Managing Your Remote Teams
Managing a remote team is no small feat, and it is not “one-size-fits-all”, as some would like to think. In the simplest terms — there are two types of remote teams. The first is teams that are built to function remotely, like our team at Kennedy Rowe Collective. On the other hand, are teams that are forced out of office due to things out of our control (ahem a pandemic). Either way, there are best practices that remain applicable for both. Do not get me wrong, managing remote teams is a process, not a task that you can simply check off your list. It takes constant communication, trust with your team, and the utmost organization. As society grasps a new reality with workplace structures, we are sharing some tips to help manage your remote teams.
The following article was written by Insperity Staff, Human Resources Advisor for Insperity Blog — Aug 4, 2020
How to lead a remote team
To lead a remote team well, managers may discover they need to loosen their reins a little while finding ways to continue to hold employees accountable.
Without the ability to continuously monitor employees in a shared office space, they may find success by focusing more on what gets done and whether it meets well-defined quality standards. It’s helpful, too, to be willing to experiment a little with technology and how meetings are conducted.
In other words, successful pivots to virtual work — whether planned months in advance or in response to a natural disaster or a global pandemic — require that managers be willing to recalibrate how they lead their people.
They also must become familiar with telecommuting best practices and expect a certain amount of trial and error.
To get you started, below are basic tips to help business leaders when it comes to managing remote workers.
1. Understand common teleworking challenges.
Typically, there are three main challenges supervisors and business owners encounter when managing a remote workforce.
Lack of face time with coworkers and supervisors
Humans are social creatures, so face-to-face interaction is vital to our daily exchanges. This includes our workplace encounters.
As mentioned earlier, supervisors often rely upon workplace encounters as a means of tracking productivity and dedication. It’s also easier to track moods and address mounting frustrations proactively in shared workspaces.
Meanwhile, people unconsciously scan faces and body postures to “read” reactions to things we say and do. So, employees are conditioned to pick up on cues through routine interactions with managers and coworkers. This is as true for constructive feedback as it is for friendly reassurance.
The absence of in-person communication can be strongly felt by mobile team members — perhaps more so during times of stress or change.
Communication breakdowns and bottlenecks
When working remotely, we can’t peek over the cubicle or slip down the hall to see if a colleague or supervisor is around to answer a quick question.
Plus, for all their convenience, digital messages (email, texts) can go unnoticed. And a pileup of unanswered messages can slow progress and frustrate teammates.
At the same time, subtlety and nuance found in interpersonal interactions can be lost in hasty digital replies between teleworkers. People who are otherwise pleasant and cordial in person may come across as brusque and insensitive in emails.
Managers can help address these issues by modeling effective communication strategies.
2. Set clear remote work productivity standards.
Some productivity standards will vary with the job; others may be standard across the company.
A company-wide policy may be that all customer emails get answered by the end of the day, or that everyone is available for meetings and calls from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Individual standards must be analyzed and documented, however informally. For example, you and your teleworking team may decide that any developer assigned a project must deliver code ready to be tested in five working days, and if a deadline won’t be met there must be 48 hours’ notice.
Meanwhile, a call center employee may need to resolve 10 client calls an hour while ensuring there are no crying babies in the background. A recruiter may need to conduct 20 phone interviews and fill five positions a month.
While some managers may see documentation of productivity standards as extra effort, it may help you spot trends that need to be addressed.
For instance, after 90 days of tracking a call center employee’s work, you may discover the need to extend customer service hours or identify a bottleneck that impacts productivity.
3. Telecommuting technology
Most remote work can be conducted with little more than a computer, internet access, a phone, and a headset.
Whether digital tools are provided through a shared drive accessed by a secure VPN, or via Dropbox folders, should be determined by your company’s needs and security standards.
Depending on the work being produced at home, you may want to provide a small printer. Alternatively, you may decide to set up an account at a local copy shop or mail services center, all with clearly communicated spending limits.
Consider carefully whether remote employees are provided company laptops or can use their personal laptops. Cybersecurity and data safety are important, obviously, when considering hardware, software, and where employees may access central servers.
You may also need to verify bandwidth and the reliability of internet connections, and whether the person works from home or from a co-working space.
Digital video conferencing providers can be useful to small and large teams alike.
Remember: You and your remote employees may find that some tasks must be conducted in the office for security reasons or because it’s simply more efficient to meet in person. Be ready to accept the limits of remote work for some portions of a job or for individual units within a larger division.
4. Transitioning teams to remote work
In a perfect world, new teleworkers would train to use relevant remote technology and protocols six months before implementation.
Yet, even if a shift to remote work is anticipated to take place in a matter of weeks (or days), a four- or 24-hour trial run may reveal unanticipated shortcomings to a seemingly workable remote plan.
Depending on your circumstances, you might have the whole team participating or only one or two members.
5. Follow up with remote employees regularly.
As with the rest of the advice here, there’s no one-size-fits-all for how often a manager should reach out to remote workers.
Yet the most effective one-on-one calls aren’t just about monitoring productivity. They can also be powerful means of keeping remote employees motivated and engaged.
- Determine if the employee is doing well overall.
- Work with the staff member to identify and eliminate bottlenecks.
- Discuss plans for the employee’s professional development.
- Answer a range of questions relevant to the employee.
Depending upon the employee and the nature of their job, more or less routine interaction may be required. For example, Amanda may need a call once a week while Matthew may require daily calls.
As much as is reasonable and schedules permit, supervisors should be adaptable to staff needs and calendars.
The previous article was written by Insperity Staff, Human Resources Advisor for Insperity Blog — Aug 4, 2020
https://www.insperity.com/blog/managing-remote-employees/
It is things like a global pandemic that call for our businesses to evolve and adapt. Before 2020, only about 6% of employees in the United States worked remotely. Since then, those numbers exponentially grew, so figuring out how to best manage remote teams was at the top of any leaders list. Although companies are beginning to move back into the offices, many are adopting hybrid structures. This calls for teams to have better and more communication than before, better organization, and more trust between supervisors and their teams. When managed correctly, remote teams can have better productivity and job satisfaction. What is not to love about that?
What do you wish you knew before you began working from home?
What could you have done better to manage your teams?
