teams and byod: what managers need to know

Many organizations operate with at least a fraction of their employees working remotely.

Today’s younger generation of workers prefers to work from home on any type of device.

Tech tools allow a team of remote employees to operate efficiently.

Consider these tips to manage a team of people who work remotely.

BYOD refers to Bring Your Own Device.

This policy can increase productivity for your firm and reduce costs.

Your staff can work from anywhere and use whatever device they prefer.

This eliminates the need to make a huge investment into many of the tech devices assigned to workers in the past.

1. Security

A big concern in a BYOD environment is IT security. To meet this need, tech companies now offer virus protection for any type of employee device, anywhere they happen to work. Your staff can be protected from viruses, spam and have data security working remotely on their own devices.

2. Meeting tools

It’s important for the leader of the group to set clear expectations for the team. To set expectations, you need tools to communicate clearly. While email is a tool everyone uses to communicate, your team may need more.

Tools like Skype or Google Hangout allow everyone on the team to meet online using video and audio. If your staff works remotely, these tools are a great way to build relationships. Each person on the team can see facial expressions and react to the conversation visually. Video tools help you communicate well and avoid confusion.

You can easily set up a meeting on short notice; your staff can join the meeting from a variety of devices, including mobile devices.

3. Sharing work

Cloud computing allows any team member to access a document, make changes and update the latest version of the document to the cloud. There’s no need to email documents between workers. Because you store items on the cloud, your data is more secure.

4. Assigning work, updating progress

Some types of work involve project management. You need to clearly assign tasks and check on projects that involve many people. An app like Basecamp or Trello can help you manage a large project.

Your team will need software to keep your projects on track. A software tool such as Asana can organize notes, to-do lists and information from emails. Everyone on the team can access the information and use the data that is important to them.

If your staff works for multiple clients in a given week, you can find software to track the hours each person works and which clients you need to bill.

5. Accounting

As your organization grows, you’ll need to post more accounting transactions. You’ll also need to generate more financial reports to make decisions about your business.

You can find cloud-based accounting software. These applications allow you to input accounting data from anywhere. QuickBooks online, for example, is an easy accounting system to learn. You can quickly learn how to input your transactions.

The software also provides dozens of canned reports. If you want to know your account receivable balance, for example, you can quickly generate the report from your PC, Mac or mobile device.

All of these features allow you to operate from anywhere.

6. Travel expenses

Software apps let you scan receipts into a mobile device and have the expenses posted to your accounting system. If anyone on your staff travels or makes purchases for the business, they can scan the receipts. There’s no need to keep hardcopy receipts and file manual expense reports. The app links your scanned receipts with your accounting system.

7. Payroll

As you add employees, payroll can become time-consuming. To save time, find a payroll company. A payroll firm can calculate the proper withholdings for taxes and benefits. Your payroll provider can also link the payroll calculations to your bank account and pay your employees.

By outsourcing payroll, you don’t have to stay on top of the dozens of tax law changes for federal, state, city and local payroll taxes.

Managing a remote group of employees can be challenging. Consider all of these tech tools to make your system work. Your staff will enjoy the freedom of working remotely. You’ll be able to keep your costs down and grow your business.