25% of the US workforce was already working remotely before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. The figure is enough to suggest they were being successfully managed, or else organizations would not have allowed such a significant percentage to continue working from home.
But to successfully manage remote teams, organizations must first understand the challenges associated with them. It is precisely what we are going to do. Before looking at the various ways to best manage a remote team, we will first understand the issues commonly associated with managing remote teams. Let’s get started.
Challenges Associated With Remote Teams
A recent study undertaken by the Society for Human Resource Management revealed that approximately 70% of organizations are finding it difficult to negotiate the challenges posed by remote working post the Covid-19 pandemic.
The findings do not come as a surprise. After all, managing a remote workforce is highly demanding. Even the slightest mistakes can give birth to stressed, disengaged, unproductive, and isolated employees who are least bothered about the organizational goals and objectives. Besides, organizations have to contend with a multitude of other issues, including:
a. Lack of in-person supervision
b. Inadequate access to critical information
c. Feeling of isolation
d. Distractions at home
e. Lack of communication
The issues listed above pose a grave challenge for organizations. Fortunately, companies today have access to several research-based and time-tested techniques to help them manage a remote workforce. The following section introduces our readers to the top 10 strategies to manage remote teams efficiently.
10 Proven Ways to Best Manage a Remote Team
While the list presented below is not exhaustive, it more or less covers everything there is to managing a remote team efficiently. Let’s understand each one of these proven strategies in detail.
1. Set Clear Expectations
Nothing should be left open to personal interpretation in the case of remote teams. Organizations must ensure they provide, in writing, clarity on staffing policies, roles & responsibilities, performance goals, expected employee behavior, appraisal methods, and every other detail an employee should know. Listing expectations and getting everyone to agree and acknowledge ensures organizations have the groundwork for managing remote workers.
2. Be Prepared to Listen, Embrace Differences, Show Empathy
Time and again, we have emphasized how workforce diversity is one of the most significant advantages remote teams offer. The downside is that the package also includes cultural differences, varied viewpoints, and a different attitude towards work. Organizations must be willing to accept cultural differences, embrace different perspectives, and display empathy where needed, but in a manner that does not compromise organizational values, ethics, and work quality.
3. Use Technology to Manage
With the rising popularity of remote teams, the technology around remote working has also expanded. There are several online tools that help organizations stay in constant touch with remote employees and measure everything, from quantifiable matrices, such as employee productivity, to subjective matrices like employee satisfaction and happiness. These tools are not only an effective means of communication but also keep remote workers on their toes. At the same time, organizations must ensure they do not use too many tools too often as it may lead to a technology overload and hamper employee morale and productivity.
4. Establish Processes to Track and Manage Productivity
Setting clear expectations around productivity and performance is another thing; implementing the same on the ground is another. While the very essence of remote working is allowing employees to work freely as per their preferred schedules, organizations must maintain perfect balance by laying down processes to manage and track productivity and hold remote workers accountable. After all, discipline without freedom might be absolute tyranny, but freedom without discipline is complete chaos.
5. Build Connections and Support Remote Teams
Remote working may provide employees the freedom to work as per their schedules, but it can also make them feel neglected and isolated. To add to the above, imagine the frustration when the production and communication tools are not working, and nobody is willing to hear and resolve the issues. As such, managers must ensure they build connections with remote workers to make them feel valued, mentor more than manage, and support the distributed teams by providing all necessary resources and removing obstacles hampering morale and productivity.
6. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Forget about remote workers; even office-going employees complain about the management not communicating with them enough. Most managers assume a regular 5-10 minute daily check-in with remote teams does the job. In reality, though, it hardly serves the purpose. Communicating with remote employees is more than just discussing work-related issues. It is about apprising them of new initiatives, their importance for the organization, growth opportunities, organizational expectations, policy changes, and much more. Organizations that recognize the social and psychological needs of remote employees are in a better position to manage remote teams than those who merely treat them as workhorses.
7. Focus More on Outcome than Activities
While it is crucial to keep a check on productivity and performance, nagging remote workers at regular intervals may make them feel untrustworthy. Frankly speaking, we don’t understand why companies should even choose to tread that path. After all, why hire remote workers when you can’t trust them? Once the expectations are set, goals assigned, and accountability defined, organizations should let remote workers develop their respective action plans. The focus should be on achieving the desired results rather than micromanaging and monitoring what remote teams do every second, minute, and hour.
8. Encourage Online Team Interactions and Bonding Activities
Working in an office environment provides employees an opportunity to connect and bond through face-to-face interactions. It is not the case with remote teams, where each employee works in isolation. Managers must ensure they either ask for some time off for the distributed teams to interact and bond or allocate a few minutes during or after scheduled meetings for team-building exercises and informal conversations.
9. Flexibility is the Key
Each remote team member is susceptible to different challenges like ill health, problems with personal relationships, a casualty in the family, etc. In such times, organizations should be sympathetic and allow remote workers to work their preferred schedules per their convenience.
10. Celebration and Recognition
Most people, including us, know what working in an office environment feels like. We eagerly look forward to birthday celebrations, potluck lunches, recognition programs, and award ceremonies. Just because remote employees work out of different locations, it does not mean they do not want to celebrate or be recognized. Celebrating success with and recognizing remote workers on a public platform ensures they stay motivated, self-managed, and highly productive.
Parting Thoughts
If you rewind the discussion we had in this post, you will find it all starts with hiring people, whether for in-office or remote positions. Because we are dealing with remote teams, we will restrict ourselves to the same. First things first. There wouldn’t be a need for this discussion if only an organization hired a self-motivated and self-managed remote team. But what if the water has already crossed the banks? Based on our discussion thus far, four success factors prominently stand out: communication, flexibility, freedom, and accountability. The absence of any of the above might render a remote team ineffective and jeopardize many projects. The Covid-19 pandemic might have changed the mindset of organizations managing a remote team, but the basics remain the same. This post is a must-read for organizations that are lost and still wondering how to best manage a remote team.
About Ufinity Ventures
Ufinity Ventures provides talent management and business development solutions for SMEs & startups looking to outsource operations to Asia. Be it pre-hire services or post-hire assistance, we offer end-to-end solutions and work as an extended team for our broad global clientele base, thereby helping them save time and costs while enabling them to gain access to the best local talent.
