Miscellaneous

How to Manage Remote Teams Effectively

The next three months were the only period in our company’s history where everyone has been in the same city at the same time. You can play everything from Pictionary to Bingo to Hangman to Hearts. Here are lists of Zoom meeting games, Slack games, improv games and online game night ideas. Embrace transparency, foster a sense of belonging, form connections – and have fun along the way. Another way to think of good habits is directing people to use certain modes of communication depending on their needs.

Effective Team Collaboration—Benefits, Strategies and Tools

Use an employee-friendly goal setting and tracking system to give everyone access to company goals, progress updates, new projects, and more. Check in regularly with your remote employees for both one-on-ones and team meetings so everyone has a chance to touch base and keep their finger on the pulse of the company. Despite the many benefits of remote work, the number one drawback employees complained of was loneliness. Keep your remote employees engaged by fostering team connections through social hours, video chats, and virtual team-building activities. While many challenges might come up while managing team members in different cities or countries, managing remote teams is a breeze with the right actions and tools. Labels serve as necessary guidelines for effectively managing remote teams.

Put these documents on a shared drive or project management platform, so anyone can access them at any time. Perhaps the hardest, yet most obvious, way to compensate for the lack of context in remote communication is to be more forward and open than you normally would. As I mentioned in my example earlier, working with someone in an office makes it easier to pick up on their mood and know when they need some time alone. When you work remotely, you’re going to bug people by chatting to them when they’re not in the mood—it’s unavoidable.

Communicate with employees when you take action (or why you won’t be taking action) on their feedback so they know they have been heard and their opinion is valued. When employees feel valued they are happier and more engaged at work. Assign mentors to new hires so new employees have someone they can rely on to ask questions and get oriented throughout their first year. If possible, plan in-person team or company retreats and outings to strengthen those connections. According to the Harvard Business Review, 62% of employees believe working remotely positively impacts engagement, yet only 5% are likely to stay at their company long-term. Plus, companies that offer remote and flexible work options are more attractive to top talent, helping businesses land and retain a competitive workforce.

That said, as you grow you might find multiple people in cities and some in-person social environments will emerge. For example, we currently have several people in Austin and Portland who routinely meet in person for co-working and other social events. When managing remote teams, it’s absolutely critical to be able to keep your team’s sense of trust, reliability, teamwork, and overall confidence that you support them. If you’re looking for a solution to improve productivity, communication and time tracking in your team, Teambook could be the tool for you.

View more resources on Employee Engagement

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Impromptu chats

I feel that in the future, remote work will become increasingly common. I believe that open communication with members is a beneficial method. To motivate team members, the team leader must be flexible while setting goals. Set up virtual hangouts to chat about how your team members cope with remote work and project management. Discuss how previous projects went, the blockers they faced, how they found solutions, and how challenging or exciting their tasks have been in general. Regardless of the physical distance between your employees, social interaction is an effective method to manage a remote team. As a business owner or manager looking to learn how to manage a remote team, ensure you provide resources to help your team grow and handle tasks more efficiently.

If a meeting or call is mandatory and work-related, plan on paying staff members to attend. The lines between job duties and personal life can often blur in a remote job setting, leading to potential burnout. This could be by encouraging team members to take regular breaks, setting clear boundaries for job hours, or even providing resources on mindfulness and stress management.

By dealing with these barriers, you can easily improve teamwork while also creating a healthier and supportive work environment. You can even boost your team members’ productivity with distraction management features. One of the best ways to help them out with this is to use technology, such as time tracking tools like TimeDoctor. Additionally, most instant messaging tools also allow structured conversations via separate channels. Video calls also offer tons of other benefits for your remote team. Video conferences enable face-to-face communication between team members and can play a massive role in effective collaboration.