Today, almost every company has had employees work remotely. With the current pandemic situation and lockdown restrictions all over the world, businesses everywhere must quickly set up remote teams and offices with little to no warning. Whatever the case, you are certainly not alone in wondering how to manage a remote team.
Remote teams can be great for business if you know how to effectively manage them. Dealflow Brokerage, an online business brokerage service, says that this having remote team members has been crucial to their success.
On the other hand, an uncontrolled team is a disaster whether it is remote or not but getting a remote team to be more efficient can be more difficult.
Luckily, you are not alone and as others have had the same problems, there’s an abundance of tips and tricks for getting your team to work more efficiently than ever.
From start to finish, here are just a few tips for getting your remote team organized and working efficiently.
1. Set Up A Clear, Easy-to-Use Communications System
Obviously, you’ll need a way to stay in contact with your team. Unfortunately, it may not be quite as obvious what system to use for communication. You certainly cannot rely solely on video calls and set times, but you don’t want to use half a dozen different platforms and risk someone not getting all the information.
In the technology filled world we live in, it’s not hard to find a versatile communication platform. Google offers video calls, chatrooms, and audio calls; Microsoft (News - Alert) has an entire application solely for teams. Some newer applications such as Trello, Basecamp, and Wrike were designed specifically to make project managing easier.
One of the newer and more popular platforms for communication is Slack as it allows several channels to be made and you can group employees together. It’s an easy location for posting information for everyone to see without having to arrange a video call beforehand.
If you have an international based team where some members of your team are in different time zones, you will have to account for that. Big time zone differences can make it next to impossible to schedule video calls or have a time where everyone is working. If your team needs to be available for video calls or regular team communication, you may want to consider only hiring people within 3 or 4 hours of each other.
2. Provide Individual Feedback
Even if your team does work remotely, you should still offer feedback. In order to help your team, grow and progress, you need to keep your employees motivated and research shows that providing regular feedback is one of the best ways to do so. Just like regular office work, you should give your team constructive feedback and recognise their efforts.
If you are unsure how to provide feedback for a remote team, don’t let that put you off. Video calls can be a great method for providing that face-to-face feedback and prevent the most misunderstandings. However, if video calls will not work, it’s just as possible to send your team individual emails or messages to help them adapt and grow.
One of the worst things you can do is wait to give feedback until a quarterly review. The lack of regular feedback can make team members unmotivated and their quality of work will go down. By providing regular, semi-weekly reviews and advice to each team member individually, you’ll receive better work and find members are more motivated and working more efficiently on their own.
3. Fully Explain Problems from the Start
It can be difficult to describe the full picture to a team remotely, but it is important you do your best right from the beginning. If you only give your team partial details or expect them to know the problem already, there is going to be misunderstanding and time will be wasted. Do not get caught only giving team members a brief overview or partial information. Without the full picture, your team cannot start working to find a solution.
When you are giving your team information on a new problem or project, outline all the critical details and expectations. Even if this project is like a previous one, it is worth the time to rewrite expectations and procedures again.
Some team members may not make the immediate connection to a previous problem or fully understand what is expected of them if you don’t fully explain.
Conclusion
There are many more ways for working with your remote team to improve efficiency, but these are just the first three steps you should take. If you find your team still isn’t being productive or working efficiently, consider implementing work tracking systems that log how long your team members work each day and what tasks they’re doing.
Most times, an inefficient team is the result of insufficient communication and misunderstandings. By taking extra care in the steps above, you will move your team towards success and find team members are working more productively and efficiently.
