Tomorrow, the entire remote workforce of The WFC Group will jet-set to San Juan, Puerto Rico for our annual Company Summit. I’m thrilled and grateful that we have the opportunity to offer our employees a break from their day-to-day job duties, and an escape from the winter temperatures.

Why did we create the Company Summit?

The WFC Group Company Summit has become a yearly tradition for our growing company, and was developed for several reasons. Most importantly, to thank our valued employees for the hard work they put in day in and day out to support our clients’ needs. And secondly, to bring our remote workforce together in one place and at one time – to reconnect, bond, continue to grow their working relationships and contribute to the company vision.

What’s on the Agenda?

Our HR team has been hard at work planning the week’s events. I can’t let you know all the details just yet, as I know most of our employees read my blog, but I will tell you we have plenty of surprises in store.

We have many fun team building activities planned as well as various dinners and events. I’m most looking forward to the learning sessions we’ve organized, which will give our employees the opportunity to continue to expand their workforce management knowledge, and for some, to expand their knowledge into areas outside of their expertise. Several of the sessions will include presentations by our subject matter experts on various Kronos modules – Activities, Integration, Analytics, Attendance, Leave and Navigators, and we will have working sessions to enhance our documentation templates surrounding topics such as Training, Discovery, Design, Configuration and Testing.

How to Manage a Remote Workforce

We wrote about the rise of remote teams late last year, and as a remote workforce ourselves, we know the importance of constantly engaging our employees. While our Company Summit is perhaps the biggest and most fun way to do that, we make sure to engage our employees throughout the whole calendar year. Examples such as scheduling weekly team check-ins, monthly team-wide video conferences and chat programs for day-to-day conversation, all have helped to better connect our workforce. It’s also important to have trust in your employees, and to respect their time and schedules.

I’ll report back next week to let you know how our Company Summit went! In the meantime, let us know your thoughts on how to effectively manage a remote workforce, in the comments.

-Neil