Working remotely; trousers optional! Three tips to improve remote team working

As we find ourselves in extraordinary times I thought I’d delve into my Psychology of Work textbooks to see if there’s any ideas that can help us. I’m going to start with remote working as many of us seem to be working from home. I’ve used ideas from Arnold, Randall et al’s book, Work Psychology, chapter 15.

Firstly, I thought I’d look at the challenges for a team which is remote working (or dispersed working as occupational psychologists call it) and how these can be tackled. Although the majority of us have no choice but to work from home at the moment many of us have experienced remote working at some point in our career. The three points below are based on evidence regarding home working and its impact on how a team operates.         

As remote working can be largely based on text driven media there can be a lack of social cues which can result in it taking longer for team members to establish trust with each other. Trust within team members is important for team cohesion and improves the ability of the team to complete tasks.  A lack of trust can lead to micro management and less willingness to share information. However, studies show that for those in remote relationships, task accomplishment can help develop trust. For example, if team members produce good work and stick to deadlines this can then improve the level of trust.   

Knowledge sharing and decision making can be more challenging for dispersed teams, specifically for newly formed teams. Individuals may not be aware of the wide range of knowledge within the team and decision making via text-based media (e-mail, WhatsApp etc) is less efficient due to the lack of discussion and information considered.   Theory shows that making decisions and sharing information on conference calls rather than text media tends to generate better outcomes. 

The absence of social cues can also lead to misunderstandings. A team often consists of individuals who have different values and knowledge base and dispersed colleagues may not have a common understanding of a particular task. However, research shows that using emoticons and different media for different types of message can be effective in reducing misunderstandings

 Theory highlights that familiarity amongst team members has the biggest impact on improving dispersed working. Teams that know each other can better bridge the gaps between each other and can reduce the challenges in knowledge sharing and decision making. There are many ways to improve team familiarity, for example my team at Gleeson has a daily conference call at 9.30. This is a video call designed to discuss our plans for the day and highlight positive outcomes from the previous day. Alternatively, a client contact of mine has a daily coffee break where all team members connect on a video conference call, have a coffee and chat about non work stuff

There are plenty of positives connected with remote working and studies show that dispersed working can lead to higher job satisfaction, improved performance ratings and lower work family conflict (although I guess this depends if you’re sharing your work space with your partner and children.....)

Finally, I’d be interested in other strategies that your remote working teams are using, especially ones designed to improve familiarity with new teams or teams with new members.