How to Manage Remote Teams

Building up a company in today’s competitive world is not an easy task and you have to hire skilled people from all around the globe. Its becomes fascinating when you have to find talent in other cities and countries to make them join your tech company. But once these remote employees are hired, you can be facing many management challenges you didn’t think of. Making your management tips better not only boosts up the morale of the employees but also ensures more work-rate and thus, more output.

Remote Team Management is very much similar to an On-site management job. You have to train your employees according to the company rules, guide them for an effective output and support them morally and sometimes even financially. If you do your job right, you can make your company and remote team grow in no time. For remote team management, you need to learn some key techniques rather than reinventing the wheel. Here are few tips to effectively manage remote teams:

Communication

Communication is the major factor that defines your management skills.

1. BUSINESS AND NON-BUSINESS CHAT ROOMS

In a company, a chat room is necessary for all the teams for effective collaboration. Team members leave messages for what they’ve accomplished or currently a part of. These chats should be alive but not distracting in any means. This can deviate the concentration of the employees from work. These chat rooms should be able to make them feel connected as a team. But sometimes, to clear off the burden and motivate the employees, a non-business chat can be a good option too. Some employees can get depressed working for hours alone at home or office so these chat rooms can serve as a social connection and motivate them.

2. VIDEO CONFERENCES CAN BE HELPFUL

Most of the communication between the clients and employees are non-verbal according to many researches. When you don’t get to meet your employee everyday, Its essential to communicate through video so that you always have a clue what client or employee is expecting and making a better progress all over. One major reason for the failure of remote teams is that the team members not getting to talk with each other. They kind of forget about each other and start working in their own world without any sort of collaboration. Some online chat options like Skype and Google Hangouts can help you create opportunities for your employees to video chat for better communication.

3. MANAGING YOUR TIME SCHEDULE IS NECESSARY

It won’t be long before you have a whole bunch of remote employees waiting for you to have a one on one with them across different time zones. Managing your time schedule proves to be a real challenge and tests your communication skills. To make up to your employees, You have to think of different ways to get in contact them. You can either set a specific time convenient to both the employee and client a week before through email. Sometimes, you will also have to wake up at midnight to get in contact with your employee but this develops a lot of solidarity and compassion making them put more effort in their work.

4. THE RIGHT TYPE OF COMMUNICATION STYLE

Emails can be a good option for quick interaction. For instant messages or information needed, chat rooms are always open for employees. For many types of communication, phone calls and video chats should be considered as it helps you get more clue of what’s going on with the employee. Finally, If you want to give a quick motivational message to your employees, you can make a short video of yourself using your web-cam and post it on your company site.

Productivity

For better team productivity, a team purpose should be defined first.

1) PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Your company can fall apart really quick if you don’t have a project management system. A company with offices can often compensate for not having proper management because the employees and co-workers meet up regularly and cover for their weaknesses.But when you are managing a virtual team, every employee is working in his own world and can often mess up with the team goal without proper management. A project management system can have all the documents and team members on the same page making them work on a standard procedure and ultimately, making better progress towards the team goal.

2) GIVING EMPLOYEES REGULAR BREAKS

People working regularly for hours without any break in homes need couple of flexible hours to help themselves relax. Giving a few flexible hours or a break becomes necessary for the employees to get them refreshed and put more work in the job. Things can get totally bizarre if the employees have to work constantly for hours without a break and they can’t put much dedication in work after that. So make sure you go lenient on employees by giving them regular breaks.

3) PRODUCTIVITY AND HIGHER WORK-RATE IS ESSENTIAL

Keeping track of the productivity is essential whether you are managing a virtual team or not. Transparency helps employees understand company goals of what they are working to achieve. Making them realize how success looks like for the company and how important is their role in building a better company will enable them to work more hours and help your company getting a better output.

Hiring The Right Team Members

It isn’t necessary to hire someone immediately looking up at their CVs or previous job performance. You can get a taste of someone’s work by hiring them for a small project first and if you are satisfied with the work, you can hire him in the right team. An important step is that when you hire someone, make sure you hire them as full time employee. A part time employee has always got his attention divided and you never know if he’s available for an important task or not. A full time staff member depends on the company for his livelihood and is always available for company’s tasks. While putting someone in a team, make sure he’s a self motivated person rather than an individual always looking for encouragement. You can also specify when hiring people to be open an honest because you can’t look over them like in an office so it’s a good step being in a mental contact with the employees all the time.

Feedbacks And Performance Rewards

A positive feedback boosts up the team performance and also cheers up the employees. While managing a globally dispersed team, its important to regularly encourage them and a positive feedback is best for this purpose. Remote staff can feel isolated if they don’t get feedbacks from the company so make sure they get an honest and consistent feedback for their performance. In addition to feedbacks, also make sure you reward your employees for exceptional performance. This enable employees to work even harder than before. Keep a check on your incentive program that all the members are being rewarded equally because fair treatment makes you compete more with your team members maintaining a friendly relation as well and building a good reputation of your company.

Conclusion

Offering remote working options has now become necessary for the companies to get the most talented team working working for them. Hiring a team doesn’t demand much but managing it requires special attention. Whether it’s communication among the employees or the overall output of the company, you have to keep a check on everything. If done right, remote team management can be highly rewarding. A new type of manager can be facing all sets of challenges but with constant communication and a little help from technology, you can make your remote team work efficiently.

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