Top Tips for Effectively Managing Remote Workers

Top Tips for Effectively Managing Remote Workers

Top Tips for Effectively Managing Remote Workers 150 150

With more work becoming remote, there have been additional challenges for managers looking to keep teams productive and happy. Successfully managing remote workers can be challenging, but it can be incredibly rewarding and lead to a happier team if given the right tools and resources.

That’s why we’ve created the ultimate guide to managing remote workers to help businesses owners ensure their teams are engaged and productive.

The Paradigm Shift Towards Remote Working

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and differing lockdown rules, companies have had to shift to remote work completely to adapt to the 2021 remote work trends. This has meant an increase in home offices, video conferencing tools like Zoom, and general changes in working patterns. And it looks like the trend is here to stay – 97% of employees currently say they do not want to return to the office full time.

As companies adjust to the new normal of remote teams, increasing employee engagement and productivity while still attaining work-life balance is the key priority. That’s why it’s so crucial to develop strategies around successful remote management. This includes fostering a supportive work culture as everyone works from home.

How to Manage Remote Workers Successfully

While every company has its own unique management methods, some general concepts can go a long way in developing better relationships with a remote team. Managing remote workers is all about encouraging collaboration and making it easy and convenient for employees to work in the way they feel most comfortable. And the 2018 remote work trends, as well as the 2020 remote work trends, highlight the changes taking place in the workplace.

That includes clear communication, taking the time to understand goals and priorities, and creating avenues for employees to reach out with needs.

Top Useful Tips for Managers

We’ll look at some of the most useful tips for managing a remote team to ensure both employees and employees are happy and feel able to reach maximum productivity levels.

Hire the Right People

While remote work is definitely catching on, it doesn’t mean that everyone enjoys it equally. Therefore, when interviewing people or evaluating team members, it’s important to identify whether they like this style of working, how they like to work, and how collaborative they are.

If employees are not happy in the role or do not feel like they are part of the team, they just won’t be the right fit at the end of the day. That’s why hiring the right people can make a huge difference in team management and why it’s worth spending more time on when working remotely.

Understand the Challenges of Remote Working

While remote working has its pros, it’s also a challenge for many. Understanding what your remote workforce struggles with and how you can improve it can go a long way. Some of the key challenges of remote working include:

Home office space issues, including old or uncomfortable equipment
Easy distractions if not in a work environment
Feeling disconnected from the larger team and difficulties in collaboration
Trouble juggling tasks and general time management issues
Struggling with mastering technology and collaboration tools
Missing team interactions and general office chit-chat for a casual work break

While some of these challenges may require a bit of creativity to solve, even doing simple initiatives and well-being measures can help alleviate challenges for the team.

Make Sure Remote Employees Know Your Expectations

There is no doubt that communication can be a challenge when working remotely, especially regarding expectations and workload management. That’s why it’s incredibly vital to prepare employees for the remote workforce culture and communicate expectations early on.

This can involve setting best practices for work, clarifying expectations regarding how frequently employees should be online, conducting regular check-ins, and scheduling periodic team meetings to ensure that everyone feels comfortable and satisfied. The clearer the expectations for employees, the better the quality of the final work product will be.

Equip Your Team with Resources and Technology

As we’ve mentioned above, one of the major issues that many remote employees feel is that they lack the resources and technology needed. Access to an office is no longer possible, which means they don’t get the perks of equipment and other resources that they might have in person.

The best way to counteract this problem is to equip your team with the resources and technology the team needs the most. Business owners can provide:

Company laptops
Peripheral equipment such as keyboards, mice, and additional monitors, if needed
Standing desks, chairs, and other low-budget office equipment
Professional development courses, particularly areas where remote work proves challenging, include time management, workload prioritization, etc.
Coworking space passes/budget if team members are not near an office location.
A small stipend to cover remote working expenses and purchasing items and equipment for employees to use at their own discretion

Allow Your Employees to Work Flexible Hours

One of the key benefits of remote working is that it offers more flexibility than being in the office. One of the best perks you can offer is flexible hours to keep remote team members happy and engaged.

