Best Practices To Manage Remote Team

What Is A Remote Team?

A virtual or remote team is a team that is comprised of team members who share responsibilities in order to achieve defined objectives. Remote teams are the ones who do not meet in a conference room. Instead, of that, take the help of technology in order to meet over the Internet.

A remote team refers to a group of team members who would telecommute to work from different locations. This could be from different cities, countries, and even continents. The concept of remote teams has been around for a while but it took on a rapidly important role when digital work applications, tools, and ecosystems arrived. Today, a significant part of the global workforce consists of remote teams for productivity. This is especially true of organizations that work in the information sector.

Remote teams offer an array of benefits for both enterprises and employees for project management. However, if your shift to digitalization is still in its infancy, you are likely to encounter a plethora of challenges in the terms of project management. Even with modern technology at hand, you and your team are bound to face difficulties adapting to new protocols and procedures that are involved in productivity.

What Is Remote Team Building?

Remote team building is the effort of building connections between remote employees to mimic physical teams. For the sake of morale, productivity, engagement, and overall results. 

Why Is Remote Team Building Important?

#1. When an employee has a strong team around them, a support system is created. They’ll feel empowered and thus they are able to share their ideas better if they know who is listening to them.

#2. Remote working can be isolating and lonely at times, so creating a sense of togetherness can help to boost morale and happiness in times of difficulty. 

#3. When employees really know about their teammates and their strengths, they can collaborate better for amazing results.

#4. Team building plays a big role in building a strong company culture. Having a company culture in place, especially remotely, will help you improve internal and external communication.

#5. It also helps in building strong relationships among team members with better team bonding. At times remote workers may feel lonely when they work remotely. There are several virtual team building activities for remote workers that help them to combat loneliness by giving them a chance to communicate with teammates. Improved Productivity as everyone works collectively as a team with best practices. 

5 Things Every Leader Needs In Order To Manage A Remote Team  

By now you have known that there are several benefits of remote work and the companies benefit from it too. There should be a detailed knowledge of time boxing and time management if you want to manage a remote team successfully. Without the right strategies and initiatives in place, you’re likely to fall short in everything from connectedness to employee morale which is extremely required in order to build a productive remote team. There are numerous things that you need to provide your team in order to improve the way of working. 

Now a question might arise in your mind about where you should start when the question arises of building your team effectively and efficiently with the proper employee engagement in order to set up a team for success. Below discussed are the five strategies which would help you in the best team building and would keep remote employees happy so that they could profoundly get attached to the work schedules.    

#1. Ground rules for work and communication:

If the team is working remotely then it doesn’t means that they get to set the rules and time schedule for themselves. Your primary task should be establishing concrete ground rules so that your team knows what is expected about everything from communication channels to meeting schedules. 

For example, Everyone must attend the morning meeting. Don’t set up team meetings after 3 p.m. unless you already have cleared it with the attendees. You need to keep client communication inside relevant chat channels. 

Teams should know that managers are engaged in their tasks and interested in their progress. Creating a project schedule for your team is one thing, but keeping up your remote communication with them is one of your most important tasks if you are working with a distributed team. 

Even if you’ve never met a team member face-to-face, you can easily establish these communication ground roles and learn each other’s preferences with time, and doing this will help to bring the teams together. 

#2. Daily check-ins to inspire authentic conversations:

Remote teams works are really lonely. For those who are used to working around other people for eight hours a day, loneliness in the wake of the remote work surge is completely understandable. This is the reason why you should consider offering daily check-ins in order to recreate the daily interactions with the people. Quick catch-up meetings are also an opportunity for everyone to get a better sense of what their teammates are working on. You can either discuss work and make project teams on several platforms like Slack or Microsoft teams.

Connecting with the whole team would help in maintaining the culture with your remote team. As you can also as open-ended questions like, “Who did something fun this weekend they want to share?” are the best way to get the conversation rolling with the teammates.

Even if you don’t have enough time to have a long conversation every morning with your team, you can still mix up daily stand-up meetings and this can help in making the culture more enjoyable. 

#3. The correct communication channels:

Relying exclusively on email to manage remote workers just doesn’t work effectively always in the remote culture. In order to keep your team productive and engaged, you need to get equipped with a generous communication toolkit. Though Email could be absolutely part of that kit, along with Email you need to have other tools, such as video chat, messaging apps, and file sharing which are aimed at helping your team stay connected and touch base with each other quickly.

