How To Manage Remote Teams Effectively

Today, most of the functions of all businesses are being operated from home, be it a century-old company or a month-old startup. While this shift to the ‘new normal’ is the need of the hour, it has brought with it certain challenges like virtual communications gaps and ineffective management of the teams working remotely.

Common Challenges Faced During Remote Management

Following are some common challenges faced by managers while managing a team remotely –

• Inability to supervise face-to-face: The advancement in technology today, allows us to communicate with our team members even in the remotest corners of the world. However, despite offering 24*7 connectivity, a virtual setup cannot fill the void created due to the lack of face-to-face interactions.

• Lack of knowledge control: In a remote work environment, the learning and development activities of employees often get compromised due to communication gaps and lack of one-on-one interactions which often help in understanding the need for such modules.

• Social segregation: Social isolation is bound to affect one’s mental condition. Work from the office provides a working environment where you interchange your ideas with your seniors but this is lacking while working from home.

According to a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management

(SHRM), almost 71 percent of employers are finding it difficult to adjust to remote work and nearly 65 percent are struggling to keep the morale of their employees high.

Fortunately, there are specific research strategies that managers can make without putting in a significant amount of time and effort to increase the commitment and performance of their workers even in a remote setup.

Tips That Can Help Manage Remote Teams Better

Despite remote work complications, there are several basic tips one can adopt as a manager to enhance the workflow, effectiveness, and work spirit of the team members. Let’s discuss them in detail –

Organize Daily Meetings

This may sound bombastic but for all the managers and workers new to remote working, this is the ideal solution. Schedule the day-to-day call meetings with your colleagues to plan and discuss all the major points. Plan these calls carefully with their duration, length, objectives, and arrangement. You must also share the benefit of flexible work hours with your colleagues but also, let your team members understand the value of deadline adherence.

Focus on Productive Outcomes

You must understand the fact that it’s not possible to manage every part of the work done by the remote team members. You must take action and track the work of each member with Mac computer monitoring software.

Especially when your team is available from different corners of the world. Instead, focus on the working hours of the team and their productivity and outcomes. This way, you can examine the quality of the work done by your team on a broad aspect.

Set Down Some Rules & Regulations

Try to maintain proper meeting schedules for future reference so that the team can adjust and be ready with their daily discussion reports on time. Let your staff know the means to reach you at a time of less urgency. It is also a smart idea to set a few etiquette guidelines to facilitate the team’s workflow. For example, ask them to cut background noise or mute their microphones, dress up formally, etc. during group calls.

Encourage Online Social Interactions

Besides affecting physical health, the ongoing pandemic has also taken a toll on the mental health of people. Due to this many of us aren’t able to respond actively to current situations and constraints, so casual interaction is important. Any current affairs or off-topic debates at the start of each meeting are a good idea. You may also attempt to host several virtual theme parties for your coworkers to foster team bonding.

Be the Backbone and Encourage your Team

You can support your team by asking about their work from home experiences. Ask them about the challenges they are facing and what you can do for them to make things easy. These small gestures create a positive physiological impact which can definitely leave a good impression on colleagues. Also, compliment the members for their achievements and hard work.

Use an ISO-complaint Management System

Every organization follows a unique style of working to improve the performance of its resources. The most important duty of a manager is to maintain the decorum of the organization’s working styles and make sure that the team members are also following the same. For this, you can make use of ISO-compliant management systems to achieve your organizational objectives with uniformity and consistency

Practice Transparency Manage Remote Teams

By practicing and embracing honesty in each stage as part of your team culture, you not only win the trust of your remote staff but also make sure they do not hesitate to contact you for any questions or complaints. This practice also helps you keep remote staff on a long-term basis. For example, if you have something to share, make sure you let any team member know simultaneously — not just the leaders of your team.

Provide Resources

Ensure that your team has the technology to complete the task. If you are managing a remote team, it means that there is a fair possibility that they need equipment such as laptops, apps, handheld devices or even high-speed Internet access. This might not be possible for all the members to enjoy the benefits of the technology at the same time, but it is your duty as a manager to make sure that everybody does.

Warping up

Showing respect and trusting your coworkers will bring you one step closer to their successful management. Moreover, it is important to take action to increase the understanding of cybersecurity because companies today are more exposed to cyber threats. Finally, it is important to create a completely remote work strategy so that your employees can explicitly define and understand all work processes.