As long as employees don’t take undue advantage of the flexibility, you’ll find that work gets done just as well – if not better, and happier employees.

Flexible hours also ensure that employees can establish work life balance and look after their mental well-being, providing added benefit. Encourage employees to communicate with one another around what hours they’re working via email and when they plan to be offline so that deadlines are maintained and collaboration is not compromised.

Know Your Team Members’ Goals and Aspirations

Managing remote employees is about planning for short-term and long-term career growth. The more you can plan and work with each team member around their aspirations and goals, the more likely they are to stay.

Measures like this go a long way with employee retention and create a better work culture that can sustain itself remotely. Schedule regular one-on-one check-ins and pulse surveys across the wider team. This will make sure you have a clear idea of what employees want from their professional development and career growth.

Do Not Overload Employees

With everyone working remotely, business owners often face challenges in assigning workloads fairly and ensuring that all workers have an equal amount of tasks. It may be tempting to assign numerous tasks to certain employees, but this approach does not yield positive results. Managing remote workers requires a balanced distribution of work to maintain productivity and morale.

Overworked and overloaded employees won’t get through all their work and may have trouble voicing when they are overwhelmed. Try not to assign too much to people too soon, and make sure to leave channels of communication open, such as email, so they can voice concerns and talk through tasks if needed.

Provide Several Communication Options for Your Remote Employees

Building on the last point, the easier it is for employees to communicate with you, the more comfortable they will feel. In a remote work environment, it’s common for individuals to feel isolated, and many struggle to start conversations. Providing multiple communication options ensures that everyone feels included in the team and that employers are available to address questions when necessary. This is particularly important when managing remote workers.

Some communication options that employers can use are:

1-1 phone calls
Conference calls
Video calls and video conferencing,
Examples of instant messaging platforms are Slack, Microsoft Teams, Facebook Workplace, etc.
Emails

Focus on Organization

Keeping teams on track and focused is often difficult when managing remote workers, which is why it’s incredibly important to have best practices in place to keep things organized and projects on track. A collaboration tool can be a huge benefit in that respect, giving everyone in the team the structure needed to manage their remote work while also giving business owners more visibility into the remote workforce overall.

Some great collaboration tools that managers can use are provided below:

Asana
Basecamp
Monday.com
Everhour
Trello
Jira

Always Continue Monitoring Productivity

Everyone faces challenges with productivity, whether in the office or when managing remote workers. To motivate employees and ensure they are comfortable while working, it’s essential to monitor productivity. Regular check-ins, such as brief team conference calls or one-on-one phone calls, can significantly enhance employee engagement.

Managers can utilize time-tracking tools like HiveDesk to monitor activity levels. This enables teams to quickly pinpoint situations where enhanced communication with team members is necessary, which is especially useful when managing remote workers.

Treat Employees as Individuals

Every employee has unique needs that contribute to their optimal performance. Therefore, it is essential to strike a balance between the demands of the business and the individual requirements of employees, ensuring that everyone feels acknowledged and valued. This approach is particularly important when managing remote workers.

Treat each worker as an individual, and take the time to understand what will enable them to perform at their best. You can conduct a survey or engage in informal conversations to pinpoint challenges and collaboratively develop solutions that foster a sense of belonging within the team.

Encourage Innovation

As everyone continues to work from home, encouraging innovation should be a big priority for business owners. It’s a new way of working for many, so there are many opportunities to improve processes, find new ways to relate to one another, and collaborate in different ways.

As you learn more about employee issues and needs, encourage the workforce to brainstorm solutions and innovate ways news of working together as they deal with the pandemic. Great solutions can come out of the process and can help teams work together even better.

Promote Dialogue Between Employees

One of the elements that often gets lost in remote work is spontaneous conversation and dialogue. With so many pre-planned meetings and Zoom conference calls, it can be difficult to make room for more relaxed and informal dialogue. However, without that regular dialogue and support, collaboration and tasks become more challenging. This is because remote workers feel isolated.

