Managing Virtually or Virtually Managing

The market has turned so much that I am now in need to grow my team in different states. We have traditionally had people report Regionally (ie to the various State Managers) however, with a slight change in our Company focus, there is a central point of control for most functions.

Therefore all Recruitment will report through to a central person... me.

Now, I've led teams and functions for a while now, however I am yet to officially manage someone located in a different location. I don't forsee too many issues as long as I stick to my plan etc.

Just wondering if there are any hidden issues that you need to experience to know about that I may not have thought of......

I leave myself and my question to the hands of the RBCiverse :)

Cheers

Dan

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Permalink Reply by M A on September 29, 2009 at 3:34pm

A good virtual recruiter is a strong independent recruiter, i.e. a person who will not need (or seek) any hands-on management, confident to make decisions on his/her own, and definitely one who abhors micro-managing. As a manager, once you have done your due diligence with training, and ensuring that your virtual recruiter knows what is expected of them in terms of process, objectives, etc.; the only way to "manage" them would be through performance. If they deliver, then they are "managed."

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Permalink Reply by Bill Morgan on September 29, 2009 at 6:00pm

I manage a virtual office and worked this model when I had my own staffing company.
The key is manage to the metrics, and I don't mean micro-managing (I agree with Maha below).
Plus, speak daily or very regularly with each person. Keep them going. They will get bored at home if they haven't done this before. Make sure the recruiter gets out and sees clients once in a while. Make sure sales people are doing lots of appointments.

If you are getting the placements, (wins), that your goals are set by watch the other numbers as a reference when you sit down with the person but keep them pumped with their success and not dwell on the other numbers as a negative but more for training (ie; they have the wins but they seem to be sending in twice the candidates of other recruiters to get the same results hence; a slight adjustment in what they are doing can improve their ratios and perhaps can motivate them further).

If they aren't getting the placements, the numbers will tell most of the story.

If there are not metrics in place then set them.....
Not everyone can work from virtually. It's difficult and requires a real focused individual.

Best of luck. Feel free to contact me with questions.

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on September 29, 2009 at 6:43pm

I agree with the others and can speak from personal experience, as when I did a contract several years ago with a large company, it was all remote. My manager was in St. Louis, my recruiting partner was in Charlotte, my admin worked out of her house in Florida, and my hiring managers were all over the country. It doesn't slow things down a bit, in fact you might find your people are even MORE productive, as when they are working virtually or on their own they can just focus and get things done. The key is having measurable data, setting expectations and looking at production, how well they are getting things done. Also agree it's important to have regular progress check-in's, we'd have scheduled 'touch base' calls weekly to go over pending things, any issues, etc.

Good luck!
Pam