I have a company (about 6 programmers, and 14 workers in total). As I am going to expand my company, I am thinking about hiring remote workers for programming jobs and get them to be involved in the main development.

But one thing that I have problem with is that, how can I make sure my remoter workers are not slacking off while everyone else is busy working? I know it is not good to measure employees performance in terms of the time he spends in an office. But psychologically it is pretty hard-- for the employers-- to see that the employees are not reachable during the working hours ( if in the same timezone). This, couples with the fact that the programmers are the one who provide estimates, makes me fear that my would-be remote employees would cheat on me.

Maybe it's just that I need to trust them and it's just my thinking that needs to be changed, but, before this, is there anyway to make sure that your remote workers are not slacking off?