Promoting more dialogue between an employee and others on the team can make a huge difference in their engagement and motivation to work. Casual coffee breaks, informal chats, and meetings, camera-off hangouts – these are some simple ways to help employees connect better.

Provide Regular Feedback and Support Workers

A remote workforce needs just as much feedback and support as they would in the office. Because it’s difficult to communicate with each other across different channels, having structured feedback and support sessions is crucial. Employees feel more at ease when there is transparency in place and turn to managers for extra support and guidance.

Make it a point to schedule regular sessions with the wider team and individuals to give them positive feedback (or constructive criticism) and provide avenues for support to feel more comfortable with their workload overall.

Demonstrate Trust

Remote working fundamentally relies on trust among managers, the business, and the team. When trust is lacking, communication can easily falter, making it challenging for employees to feel genuinely comfortable. This discomfort can ultimately result in decreased motivation and productivity, which is crucial when managing remote workers.

The most crucial thing for managers to do is show that they trust their remote workforce. When tasks are assigned, resist the urge to micromanage and show team members that you trust they will complete tasks at the deadlines assigned and in time. You can offer regular meetings or checks if they feel it’s important, especially if they have questions, but try to make it as collaborative as possible.

Celebrate Milestones

Achievements need to be celebrated, and that is no different when it comes to remote working. It is incredibly important to keep track of internal milestones, celebrate great client work. And you can praise team members for their work with the organization.

That can come in the form of a quick email, a celebratory video call, or another way to recognize great work by remote employees. For managers, you can keep a document somewhere with notable milestones and accomplishments. You can then do a wrap-up at the end of the month so that teams get a nice reminder of all their hard work at the end of the month.

What makes a successful virtual team?

To have a successful virtual team, several factors go into the process, such as:

Promoting collaboration among teams
Providing workers with flexibility in respect to working hours and time
Fostering a culture of open communication
Treating employees as individuals and addressing needs
Celebrating milestones and accomplishments
Using organization tools for project management and communication

How do you manage remote staff training?

Organizations can handle remote staff training in two ways. You can run live sessions that team members can join in at designated times and encourage them not to book other meetings and responsibilities that could clash. Alternatively, you can provide pre-recorded sessions or video recordings of live training after remote staff can watch on their own time.

How do you motivate a team remotely?

You can motivate a team remotely through communication and organization. Some ways to motivate a virtual team include:

Celebrating achievements and milestones in monthly meetings and calls
Using organization and time management tools to ensure employees know what they are working on and their deadlines
Promoting dialogue and collaboration between team members
Understanding each team member’s goals and aspirations
Allowing employees to work flexible hours

How do you manage employees during Covid 19?

There are many ways to manage employees during the pandemic. To manage remote teams during COVID-19, you can do the following:

Open several channels of communication for employees to ensure everyone is clear on their tasks
Equip your team with the right resources and technology
Understand and address individual challenges that team members may have with working remotely
Encourage innovation among team members to find new ways to work together
Ensure remote teams understand your expectations and can communicate when work is unclear.

Image: Depositphotos

This article, “Top Tips for Effectively Managing Remote Workers” was first published on Small Business Trends

    EA SOCIAL MEDIA

    We know what works and brings the best results!

    Social Media – Design, Marketing

    Working Hours : 7:00 AM – 8:00 PM
    Address : Cevizli, Zuhal Street, Ritim Istanbul A1 Block
    No: 46 / 1 Flat No: 188 Maltepe / Istanbul
    Phone : +90 539 669 6587

    Privacy Preferences

    When you visit our website, it may store information through your browser from specific services, usually in the form of cookies. Here you can change your Privacy preferences. It is worth noting that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our website and the services we are able to offer.

    Our website uses cookies, mainly from 3rd party services. Define your Privacy Preferences and/or agree to our use of cookies.