Some of the must-have communication channels for managers include:

#a. Project and work management tools: These tools are used for organizing schedules and deadlines. 

#b. Chat tools: For collaborating and brainstorming with the team you require several tools as this will make communication easier than ever with the chat tools.  

#c. Video conferencing tools: For meetings and virtual coffee catch-ups as these would also give a friendly atmosphere outside of work.    

#d. File-sharing tools: For sharing documents and easier collaboration and this would help to create better bondage within the team. 

#f. Content collaboration tools: For keeping everything from standard operating procedures (SOPs) to healthcare policies organized and accessible. 

#4. Clear and manageable expectations:

Creating realistic expectations for work is still a problem for managers whether it is remote or not. In order to deliver, employees have to understand expectations building activities for remote teams is required. Bridging this gap comes down to clear and defined guidance from above.

There are many ways to be more definitive with tasks, including by providing exact due dates, precise quality standards, and detailed information on the overall goal.

But it’s also important to remember that you cannot manage every aspect of your remote team and how they spend their time nor should you try to! Because working on empowering your team to stay on track and hit deadlines by setting clear guidelines is required.

Defining project scopes and setting deliverables in a workspace that can be accessed by your entire team is a great start. Plotting a team member’s to-do list by preparing a project management routine tells them exactly what should they do in order to work for a week, as well as when their tasks are required to be completed.

With a project management and communication tool like Teamwork, you can easily assign tasks, like meetings and product launches, to projects on the calendar for your team members who work from home. This keeps everyone and everything organized without resorting to 50 different shared calendars or overwhelming tactics. 

#5. Attentiveness to time zones and work hours:

Finally, you need to acknowledge that because remote work brings a bigger talent pool, your team members may not live in the same city, country, or time zone as you.

You need to keep in mind that nobody likes getting interrupted outside of their working hours. This is just one of the reasons it’s especially important for managers to pay careful attention to time zones. If you don’t and you’re constantly messaging team members at 10 p.m. their time, it can have a negative impact on their work/life balance, make them feel like they can’t disconnect from work, and lead to burnout.

One way you can resolve this issue is by adding an extension, app, or plug-in to your computer.

Another way to avoid disrupting employees’ personal time is by checking everyone’s time zone before scheduling a group meeting or virtual coffee catch-up as doing this would make your team work better. If you are in the U.S. but some of your team works in Australia, you need to find a time that suits everyone. You need to manage a remote team based on a time that is comfortable for everyone as the remote workers would get motivated to work.  

Of course, it sometimes feels impossible to remember and acknowledge every team member’s time zone. That’s why you should choose a project management tool with localization and language settings.

Managing Remote Teams Effectively With Team Bonding  

Managing remote teams effectively is essential thing for the success of any organization. To do this, managers should focus on communication and collaboration even though the employees are remote workers who work remotely. They need to set clear expectations, provide feedback, and ensure that their team members understand the goals and objectives of the organization being a better team. This can be achieved by making sure that everyone has access to the same information, such as project plans and progress updates.

Additionally, managers should encourage team members to communicate regularly with each other and to use collaboration tools like video conferencing or online chat rooms because the employees are fully remote workers. The key is to create an environment where a team must feel comfortable contributing their ideas and opinions so that decisions can be made quickly and effectively. With these steps in place, managers will be well-positioned to manage remote teams successfully with the tools they use.

What To Look For In A Remote Employee?

When hiring a remote employee, it is important to consider their experience and qualifications in the field of work. There are many remote workers out there but you need to look for someone with a proven track record that can demonstrate their ability to work independently and meet deadlines. It is also essential to find someone who has strong communication skills, both written and verbal, so they can effectively collaborate with other team members.

 Additionally, you should look for someone who is reliable and organized. They can balance multiple projects at once and stay on task. Finally, make sure the remote employee has the necessary technical skills needed to complete tasks from home or remotely. With these qualities in mind, you will find the best fit for your organization when hiring remote employee.

The Benefits Of Having A Successful Remote Team

Having a successful remote team has many benefits.

