Proficiently managing a remote workforce takes mental preparedness, especially if you are a traditional-minded. Years ago, business leaders monitored and measured business productivity based on visible activity time and “desk time.” If this is what you are used to, you may find the idea of shifting to remote work unwieldy and foreign.
If you are in this situation and are looking for tips to manage your remote employees successfully, here are some practical guidelines.
1. Have clear objectives and goals
One of the best tips for effectively managing a remote workforce is to set clear objectives. All your employees need to understand what is expected of them. Start by writing down the mission and vision, each employee’s job description, and responsibilities. Additionally, assign weekly tasks to each team member. The team must understand the overall objectives and goals of their department and company.
Something else to keep in mind when running a remote workforce is to ensure the team understands the company’s mission and vision. This way, they can be able to align their role in the corporate with the organization’s overall goal. As the team leader, you can achieve this by documenting and sharing the company’s corporate vision, mission, code of conduct, and core values with the newbies. You could also share the documents with existing team members.
You risk a total breakdown of law and order in the organization, ultimately affecting staff efficiency and conduct when you fail to set clear objectives and goals from the beginning.
2. Cultivate a positive work culture
Fostering a positive work culture is crucial when managing a remote team. Encourage team-building activities and social events among your employees. For instance, you could hold virtual happy hours and virtual casino games like roulette on PlayCroco. Platforms like Team Building, Donut, and Icebreaker can also help facilitate these team-building activities.
Additionally, you can use different tools to gain valuable insight into the dynamics of your remote workforce and identify areas that may need improvement. By creating a positive work culture, you can build a sense of collaboration and community among your employees, which helps boost their productivity and morale.
3. Emphasize communication
Managers need to communicate effectively with their staff to keep them apprised of available resources, deadlines, and work-related challenges. It also helps you to convey your expectations, including schedules. Remember to assess different tools to ensure you pick a communication tool that suits the organizational culture, including texts, emails, video chats, and phone calls.
As the team leader, it is also crucial to find the right balance between radio silence and constantly pinging your workforce with emails and texts. Also, keep in mind that the frequency of correspondence will often differ from employee to employee.
One of the best ways to get around this is to ask your employees how they prefer to be managed when working remotely. This way, you can keep track of what each team member needs to be productive. Remember that too much oversight may come off as a sign of mistrust if your employees communicate clearly and meet their deadlines and goals.
4. Take advantage of automation
Automation tools that simplify most work processes offer an easy way to manage remote employees. Equip your workforce with task and time management tools to improve their efficiency. One important thing to take note of is ensuring these tools are easily accessible to your team.
There are automation tools for different tasks, from communication, task scheduling, project management, check-ins, time-tracking, etc.
5. Recognize employees and provide feedback
Regularly recognizing your remote workforce and providing feedback will help keep them motivated and engaged. You can track progress and recognize great effort with rewards through different platforms such as 15Five and Blueboard.
The feedback you provide should be specific, actionable, and constructive. It should focus on the staff’s strengths and the areas they need to improve. You’ll help your employees meet their goals faster by identifying areas that need improvement and giving them the tools they need to succeed. Lastly, recognition is a powerful motivator, and you should acknowledge and celebrate your team’s successes.
6. Follow up with your remote workforce regularly
There is no one-size-fits-all on how often to reach out to your remote employees. Yet, one-on-one calls aren’t just about monitoring productivity but can also be an excellent approach to keeping employees engaged and motivated.
You could schedule one-on-one calls with your employees daily, weekly, or biweekly. These calls will help you:
- Determine which employees are performing well overall.
- Work with your team to pinpoint and eliminate bottlenecks.
- Answer questions from the staff
- Discuss plans for your workforce’s professional development.
The frequency of interaction with your staff will depend on the employee and the nature of their position. Some may require a weekly call, while others require daily calls. The manager and supervisor should keep their staff’s calendars and needs in mind when scheduling the calls.
Embrace remote working
Remote work has become necessary for most organizations, and managers have to adapt to this new work model. These six strategies are crucial to manage remote teams successfully. By leveraging these tools, you can build solid and efficient remote teams capable of meeting their objectives and driving success.
