With the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of remote workers drastically increased. But with remote-working come big challenges like lack of face-to-face supervision, lengthy process of acquiring information, distractions at home, and more. Handling factors like loneliness due to home-setting becomes a challenging task. In such a scenario, managers need to take the right steps to boost effective management and productivity. Remember that for some companies, the proper remote-working management gave exceptional results. Even after an improvement in the situation, they are still leading a remote team due to a boost in productivity and overall growth. Let’s take a look at some of the most sought-out ways to lead a remote team and make the most of their efforts.
Regular communication with employees
Your remote employees aren’t a part of daily interactions in the office. Scheduling frequent one-on-one or team calls for general discussions is essential. You must be aware of their queries, confusions, and struggling areas. A lack of daily interaction might leave them feeling drained and least motivated to give their best. If your projects require heavy team collaboration, then schedule team calls frequently. But make sure you provide ample attention to all remote employees, especially if they are just starting out.
Take time to deal with everyday challenges
Remote workers often go through a series of common challenges like declined productivity, increased distractions, lack of knowledge about certain technical aspects, and more. Online payment becomes one of the most significant problems associated with a globally distributed team. You will never find yourself wondering about the right method of paying a domestic workforce. But with remote teams come a wide variety of factors affecting this decision. Make sure you are dedicated to choosing solutions that lead to smooth online payments processing. There are many platforms dedicated to making this task easier. These platforms aim at reducing fraud, flexible integration with your business, and quick turnaround time.
Schedule random informal virtual meet-ups
Social interaction becomes an important part when it comes to remote working. Your team members are stuck at their homes in front of their screens for straightaway hours. Random virtual meet-ups to discuss fun topics or even world-crisis works wonders. These meet-ups are extremely important for employees who have worked in the office environment for years. The mind often takes time to adjust to a sudden environmental shift. You don’t even have to schedule them separately. Just give your employees time to chit-chat during the initial 15-20 minutes of the regular team calls. Random virtual events will help cope with loneliness and lack of social interaction.
Set clear expectations from your employees
Remember that your employees are working remotely and it’s your responsibility to communicate your expectations, company values, and more. Over the years, managers have tried their best to keep their domestic workforce aware of every relevant policy and change. If you are low on communicating your expectations, employees are likely to get overly relaxed, thereby leading to minimum productivity from their end. Taking regular updates of the day will help you understand their attitude towards working hours. In addition, communicate your work culture, project guidelines, style guidelines, time constraint, etc.
Rely on relevant communication channels
Communicating virtually becomes the factor that binds remote employees with management. Make sure you have a dedicated communication channel for managing remote teams. This channel will aim at alerting your remote workers of every important update. Try to figure out the best way to communicate with your employees. Some teams better understand video calls while others need a simple text with the required details. Remember that you also need to avoid continuously pinging your employees. Your whole communication model should focus on getting work done without putting any virtual pressure on your remote team.
Go ahead and apply the right tactics to develop a solid remote team that provides results. With time and the right strategies, you will realize managing a remote team isn’t as difficult as it seems.