#1. It allows for greater flexibility in work schedules since employees can work from anywhere with an internet connection they can work remote and hybrid. This can allow for better work and life balance and more efficient use of time which the team needs.

#2. Remote teams can be more cost-effective since they are not limited by geographical boundaries and can hire the best talent regardless of where they live and this helps to put a team together.

#3. Remote teams often experience increased collaboration and productivity due to the lack of traditional office distractions and improved communication tools.

#4. Finally, working remotely encourages creativity as employees are able to draw inspiration from their own environments which helps them think outside the box and come up with innovative ideas that may otherwise have been overlooked this could be helpful for employees to work from home.

All in all, having a successful remote team is an excellent way to increase efficiency. It also helps in reducing overhead costs and fostering creativity, and building team morale to put a team together. The key to being able to take advantage of remote work is to come up with a clear plan to overcome challenging situations such as distraction, procrastination, and lack of productivity.

Remote Team Management

Remote team management is a challenge that requires thoughtful planning, effective communication, and the ability to motivate a geographically dispersed team. It is important to create an environment where everyone feels connected and valued, and where collaboration and trust are fostered. To do this, it is essential to schedule regular meetings and communication channels such as email, video conferencing, or instant messaging. Additionally, it is important to assign tasks that are within each individual’s capabilities and provide clear expectations for how they should be completed.

Finally, providing feedback regularly will help build trust among team members and ensure that everyone remains motivated toward achieving the team’s goals. With good planning and communication techniques in place, remote teams can be managed successfully even when separated by distance.     

Must-Have Tools For Remote Teams

In order to build a remote team and manage your remote team you need to utilize several tools. This helps in simplifying processes and making collaboration more seamless. With the help of the right tools, you can let your team connect with the work despite different time zones.

You need to keep a track of your team with the help of communication tools that help in enabling instant messaging, live chats, video calls, file sharing, and collaboration. You can use popular platforms such as Skype or Zoom or use a more streamlined channel like Slack channel or Microsoft Teams.

Collaboration tools such as G Suite give you a virtual space to connect and collaborate. They include project management tools that make it easier for you to monitor the progress. They can also track the performance of your distributed team.

To grant access to project documents, you can utilize cloud-based storage systems. Such as Dropbox and Google Drive, for instance, as they are useful for sharing big files. They can also keep files organized and are instantly accessible to any authorized team member.

Project management platforms can bring all the tools you need for remote work into one interface. This is a must-have if you want a great level of proficiency in managing your team. Among the most popular project management tools used by enterprises includes Basecamp, Slack, Teamwork, Asana, and ProofHub.

These advanced tools help in the optimization of team efficiency, having too many of them can also overwhelm employees. In addition, without proper training, these could hamper the productivity of the remote team members. So make sure to be thorough in choosing which tools to use and implement. This is done in order to create a strong remote team.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Remote Work

Remote work got more and more popular in the last few years. Discussed above are the management tips which help in making the remote working team productive. By now you have known, working with a remote team helps in maintaining a good balance overall.

There is flexible work time and this allows the employees to choose when to start and end their workday and how long to take their break within agreed limits set by management, flexplace or remote work is also becoming a popular element of the modern workplace. This helps building a culture where the work is attractive as it helps to produce a productive team.  

Below you can find the full list of pros and cons of remote work, so you can more easily make the decision on whether remote work is beneficial or not.     

The main advantages of remote work are:

#1. A greater pool of potential talent for employers

#2. Employees keep full pay and benefits

#3. Employees save commuting time and costs

#4. Higher autonomy and fewer office interruptions can increase the productivity of employees

#5. Employees can completely customize their working setup

#6. May assist employees with disabilities

#7. May extend the company’s operational hours

#8. Less parking spots and office space needed

#9. Lower carbon footprint

The main disadvantages of remote work:

#1. Less suitable for positions that require the use of specialized equipment

#2. Fewer networking opportunities for employees

#3. Heat and electric bills at employees’ homes may increase

#4. Some employees could be less productive in this arrangement

#5. Some employees may feel overlooked and isolated

#6. Harder to build team spirit, and peer-to-peer connections and manage people

#7. This could create difficulty in scheduling meetings and coordinating projects

#8. More difficult to supervise and evaluate work.