Facilitating Productivity: How to Manage a Remote Team

In our modern and digitally connected world, it is now easier than ever to hire and source talent from all around the globe to work for or with your company; remote working is now more popular than ever, and small businesses especially are investing in global talent.

Bringing a remote worker into your team can prevent unique management challenges which often go overlooked. By managing a remote team effectively, you can improve its overall productivity. When working with a remote team however, you may often have no idea what your team are up to, how much work they are getting through, if any, or if there are any issues which need resolving.

When managing a remote team, there are lots of strategies and tips you can take on board, which will help keep them motivated and productive.

Take Advantage of Video Conferencing

Thanks to the internet, more than one half of communication between people is now non-verbal and, with remote workers, it is not like you see them in the office each day. Having an idea about what someone is thinking or is doing is essential; video conferencing is a great way to gauge out reactions to plans or just get a feeling for the overall mood within your remote team. There are many free solutions for video conferencing, such as Skype and Google Hangouts, so there is no reason not to adopt this approach.

Collaborate on Documents

Google Drive is a great way you and your remote team can collaborate on projects, documents and spreadsheets. Collaborating on documents gives a wider feeling of belonging to a team and can prevent your remote team members from feeling disenfranchised or disconnected from each other.

Implement Schedules and Systems

Although your team are remote workers that does not mean there should not be some form of a schedule. Without these, your project could fall apart. In a remote team, each worker is in their own world and have their own approaches to work. But, with a standardized way of working – such as set hours or times each team member needs to be available for video contact – can help projects run smoother.

Allow Controlled Flexibility

The great thing about working remotely is that it allows your team a degree of flexibility they may not have in an office environment. But, it is important to exercise a degree of control over this flexibility so that your projects do not become erratic and productivity begins to fall. Perhaps consider scheduling a timeslot each day or a few days a week where all of your team need to be available for meetings, discussions or collaboration on projects.

Track Hours Worked

If you are paying somebody on a per-hour basis, then it makes so much more sense to track their time and see how many hours they are putting into your project. In a remote team, it is not such a simple task, because you cannot see who is coming into work each day and tracking their work.

In a virtual environment, it can be hard to keep an eye on what people are doing and know what is going on. There is software out there available which can track hours spent working, take random screenshots of their computer, record breaks and even report back which websites have been visited.

Convey Emotion

Although it is not as easy to convey emotion when working with a remote team because of the absence of face-to-face contact, using emojis and animated gifs can be a great way to let your team know how you are feeling about something. Gifs and emojis are simple ways to convey emotion, promote positive reinforcement and let your team know how you are feeling.

Try to Meet Up Occasionally

Yes, the whole point of a virtual team is for it to be virtual but, if you can, try to meet up occasionally – once or twice per year – with your long-term team members. Although this may not be possible if your team are based around the world, getting people together face-to-face if you are based in the same country is a great way to reinforce the wider team relationships. Plus, it can build up rapport between team members which goes a long way to help collaborative projects come to life and overall productivity to improve.

It may cost a lot of money to get your team together in one place, but think of the potential return on that investment; meeting up provides a golden opportunity to have team discussions around the future of the company.

Check Up Often

When people are working remotely, all too often it is easy to feel isolated and lonely. You should check up on your team members individually every so often, to gauge how they are feeling and to see if there is anything you or the company can do to help.

You should not do this too often as this may be seen as being overbearing, but checking in at least once a month is a great way to keep morale up and prevent issues from arising.

Recruit Fresh Faces

Don’t be afraid to expand your virtual team, either. If you come across somebody who is the right fit for an available job, bring them on board! Having new people constantly being introduced to the team helps to keep things interesting and also avoids the issues associated with sudden departures of team members, which can happen often with remote working.

Value Your Team

A little goes a long way and you should let your virtual team know that they are valued. They need to know that not only are they helping the team reach its goals, but they are also individually valuable to the company. Maintaining non-work related communications, sending gifts during birthdays or special occasions and keeping your team informed about the company are great ways to show your team that they are individually valued and improve productivity.