Outsourcing Question: Any software solution to prevent your remote worker from slacking off?

Royh,

I think this is a very intrusive way to establish trust with someone. Just because they are remote does not mean you have to treat them like dirt.

My suggestion is to start out slowly, with a small project. Pay them. Check the quality of work and then expand your hours and the pay.

When you find someone dependable and trustworthy, treat them like a God.
Success,
Sam

Hi,
It sounds as if you have plenty of work to get someone to help you full time.

Trust is essential and it is a two way thing!

Have you thought about starting the relationship on a price per task basis. That way you know your costs up-front and you are not worried about clock-watching!

Might be worth considering? My business works like that in a way. People decide how many articles they want and they know the cost up-front. I in turn try to guarantee a delivery of 3- 5 working days. That way each party knows where they stand.

Hope that helps some?
Ian

I've always focused on production rather than micro-managing their time. My outsourced workers know the number or articles or other tasks I believe is reasonable for them to complete on a full-time basis and their daily work falls in that range. If it doesn't we discuss the situation and if needed I warn/fire. If I have to spend time babysitting someone to get the work done I may as well do it myself. On and offline I've found this management style attracts a higher level of employee.

Amy

Pay by the project, not by the hour. Set a deadline and start deducting for time overruns.

It's called management by the rope. Hand them the rope. They'll either tie it down or hang themselves.

Set expectations as for the quality/quantity of output and work based on trust. Either that or work based on a per project fee.

I don't think you should try to use software to solve a problem that your gut can tell you the answer to. You'll know if you're getting 7 hours of work a day.

Worry more about what they produce rather than what actually they do to accomplish their results. What if they could do the job in 4 hours? Would you want to pay them half just because they're productive? Insane.

Manage by objectives.

Tyrus

You could try a tip that was given a few days ago on this forum-- offer an ongoing bonus for high productivity. could provide just the incentive to prevent slacking

Summerm,

Please let us know the link to that topic.

It's very simple if you focus on what matters: measuring the results produced, divided by the amount of money they are paid to do it.

Who cares if they slack off for an hour or more surfing the web, but the rest of that day they are so phenomenally productive their average output for that day far exceeds the norm?

(And yes, that is realistic, and it happens. In fact it's more typical than most people realize.)

When one insists on micromanaging people (and that's what things like odesk do when they capture screenshots for you constantly), think about what kind of people you are going to get. Who likes to be watched constantly to be sure they are not "slacking off" for even a moment?

Not me, not most people. The people who are high quality enough to have better options than working for such an employer... well, they will just leave for greener pastures.

So... don't be that kind of employer!

(I know it's very tough, sometimes even scary to "let go" like this... but you'll be doing yourself a favor if you at least try it.)

To keep an eye, use www.logmein.com and you can monitor there computer.

I would agree that you have to build a relationship. I got a outsource employee who reads comics on her shift (I hope she does not read this), however she keeps customers happy by producing results and works longer then 8 hour days, so all is good and fair. It is really a give and take.

"Borderline draconian???"

Set milestones and expectations up front before they start working on your project. Depending on the nature of what they're doing for you, your daily involvement in it and your understanding of the technicalities of what they're doing for you, you should be getting daily status updates from them by email or Skype, or daily source code files or HTML files, or something like that to show their progress. Let them know you expect that from Day 1. If you didn't set that expectation at the start, then put it in place as soon as it's apparent that things are slipping.

But DON'T treat them like crap or show mistrust, and don't make them feel like there's a gun pointed at their head every minute from the other side of their computer screen!!! That just guarantees poor quality, poor work ethic, a lack of desire on their part to ever work for you again and a willingness to tell other potential employees about how you don't value or trust them.

You want to build mutual trust, not destroy it from the start!

Jason Parker has a really cool free wso that covers outsourcing http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...irt-cheap.html

You sound like my boss...Sad thing is I work in an office here he can actually see us and he thinks this way...He even installed camera's in lunch room to see who was in there from his office and check if they were supposed to be in there....To us, we were all pissed off, and yes we respected him alot less for it...

Sam seems to have good advice...