The coronavirus epidemic triggered stay-at-home orders, and work-related duties have become difficult for individuals who struggle to manage remote teams.
Some employees are finding it difficult to strike a work-life balance now that they work from home. Some people's productivity has decreased merely because they are unable to get motivated in the morning. These concerns are critical since the performance of your employees has an impact on the overall success of your firm.
While the "office atmosphere" can cause employees to perform better because there is less room for interruptions, the present climate necessitates learning how to manage a remote team for exceptional results. Outsourcing employees or hiring full-time remote employees requires a different approach than managing employees in real life.
Whether you're venturing into the brave new world of remote work by choice or necessity, one thing is certain: managing remote teams demands a different strategy than managing people in the traditional sense. Here are ten strategies for managing your remote staff better, more effectively, and more proactively in both long-term and short-term settings.
Tips to Manage your Remote Team
​​1. Find Team Members With Self-Sufficiency
It is critical that your remote staff be able to operate autonomously. When interviewing for a remote team, inquire about a moment when they had to work independently to achieve a goal. The likelihood of remote workers performing at their best is higher when they are committed to their tasks. Provide assistance and direction to your staff, but don't be afraid to ask them to sort out their own problems through trial and error. You can create a culture of autonomous, remote problem solvers by emphasizing your trust in their judgment.
2. Understand That Remote Work Boosts Productivity
The findings are in, and they are strikingly consistent: remote work boosts productivity. It's difficult to imagine that employees are more productive when their boss isn't hovering over them, but research after study proves it. According to a survey, 77% of individuals who work remotely at least a few times each month report greater productivity, with 30% performing more work in less time and 24% doing more work in the same amount of time.
You must have faith that the people you hired are capable of achieving their objectives. Remember that a time clock does not determine how much work an employee completes. It makes little difference whether the task is done on the couch or at a desk, in sweatpants or in professional attire. A win for your team is when employees complete their assignments.
3. Plan Your Budget and Benefits
Create a budget specifically for the remote staff. The best aspect about working remotely and outsourcing is that you may save money on real estate, upkeep, and office equipment and supplies. Because you are saving money on these fixed expenditures, you may transform those savings into a reward package for your remote staff, such as a remote office setup allowance, internet allowance, and so on. Before going remote, think about how you're going to spend the budget on business benefits.
4. Pick a Common Language and Manage Time Differences
Remote technology allows you to connect with highly qualified professionals all over the world. However, language variations might generate misunderstandings or even errors. Thus, it is important to define the language in which the team will communicate.
Set up a time for meetings for the entire team a few times per week to guarantee that communication can take place. Scheduling a meeting time reduces the time it takes to set up a meeting and allows for more communication. Even though the meeting will start early for some team members and end late for others, making it a regular standing meeting time will build norms that everyone will be ready and available at that time.
5. Use Productivity Tools
Cloud-based services assist remote workers in finishing projects on time and on budget. Tools like Asana, Harvest, and Slack enable communication between laptops, cell phones, and tablets. Complementing project management software with time monitoring might help to increase clarity and productivity.
Additionally, it highlights instances in which a remote employee is dragging out the team's progress. Giving time estimates and then indicating which teams complete tasks by the deadlines will motivate remote workers to complete tasks on schedule or ask for extensions.
While these technologies might help you get more done in less time, they can also help with team development and business culture. Encouragement of communication regarding both work and personal life can increase employee commitment to the organization.
6. Offer More Flexibility in Work Hours
Allowing remote workers to define their own work rhythm is one of the challenges of managing them. Many employers recognize that enforcing strict work hours and dress codes is inefficient and inconvenient. Not only has our workplace changed, but so have the ways in which we work and hold ourselves and our employees accountable. When managing remote teams, the same strategies that worked in the office won't be appropriate.
You must still have certain clear deadlines or common meeting times, but in the meanwhile, allow employees to set their own hours and schedules as much as feasible. They will value the flexibility and be more committed to their work in the long run.
