When it comes to managing remote teams, there are many things you can do to streamline the process and help your team to work to the best of their ability.
We’re going to break down the best strategies you can implement to help you and your team to flourish in a remote environment while avoiding any of the potential pitfalls that could arise.
Luckily, with these top tips, things will be smooth sailing for you and your team.
1. Focus On Deliverables, Not Surveillance
It’s widely accepted that one of the most important things to get right when managing a remote team is to focus on the outcomes. If your team is delivering quality work on time, it doesn’t matter where or when they are getting that work done.
It can be tempting to want to keep track of how many hours your team is spending logged in, but this can be very demotivating for your employees.
If there is no problem with their work, you want to give them as much autonomy as possible. This is something that the best remote companies to work for get right. Obviously, if they are not delivering, then you can pursue closer monitoring.
2. Set Clear Expectations
The key to successfully managing a remote team is to have clear communication between you and your team, and this starts with setting expectations. Your team needs to know exactly what you are expecting of them so that they know what they need to be doing.
Setting these expectations includes letting your team know what you expect from them in terms of work and deliverables, as well as the kind of communication you want from them. This includes the frequency of communication, and what sort of updates on work you expect.
It is important to have regular communication between you and your employees. This means that you have multiple channels through which you and your team can talk to each other. These include video calls, emails, and instant messaging platforms.
3. Host A Weekly Team Meeting
On top of a flow of back-and-forth communication, it is important to have a set time when the entire team can meet with each other and have a space to connect, both socially and in terms of work.
This replicates some of the structure of a physical office and ensures that everyone is staying on top of their work. Having these meetings is a great time for people to present progress updates on their projects and foster good collaboration.
4. Invest In Onboarding
Whether you are just switching to a remote model, or have been using one for a while, having a thorough onboarding is important. You need to make sure that your whole team is fully up to speed with the software.
This means taking the time to walk people through the different channels, possibly more than once. If people need help with the software, you need to make sure that they are provided with one-on-one support.
This is very obvious when a new team member joins your organization, but it might also need to be repeated for existing employees. It never hurts to have a bit of a refresher, especially if you’re noticing a lack of activity on certain channels.
5. Have One-On-One Meetings
These are important for checking in on your employees, both work-wise and emotionally. You can get progress reports on various projects and make sure that people aren’t falling behind. This means that you can get ahead of any issues before they arise.
This prevents the need for potential surveillance and allows you to keep in touch with your team while also allowing them autonomy. The other function of these meetings is that you can see how your team members are doing.
Remote work can be hard and isolating, and it is important for your employees to feel like they are cared for and their needs are being heard. Taking the time to talk to them individually can make a world of difference.
6. Create An Office Culture
Another thing you can do to offset the potential isolation that can arise from remote working is to schedule team events. You could do things in person if that’s an option for your team, but there are many ways to have fun online.
You can have an online pizza party or office drinks, where people can chat and get to know each other outside of work. This can be done on whatever online platform you use most often.
There are also many online games that you can play, like online versions of Pictionary. This gives your team an activity to do and can act as an excellent icebreaker.
You can also have some kind of text-based way for employees to chat amongst themselves about non-work related things. This could look like a channel in whatever software your remote team uses.
