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.