Today, an increasing number of businesses are expanding their remote teams.

Irrespective of the influence of the pandemic, the trend towards remote work is gaining ground even among businesses that have physical workplaces. 

The reality is, managing a remote team doesn’t present any uniquely new difficulties. In truth, many of the same ideas as managing an in-office staff still apply.  

A shift to remote work may initially feel strange and clunky to business owners because they are accustomed to tracking productivity based upon workers’ “desk time” and visible activity levels. As they acclimate to big alterations in their workdays, employees, like everyone else, may initially experience feelings of disorientation.

In order to effectively lead a team that is geographically dispersed, managers may find that they need to relax their control a bit while simultaneously searching for new ways to keep employees accountable for their actions. 

IS REMOTE WORK THE FUTURE?

The term “remote team” refers to a group of workers who perform their jobs via telecommuting and are located in diverse places, including different cities, countries, and even continents. 

The idea of working in separate locations as members of a single team has been around for quite some time, but the advent of digital work applications, tools, and ecosystems catapulted its significance. These days, a sizable portion of the workforce around the world is made up of members of remote teams.

There are many advantages that come along with working on a remote team, both for the business and the employee. If, on the other hand, your transition to digitalization is just getting started, you should be prepared for a large array of obstacles along the way. Even with the most up-to-date technology at your disposal, you and your team are going to have a hard time adjusting to the new procedures and protocols that are involved in working remotely.

You will undoubtedly face challenges when it comes to the management of employees who are new to working remotely. But if they are managed properly, remote teams have the potential to be just as efficient and productive as their office-based counterparts, if not even more so.

HOW TO FIND REMOTE EMPLOYEES

One of the main difficulties in creating a well-coordinated scheme of work is finding the right employees. Although there are currently many ways to find the right specialist online, it is often not so easy to check their experience or ability to work. 

To avoid unpleasant moments and unscrupulous employees, you can use services with the Smart Contracts. One of these is the laborx.com crypto jobs service. With it, you can find the necessary specialist and evaluate his experience based on reviews. And also hire a freelancer for temporary work on the project. 

The service also offers a search for vacancies for the freelancers themselves. You can easily find remote gaming jobs for those who already have experience in game development. Сonvenient navigation and a specially designed chat will simplify communication with potential employers and create the necessary conditions for profitable working interactions.

6 BEST TIPS ON MANAGING A REMOTE TEAM

1. PROVIDE THE APPROPRIATE TOOLS

The ability to properly manage a remote team relies heavily on having easy access to all of the required technologies. Employers and their teams may need to do some head scratching in order to figure out what changes should be made in order to make the transition to telecommuting easier.

The vast majority of work that is performed remotely can be done with not more than a computer, an internet connection, a phone, and a headset. 

Nevertheless, there may be other technologies and resources that you want to take into consideration in order to assist employees in maintaining their productivity. These resources include:

– Access to various digital tools for communication.

– Company laptops.

– Access to a co-working place or a dependable internet connection is required.

– Tools for digital video conferencing such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

2. BUILD A UNIFIED TEAM

Cooperation between coworkers is one of the most vital aspects of a healthy culture in the workplace. Employees who believe they are confined to their own jobs without the opportunity for collaboration are more likely to experience feelings of resentment or burnout at their places of employment.

It is recommended that the best way to eliminate these drawbacks is by building a team through intentional communication, off-topic conversation and creating opportunities for people to get to know each other mutually.

Make sure that your employees have the opportunity to learn about topics that aren’t just related to the work that they do. Recognize employees’ successes and work toward building a cohesive team where they feel connected to one another and important to the organization.

3. BUILD A SOLID FLOW OF COMMUNICATION

When employees have a question, they should be aware of who they should speak to and the most effective way to get in touch with that person. If you have employees working on a variety of shifts, they need to be aware of whether or not they will receive prompt responses to the inquiries they have or whether they will need to wait.

Do you find that communicating through established apps, phone conversations, texts, or emails is the most convenient option for you? The establishment of these open lines of contact can assist remote workers in experiencing a sense of being informed rather than detached.

4. SET CLEAR TARGETS

In a conventional workplace, an employee is generally considered to have put in a full day’s worth of work if they have checked in using the time clock, are currently seated at their assigned workstation, and exit the building at the designated time. On the other hand, when working remotely, it is more difficult to differentiate between the home environment and the professional one. As a result, it is of the utmost importance to center one’s attention not on the quantity of time an individual spent working at a desk but rather on the results that were produced.

In order to calculate outputs, there must first be clarity regarding what tasks need to be completed within a specific time frame. In order to prevent work from falling behind schedule, it is important to establish milestones with hard deadlines and to hold meetings in order to monitor progress.

On the other hand, certain tasks will require you to keep track of the amount of time a person working remotely spent on completing such tasks. A time tracking tool is available for work of this nature and should be used.

5. ENCOURAGE SOCIAL ACTIVITIES AMONGST TEAM MEMBERS

In your role as manager of a remote team, you will need to devise strategies to ensure that no member of your team experiences the negative effects of social isolation. The innovative application of various forms of technology in order to generate interest could accomplish this goal.

For example, it might be beneficial to assess the possibility of acting as a facilitator for the formation of employee resource groups (ERGs). 

These are wonderful locations to make new friends, expand one’s knowledge, have some fun, and get an understanding of how to make workplaces that are more egalitarian and welcoming to all.

6. DEVELOP DETAILED PROCEDURES FOR WORKFLOW

One of the things that members of your remote team won’t be able to accomplish as easily as those working in your office is to stroll over to the desk of another team member or to roam around the office in order to inquire about how they should carry out a certain task.

You have a number of essential responsibilities, one of which is to make sure that there are clearly detailed procedures in place for pretty much everything. 

Make sure that each employee is aware of the location of these papers and how to access them.

Be wary of the common practice of merely informing members of a team of the objective without also giving them some sense of the means by which it is to be achieved.

PROBLEMS WITH MANAGING REMOTE TEAMS

When there is a lack of coordination, there is also a lack of project management, which results in poorly organized projects from the beginning to the end. When managing a remote team, it can be challenging for managers to ensure that all members of the team are on the same page. 

This is where Collaboration and Teamwork comes in to paper the cracks of differences amongst members of your team.

Another difficult issue in managing employees from other countries is the fact that people in these countries have varying perspectives on careers and families have varying norms regarding limits. Cultural differences pose a huge challenge in remote work and threaten the productivity of such teams.

In most cases, managers lack a grasp of how to deal with the cultural variations that arise while coordinating a worldwide workforce. It is fascinating to observe how people from other cultures approach their working day due to the fact that they have distinct work ethics.

Data security is also noteworthy when managing remote teams. When your employees are located in different parts of the world, it might be difficult to maintain complete control over the safety of your company’s data.

Even if everything is stored on the cloud, an employee with bad intentions might still download large volumes of data for harmful purposes or simply access it in an unsafe manner, such as by using a public network.

BOTTOM LINE

Managing a remote team is not a walk in the park, particularly in times when it seems as though the world has been flipped upside down.

Whether you’re leading people in person or from a distance, it takes dedication and a lot of hard work to be an effective leader. You will, fortunately, be equipped with all of the knowledge necessary to manage a high-performing, engaged, and satisfied virtual workforce by utilizing the material provided in this guide.

Putting these techniques into practice will get you on your way to working confidently from home.