Technology and social circumstance over recent years have paved the way for the rise of remote teams, and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. The dynamics of remote teams change significantly compared to office-based teams, as there’s no opportunity for face-to-face meetings, which can make it more challenging to bring out productivity and motivation. Fortunately, if you take on board the following tips, you’ll be managing remote teams just as effectively as office-based teams in no time.
Allow for Flexibility
Getting fired up and motivated to work from home isn’t always easy, and home circumstances don’t always make for the best working environments. Therefore, make sure that your team knows that they’re allowed to complete tasks on their own schedule – as long it’s communicated with you and deadlines are met.
Boosted Communication
Communication is essential for any workforce to function, and it’s even more pivotal for remote teams. When dealing with communication in remote settings, it’s best to favour over-communication. This doesn’t mean bombarding your team with constant status checks. Instead, you need to schedule virtual meetings with the entire team, as well as individuals, to discuss progress, goals, and answer any questions.
If anything changes and the project parameters are impacted, be sure to communicate this, as being on the same page is essential for any team. Once you’ve delivered updates and brought your team up to speed, it’s important to step back and let them get on.
Seek Out Regular Feedback
Friction within the workplace makes simple daily tasks feel much more challenging, and pain points are more difficult to see in remote workplaces. Therefore, as well as asking questions in 1:1 meetings, make use of the employee engagement survey tools from inpulse.com, which will allow you to understand current areas in need of improvement.
Demonstrate Empathy
Employee well-being is a little more challenging to gauge in remote teams, so you’ll need to put time aside to ask those important questions about feelings. As working from home affects everyone differently, you’ll need to have a high level of empathy to understand your team’s perspectives, even when they don’t align with yours. If any member of your team is struggling, work together to put measures in place to improve their position.
Team’s Feelings on Tech Systems
Technology is the bedrock of remote working, but that doesn’t mean every system you use is efficient. For your remote team to work efficiently, you need to make sure all members are happy with the technology in place. During your 1:1 meetings, ask questions about the technology and search for ways you can make improvements.
Give Newcomers Extra Support
Once your team has been working remotely for a while, they’ll likely be self-sufficient without little input. However, when a new person starts working remotely, they may feel isolated and disconnected from the team. Therefore, you should allot more scheduled meeting times and pair them with a remote working veteran.
Remote teams can be super effective, but they’ll need plenty of support, trust, and direction to get there.