Running Your Office Efficiently in Your Absence

Are you aware of what happens in the office in your absence?

Managing the office in the absence of the employer is major issue for the SMEs; as such entrepreneurs can hardly afford to hire an HR manager to look after the day-to-day management process in their absence. And often such companies suffer from slowing down of productivity. As they say “while the cat’s away, the mice will play, unless they don’t know when the cat will be back”.

It is a fact that some employees will take advantage of your absence to the detriment of work and your business. Well, there are two solutions to deal with this problem. You can develop a system of cat chasing the mouse by keeping a close eye on your employees so that they work efficiently. Alternatively, you can hire the right people who work smartly  to achieve the organizational goals and not just for the paycheck.

The following steps will help you to ensure your people will work efficiently, even in your absence.

Put system in place: Having a proper system to manage your day-to-day business process is essential for the organizational success. This will also help you to measure if productivity of your people decreased while you were away from the office. Thus, make sure your management system has been set up such that it clearly defines what an employee needs to do in a given day. This way, you can find out what work has been allotted to your employees and measure what they have accomplished on a per-day basis in general. And if the figure drops down or your employees failed to accomplish the work in your absence, someone is playing.

Create a reporting system: Though this is a part of putting a proper management system in place, having a reporting system that clearly defines the achievement of each employee is essential for the overall organizational success. You will know what employees can achieve on a regular basis and can easily find out if there is a slowing down of productivity.

Address the issue: In case of a slowdown of your people’s productivity in your absence, the first thing you should try is to find out what went wrong. At times, it can be technical failure or factors outsie the control of the employees that caused the slowdown. However, if it is due to an employee’s failure in conducting the work in the desired l manner, address it quickly in a private meeting. Make sure your employees understand that it is essential for you to be able to trust them when it comes to professionalism. They must maintain continuity in their work, irrespective of your presence in the office.

However, if all your efforts to build the trust and make the employee behave professionally fail, it is better to separate the person concern from his/ her employment with your company. It is hardly possible to maintain a cordial employer-employee relationship if you cannot trust the person. Instead, it is beneficial in the end to get someone whom you can trust into his or her position.