3 Tips on How to Manage Your Remote Team Effectively

The advance of technologies and the possibility of remote work allow companies to acquire the best talents all over the world. At the same time, one can provide a more flexible working environment for those who work within the same location. Remote teams are no longer a rarity. Yet, even today management of such teams comes with many peculiarities and demands special skills to create a welcoming and productive work atmosphere. We offer three tips on how to manage the remote team effectively.

Develop a culture

By developing a company culture you can foster a feeling of belonging for all of your employees. All of them should feel connected to both your organization and the purpose it is pursuing. It is important to emphasize inclusion and respect.

Just because some of the team members are not working on sight, it does not mean that they perform secondary functions or are rudimentary to the company’s operations. Treating your remote team in the same way as your local employees emphasizes their role in the company as well the responsibilities they bear within it. 

The success of the strategy in many ways depends on the communication style. Your remote team should have access to the necessary resources and people when needed, and receive a response within a reasonable time not to feel disconnected from the core team on sight. Yet, there should be clear rules in place regulating the access to and availability of the remote team as well. Setting up a clear set of regulations about communication time-frames and style will help to maintain a healthy and balanced atmosphere among all of your employees to allow them to take control of their life-work integration.

Organize your workflow

The clarity of communication correlates directly with how well it is organized. Thus, it is highly recommended to make sure that the expectations of all the parties are clear. Make sure that everyone is aware of the key objectives, their specific role in the team and the list of personal assignments.

Provide clear explanations, or if necessary training, about the tools used within the company to assign, track and check on the delivery of tasks. Define the deadlines specifically: use dates instead of vaguely formulated “this week” or “in the near future”. Have a feedback loop in place that would help the team be praised for the work well done and guided to those aspects of work that can be improved.

It is important that all of your employees understand the final goals. This would require cultural awareness to forward information and organize work in a way that would feel natural and comfortable to your remote workers while it would also fit your timeframes and working style. 

Ensure transparency in your remote team

Finally, regardless of the workflow in place, it is important to maintain transparency with all of your workers. While feedback can help to maintain clear communication about the work-related questions, having an open channel to discuss other issues may benefit the above-mentioned working culture.

By making the first step forward and setting an example of openness and honesty, employers can help their team members to be open and honest, too. There are times when life circumstances may affect the work. Thus, it is better if people can freely share if they have any roadblocks on their way to performing at their best. On the one hand, it will spare the whole team of unexpected silence or disruptions in the workflow. On the other, those in need of help or assistance in their work or personal life will have one more support channel.