In the midst of Covid-19, many businesses have made the move to offer the opportunity to work remotely. It may have been a challenge to react quickly and get set up, but, it is now becoming apparent that remote working holds a lot of positives. Here are four tips to help you make the most of your remote team.

Remote working was almost inevitable for companies to start implementing, it has just happened quicker than expected due to COVID-19. Managers are now facing the challenge of support working from home team as well as an office team. 

There is more to it than providing a computer, online po box service, and video platform and telling your team to get on with it. Managers need to make the effort to manage their teams differently when they have remote workers. Let’s have a look at some tips that could help below:

Set Expectations 

This is one of the most essential things you can do with your remote working team, providing guidelines, boundaries, and basics. There will likely be various working hours, deadlines, flexibility, and more, therefore, managers need to set expectations early and often. Hold a weekly meeting where you can talk about projects and targets aswel as plans for the next few months. This will help you and your team be prepared and know what workloads are going to be, allowing your team to plan their time. It’s a good idea to have a way that each person can show their planned working hours so other teams members know when they are contactable. 

Be Organised And Flexible 

When it comes to looking after a remote team, the focus should be on consistency but also allow flexibility. You need to have somewhat of a plan, however, you need to be open to making amendments when they are needed. Whether your employees choose to work in the morning, the evening, or on a split shift, as long as the work gets completed and on time, it shouldn’t matter. 

Communication Is Essential 

A remote team is not going to work effectively unless managers make the effort to communicate properly. Clear communication means that your team will be aware of deadlines, any challenges, other people’s work schedules, available resources, and more. Have a think about which communication tools fit best for your team. Bear in mind that some team members may prefer a different method to another such as email or video call. 

Avoid Micromanagement

It may be tempting to want to control everything, especially when it is not under one roof anymore, however, micromanaging is not a good way to manage your remote team. People don’t work well when they feel as though they have someone watching over their shoulder, and you likely wouldn’t do it if they were in the office, so why do it when they are working from home? Having regular group meetings and 1 to 1’s is more than enough to ensure your team is doing what they need to have the right support. 

These are all great tips that will help you to manage your new remote team. Are you learning to work with a new remote team? Have you come across any challenges? How have you overcome them? Please share some of them in the comments below.