A Better Answer Blog

More and more, small business owners are allowing and even encouraging employees to work remotely as a way to decrease costs while still maintaining the levels of efficiency and competency expected by their clients. Some remote employees enjoy working from home, but for many, home offices are too distracting, between kids running around and televisions just sitting there, waiting to be watched. For these employees, a "co-working space" is the answer.

A co-working space is a rented office shared by a variety of people working remotely for different organizations. It mimics the environment of a typical office: tables and workstations filled with people typing on their computers, water coolers and break rooms for when they need to take five. Such places allow remote employees to feel more like they're "at work" than they do when working from their bedroom, which in turn enhances their focus. It also allows them to socialize with other people rather than go stir crazy cooped up in their home.

A few tips on using a co-working space for your small business:

• Make sure everyone can keep in touch. The simplest and most efficient way for remote co-workers to connect is to use an instant-messaging program, such as Skype or Google Hangouts. Leave the programs running throughout the day, and your team members can contact each other at a moment's notice, with zero lag.
• Monitor their work. It's a lot easier to goof off if you're not worried about your boss looking over your shoulder. Luckily, there's still a way management can stay in the loop: by using a remote network. This allows employees to connect to your office's computers from any decentralized location, giving them access to any shared files they need, and also giving you the chance to make sure they're staying on task.
• Encourage them to bring headphones. Co-working spaces bring the same distractions as the corporate HQ--people talking all around them. One way to circumvent this is to listen to music on a phone, or even download a white noise app that blocks out the sound around them.

Working with remote employees has a number of benefits. People feel more satisfied with their jobs when they're allowed greater flexibility--and higher job satisfaction leads to greater productivity and retention. Once you get past the how’s of structuring your co-working space, you should find that remote employees are efficient and easy to work with.