The Best Advice You Could Ever Get About How To Manage A Remote Team
One of the best pieces of advice about how to manage a remote team is: don’t let remote work be an excuse for poor management.
We can all talk about the need to create a culture of open communication and transparency, and the need to avoid conflicts and misunderstandings - things are easier said than done.
In this guide, we’ll take you through the strategies you need to successfully manage a remote team of any size.
How do you manage a fully remote team?
First, let’s understand the common challenges facing fully remote teams. In this world of globalization and remote work, we are seeing a rise in the number of remote employees. This trend has many advantages to both employers and employees - but it also brings with it some challenges.
As a remote team manager, you need to brace yourself for these challenges, understand them, and come up with solutions to deal with them. Here are some common remote team challenges that you may come across when building a remote team.
1. Social isolation
Social isolation is a challenge for many remote workers. They miss out on the camaraderie that comes from working alongside colleagues in an office environment. It can be hard for them to make friends when they are not physically present in the office and they have no one to talk to during their lunch break or after work hours. But with the right resources and supervision, managers can help remote employees beat boredom and loneliness.
2. Distractions at home
Remote workers are more productive than in-office workers. However, they can be less productive if they’re distracted by their family or pets. Every remote worker needs a way of dealing with these distractions and ensuring they are on top of their work. This is something to keep in mind when building a remote team.
3. Virtual (Zoom) fatigue
Virtual (Zoom) fatigue makes a person increasingly less attentive and more socially withdrawn as they spend more time on video calls. Users can even experience physical symptoms such as headaches, blurred vision, nausea, and dizziness. With regular breaks, remote teams can beat Zoom fatigue and stay productive.
4. Scheduling difficulties
It can be harder to find a time that everyone agrees on, and you may have to go through rescheduling meetings again and again. As a manager, you’ll find yourself always on the lookout for a better way to schedule meetings to please everyone. With the right scheduling tools, managers can create agreeable meeting times for their remote workforce, no matter what timezone they may be working in.
What is the best way to manage remote employees?
There is no single best way to manage remote workers because of the nuances of individual situations, locations, and culture. It can be very easy for remote workers to get lost in their own work and lose touch with the company - breeding loneliness and isolation.
To make sure that this doesn’t happen, you need to have a clear plan of action for managing remote workers.
Here are the best remote team management strategies to explore and implement for significant results.
1. Hire for culture fit
When building a remote team, it is important to have the right people on your team. You need to hire for cultural fit. It is easy to find someone who has the skills you need and can do the job, but it is more difficult to find someone who will work well with your team. There are some important elements that can help you find out if the candidate is a good fit or not. These include, but are not limited to, values and beliefs, personality traits, communication styles, and motivation for work.
2. Create and implement precise standards for remote work productivity
If you want to increase the productivity of your remote employees, you need to create and implement precise standards for working remotely. This is not always easy because there are many factors that can influence the productivity of remote workers. Some of the most important factors include how well they know their co-workers, what their work environment is like, and whether they have a good connection with their supervisor.
3. Keep communication open
Communication is key to any successful company, and that is especially true for companies with remote employees. As a manager, it’s important to keep communication channels open so that you can reach out to your employees when needed - and so they feel comfortable reaching out to you.
4. Ensure the right tools are available
Remote teams have to work through different challenges in order to be productive, as they are not able to work in the same physical space. This is where the right tools come into play.
Remote teams need access to all the necessary tools that will allow them to collaborate and work together seamlessly. There are many online and workplace tools that can be used for this purpose, but some are more popular than others, depending on the type of company or team.
5. Be mindful of overloading and overworking
It is very important to be mindful of the fact that remote teams can be overworked and overloaded. It is possible for this to happen without you realizing it. This can lead to a decrease in productivity and motivation. In order to prevent this from happening, you should make sure that your team is getting enough time off the job, ensuring a healthy work/life balance. You should also make sure that they are not working too many hours in a row.
6. Create and implement virtual team building activities
Virtual team building activities are a great tool in team building for remote workers. They allow you to create a sense of community for your remote workforce. You can also use them to build trust among employees and explore how they work together. The following are some virtual team building activities you can use to create a sense of community when approaching team building for remote workers:
Create a company-wide scavenger hunt where employees have to find things in their home office or answer questions about each other.
Create a group chat with some icebreakers, such as “What’s your favorite color?” or “What’s your favorite movie?” that allows employees to get to know each other better.
Have weekly video conferences with the whole company where people can check in, share their stories, and talk about what they’re working on at the moment.
Create an online photo album of your group’s favorite memories together, or use it to share photos of your team’s pets.
7. Provide feedback on their work
It’s important for managers to make sure they are not just “checking in” periodically, but also providing feedback on a regular basis. In order to provide feedback on employees’ work, they need to find time for them and make sure they have the necessary skill set.
Managers should also be mindful of how often they are giving feedback and how much detail is included in it. Feedback should be given about once every two weeks or so and should contain specific, actionable suggestions for improvement and praise for good work done.
8. Allow your team to input ideas
The more ideas we have, the better the outcome.That’s why it’s important to allow your team to input ideas. This will not only make them feel like they’re part of the process, but it will also give you a chance to see how they think about a project and how they might be able to help.
9. Provide regular check-ins
Remote team management can be challenging for a variety of reasons. One of the most frustrating challenges is that it can be hard to know what your team members are working on and if they are struggling with any tasks. It is important to have regular check-ins with your remote team members to make sure that they are on track, can give and receive feedback, and know what the company’s expectations for them are.
As a manager, regular check-ins can help with many different aspects of managing remote teams. They give you a chance to offer guidance on how to improve their work process or handle any struggles they might be having.
10. Organize an off-site, once in a while
Off-sites can be a great way to bring your remote team together, even if it is just for a day or two. There are many benefits of having an off-site event. For one, it allows remote employees to meet in person and build relationships with one another. It also gives them the opportunity to work together in a more relaxed environment and have fun while doing so.
Remote teams can use this time to discuss their goals for the year and plan how they will achieve them. They can also use this time as a way of celebrating their accomplishments from the past year.
11. Recognize high performance and excellence
The success of a remote employee is largely dependent on the quality of their manager. As a manager, you need to be able to recognize high performance and excellence in the remote employees, and provide them with the tools they need for success. One way to recognize high performance and excellence in your remote employees is by providing them with an opportunity for advancement or promoting them. A promotion will not only make them feel more valued, but it will also increase their commitment to the company and build your remote team’s culture.
12. Provide regular training for remote employees
Training your employees is one of the most important things that a company can do. There are many ways to do this as a manager, but one of the most convenient ways is to provide them access to online courses, or fund courses that they show interest in. This allows you to train your employees from anywhere. Plus, they can also watch these courses on their own time, which makes it easier for them to learn and retain information.
13. Be mindful of time zones
It is important to be mindful of time zones when communicating with your remote teams. If you have a team member in Europe and another in the US, you will need to account for different time zones when scheduling Zoom meetings or asking questions.
Team building for remote workers
Virtual team building activities can be a valuable tool in remote team management. They help people feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves, which will lead to better performance and higher levels of engagement.
In order for these activities to be successful, it’s important that they are engaging and interactive so that everyone feels like they have an equal voice at the table.
This is where Bar None Games comes in.
Bar None Games offers live-hosted virtual team building events that are unique, engaging, and interactive. Give your remote team a much-needed mental break in their work day to boost morale and build relationships.
