Advice on Managing Your Remote Employees

With more employees now working from home than ever before, business owners are finding it much more difficult to manage their teams. Whether remote working is only temporary or it’s something that you’re planning to embrace into the future, many workers are finding themselves separated from one another for the first time. The key challenges for managing remote teams are: 

●      Reduced face-to-face-supervision

●      Information flow breakdowns

●      Worker/social isolation

Fortunately, there are some proven ways to make managing remote employees much easier, ensuring that productivity and motivation are prioritized. Here are the best options to consider when you’re looking for ways to ensure that you're managing your remote employees more effectively: 

Daily Check-Ins

Having a set time every day where your team members can check-in and catch up is vital. This should become an established part of the workday and can take one of two formats. The first is one-on-one check-ins between employee and manager, while the alternative is team-based check-ins for entire departments. The more collaborative your workplace, the more beneficial team check-ins will be. Those daily meetings should be a chance for consultations and for addressing concerns or asking questions. You should also make it easier for remote workers to book additional time with their line managers or department heads. There are always going to be issues that will need to be addressed, and the easier that you make it for your employees to communicate as and when they need to, the more valued they will feel and more part of the organization.

Streamlined Communications

Improved use of more streamlined communication tools is essential for all businesses with remote workers. Emails may be quick to send, but they can be very inefficient because they can easily be ignored. Videoconferencing is a useful communications tool, but it’s not the only option. Your HR team should be very focused on maintaining the high standard of communications that are easy to achieve in a physical workplace, and they have access to more collaborative tools than ever. Cloud-based HR software can cut down on wasted time and ensure that every member of your team is being focused on. Cloud-platforms are indispensable for remote team management.

Remote Social Interactions

One of the main aspects of the workplace that is lost when teams go remote is the social element. This is more important than you might think. Those water cooler catch-ups and break room interactions are vital for team-building and can go a long way to improving internal communications and cross-departmental collaboration. There are lots of options to consider for remote social events. You could simply add ten minutes at the start of formal online meetings for non-work-related chat or go all out and host pizza parties or virtual tours of set locations. Team members must know that they aren’t working in isolation, and those remote social interactions can be one of the most important strategies to adopt while also being very budget-friendly.

There are lots of benefits to remote workers, both for the company and the employees alike. However, it does mean making sure that different management strategies are utilized. The more that you try out new options and adopt new management practices, the more aligned your company will be, even when your remote workers are working geographically distant from each other.

Take A Load Off - Work Smarter

When you run a small business, you need to work harder… or do you? Working smarter can mean those dreams you had about spending more time with your family or doing the things you love are a reality. 

As a one-person business, you have to do a lot with the time that you have. There are a few ways that you can increase your output. You could opt to put in longer hours, or you can make your hours really count.

Photo by krisna iv on Unsplash

So here are a few tips that can make your time more productive. 

Deadlines

If you aren’t already setting deadlines, you are missing a trick. Adding deadlines to work means you are more likely to get things done in a good time. Parkinson’s Law means a task will take as long as the time you allow. 
So if there is no deadline, it is improbable to get finished as quickly as it could. Use your preferred calendar and add deadlines to everything. 

Field It Out

If you are spending a lot of time dealing with calls or managing your emails, it is time you gave that workout. You might think of this as a waste of your hard-earned cash, but actually, you can earn more in that time you typically use on calls and other admin. 

Live receptionist services and a virtual assistant will help you tackle the jobs that take up the time that doesn’t earn you money directly. 

No Notifications

If you have your phone in view, then every WhatsApp message or text is going to take your attention away from the work you should be doing. And when you stop in the middle of your work to respond, you are going to lose minutes. 

Not just the ones it takes you to reply. But you will lose 15-20 minutes of time every time you switch between tasks and need to refocus again. 

Deep Work

While there is a lot to be said for taking regular breaks, deep working is the new kid on the block. You can begin to practice your deep working by timing 30-minute slots. During those 30 minutes, you only work on a single task. 

Try to pick something that takes concentration and requires you to think actively. Over time you can ramp that up to around 90 minutes. You shouldn’t typically push beyond 90 minutes, though. As research finds that over 90 minutes, there is no extra focus or productivity. 

Multitasking

If you have, say, nine photos to schedule on your social media but are editing and uploading one by one. You are wasting a huge amount of time swapping between the tasks. Instead, switch to:

• Editing all the images

• Writing all of the captions

• Scheduling all of the photos on your chosen platform. 

So performing similar tasks at the same time. Commit to single tasks before moving on to anything else. 

Perfection…? 

We all get very hung up and absorbed in the little details. And while we should all strive to achieve our best, if you are always looking for perfection, things become much more difficult. Perfection, to some degree, is an illusion. 

Aim to meet each task to the very best of your ability and allow time, in the end, to neaten up edit and ‘perfect.’ 

Eat The Frog

If you put off the tasks you don’t want to do until the end of the day - it will always take longer than it should. So first thing in the morning, do the tasks that you least want to get done. Eat the frog, and move on. 

This leaves no space in your brain for that task to occupy, and you can concentrate fully on other tasks. 

Time Track

If you feel like you are spending too much time on some tasks - the chances are you are. So start tracking your time for a few weeks and see if you can improve those times. 

Consider the time that you want to close your computer - and get your to-do list done before that time. 

Breaks

Yes, it is important to work, but you can’t work at full capacity if you aren’t taking breaks regularly. Rather than take random breaks as and when factor them into your day. This will allow you to have lots of time that you are high performing. 

The Pomodoro method is ideal for people who want to build focus time and breaks into their day. 

Always look to increase productivity - not extend your working hours.