“I need them here so I can keep an eye on them, make sure they’re working and not stealing from me.”
We hear this occasionally from small business owners when we are discussing VPN or other remote access capabilities for their employees. We went through this same discussion internally years ago.
At some point we realized that if we have to worry about our employees actually working, or worse, stealing from us, we’ve hired the wrong people, or we haven’t defined our expected results, or probably both.
The ones who are asking for remote access are the ones who want to work, and want to be able to work while they’re waiting for the doctor, or even more likely, when they’re at one of our clients. Our experience taught us to define the expected results, give people the tools they need, and let them succeed. Or let them fail and send them on their way. But we don’t build roadblocks.
Our founder, Mike Landman, wrote a nifty bit about our experience with mobility for Smart Business Magazine. Head here to read it.