Without question, the pandemic brought remote work life to the masses resulting in a post-pandemic state of staffing that’s remaining remote.

To be an attractive business where consultants, contractors, temporary and contingent personnel want to work, you need to ask yourself what you can (should) do today to improve the remote work experience. To help you, the recent 2021 Temporary Worker Survey by Staffing Industry Analysts identified the following 3 focus areas for improving the remote work experience at your company.

1. Onboarding: This needs to be better organized regarding issues specific to remote work, such as remote work policies, training, technical support, etc.

Key ways to improve onboarding: 

• Have a remote work policy in place
• Get onboarding better organized and modified for remote work
• Provide a check list of the onboarding process, training and expectations.
• Schedule an initial onboarding or welcome meeting so the remote worker isn’t left to figure things out
• Provide a list of contact points for issues (HR, IT, etc.)

If you are looking to learn how and what your business can do to improve the onboarding process, read our recent blog, “Technical Onboarding: A Checklist for Success” and then download our onboarding checklist to easily get you started.

2. Equipment: Staffing firms and clients need to do a better job ensuring temporary workers are well-equipped on day one and that all technical problems are resolved.

Key ways to improve equipment: 

• Make sure temporary workers have the equipment they need right away
• As part of onboarding, make sure the remote worker has an initial meeting with IT scheduled in case of tech issues
• Subsidize equipment for temporary workers if necessary
• Resolve technical issues quickly with a good IT support structure in place

3. Communication: Remote work offers less opportunity for day-to-day communication, so both staffing firms and businesses need to do more to stay in touch, partly to provide direction and solve work-related issues and partly to provide moral support in what can be a very isolated situation.

Key ways to improve communications: 

• Communicate more frequently
• Make sure communication provides clear direction
• Make communications personal when possible
• Invite temporary workers to join group meetings; socialize
• Arrange for intermittent in-person interaction where possible

REMOTE-FIRST APPROACH

When looking to improve the experience of remote working at your business, aim to create a remote-first culture—a culture where remote working is built into the very fiber of your business. While this is not simple, it’s definitely achievable but does requires ongoing stakeholder buy-in and the investment in both time and attention. Also look to work with partners who have the same philosophy and established processes toward remote working.

Here at TeamUP Staffing, we strive to support our remote candidates to the fullest and that starts with supporting our clients. We can help you with your technical and engineering staffing needs. Contact us.

*The 2021 Temporary Worker Survey of staffing firms was implemented in conjunction with Staffing Industry Analysts’ “Best Staffing Companies to Work For” competition. It was conducted in late 2020 and reflects the opinions of 2,223 temporary worker respondents from 21 staffing firms; no single firm accounted for more than 19% of respondents.