesn’t have to provide them with a work station, which is reflected in a work agreement. However, you have to provide the employee with their means of production. In other words, if you insist that they have to use their own computer, you violate the law. We have provided our employees with laptops and corporate sim cards. This year, we plan to get rid of landline phones and provide them all with cellular communications. In order to make sure whether the employee is still a Russian tax resident, we ask to provide a photocopy of their international passport every six months, otherwise the company would have to pay 30% of personal income tax instead of 13.

Step 3. Developing efficiency indices. We use a system of indices to keep our finger on the remote employees’ work

For IT support it is the number of processed user requests, while for HR specialists it is the number of processed documents. We’ve discussed and stipulated possible reasons for termination of their job contracts. For instance, we may fire them if the employee’s job description would require full-time presence at the office. For instance, they may be fired for failure to meet the key performance indices, pursuant to 360 degrees assessment, or in case of communication troubles reports from their colleagues.

Step 4. We’ve approved the work schedule and arranged communications

Each remote employee has their own work schedule that at least partially coincides with that of their colleagues. For instance, they may start working even at 6 o’clock in the morning, however, they still have to react to their colleagues’ calls and messages from 10 am to 4 pm.

We hold weekly virtual department meetings, and invite the remote employees to the company’s headquarters once a month or two so that they wouldn’t lose their contacts with office-bases colleagues and stay tuned. We use intranet, messengers and e-mail for notification, and publish the most important news in our corporate newspaper.

Results
Now we can always hire workers of required qualifications. For instance, we had hard time finding and keeping on experts on support of certain SAP modules. We finally found such experts in Siberia, offered them remote job, and now we’re pretty happy with them. The company saves nearly 15 per cent from their wages (communication and transportation included). Some of our remote employees reside away from megalopolises of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and their wages are lower than those in the big cities. This allows us to offer our remote specialists a salary quite high by regional standards. Law No.60-FZ “On introducing amendments to some laws of the Russian Federation” d.d. April 5th, 2013.

Source: gd.ru