7. Label Business Information for Easy Prioritization
Keeping things organized will help you manage remote teams more effectively. Productivity will increase significantly, and task management will be simpler. Label tasks in your project workflow based on their priority so that your team understands the level of relevance and urgency. Label official documents and correspondence to make priority easier. Labels serve as recommendations for operating remote teams effectively. They also guarantee timeliness, accuracy, and speed.
Here are some examples of labels you can use for your process and tasks:
- FYI/Informational
- Important
- Planning
- Decision
- Review/Feedback
- Urgent
​​8. Enforce Data Security
Unlike in a traditional office setup, when all workstations are in the same place and supported by a local IT department, monitoring data security with remote teams can be difficult, owing to the various devices and configurations. Remote teams are especially exposed to cyber threats as a result of this. According to a survey conducted by One World Identity (OWI) Labs, 81% of users connect to free public Wi-Fi despite being aware of the hazards.
Remote workers should always utilize a mobile VPN solution to encrypt their mobile data over public Wi-Fi to promote data security. Premium VPN providers routinely update their software to encrypt data transiting over unprotected networks. Furthermore, enterprises should have a robust password strategy in place to guarantee that passwords are challenging and updated on a regular basis. Finally, teams should look into cloud solutions that help keep data current and secure.
9. Maintain Morale
Morale is a critical component of remote team management. In a traditional office, you can bond, discuss issues, and so on through business activities, getaways, or a pleasant office dinner. Because you can't do any of those things with a remote team, you must be inventive.
Replace breakroom hangouts with virtual ones, such as a weekly hour-long coffee session. Virtual games can also help with team building. Companies, both remote and in-person, can enhance morale by sending presents for special occasions or accomplishments. You can give generic presents (sweatshirts, t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.), or you can provide them coupons for discounts on whatever they want to buy.
10. Keep Tracking Progress
Before you can effectively assess the progress of your firm, you must first analyze employee performance, which begins with appropriately managing remote teams. To determine whether you're successfully managing your remote workers, do the following:
- Examine your company's goals and successes.
- Investigate critical performance indicators (KPIs).
- Examine customer feedback.
- Assess your search engine optimization (SEO) results.
- Examine the rate of repeat purchases.
- Check your financial statements.
- Compare with competition.
- Determine your own strengths and shortcomings.
- Create plans for improvement.
​​How to Build an Efficient Remote Team?
The first step to building a remote team is to decide whether you want to recruit in-house personnel or outsource from a staffing agency. If you want to remove the major challenges of recruiting an in-house remote team, letting an outsourcing marketplace handle the task can prove to be the best bet.
A virtual outsourcing marketplace like VirtualStaff.ph can help you find the right candidates for the desired roles. Below are some major benefits of building a remote team with VirtualStaff:
- Post jobs and invite workers to apply to your job post.
- Message candidates and send job offers to the applicants you want to hire.
- Hire staff at almost half of the prices as compared to countries like US and UK, starting from $3-4 per hour.
- Use time tracking and management tools to monitor the number of hours worked.
- Pay staff with a click of a button from inside your account.
- No requirements for advance payments as in the case of hiring agencies.
- No responsibilities for offering taxes or healthcare benefits.
The recruitment process will be as simple as below:
- Describe your recruitment goals: Determine the kind of staff you need and what skills they need to have.
- Choose the best staff: Let the team find the best candidates for you, do preliminary interviews, and set up final interviews with the best candidates.
- Onboard your remote staff: Your client success manager will take care of the entire recruitment process while you onboard the selected candidates in your team.
Build Your Remote Team Today!
The future belongs to remote teams. Many studies of employees and CEOs have revealed that a sizable section of the workforce wishes to work remotely even after the pandemic has passed.
Entrepreneurs have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to form diverse remote teams that perform as well as or better than in-person teams while saving money on startup and overhead expenditures. While managing team members in different locations or countries might present a number of obstacles, managing remote teams is a breeze with the correct actions and tools.
So, schedule a free consultation call and discuss your recruitment goals with a client success manager, ask questions about the entire process, and build your remote team without any recruitment fees. Talk to an expert today!
