Remote work has become a common trend in today’s workforce, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic that struck in 2020, which forced businesses to change operations to remote work. While it has its benefits, working remotely comes with a unique set of challenges. One of the most significant challenges when working remotely is maintaining high performance levels in teams. Managing remote teams requires a different approach from managing traditional teams. Managers must implement effective strategies that align teams towards achieving common goals. This blog post will explore expert tips that can help improve remote team performance.
Clear Communication Channels
Effective communication is critical when it comes to remote teams. Clear and concise communication ensures that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goal. It is essential to establish clear communication channels and protocols from the beginning for everyone to follow. This will help to eliminate confusion and misunderstandings that often arise in remote teams.
The choice of communication channels is critical in enabling effective communication. As mentioned, effective communication channels and protocols should be established from the onset. Some of the best communication tools for remote teams include:
- Slack: Slack is a messaging platform that allows remote teams to communicate more efficiently. It provides a convenient way to exchange messages, share files, and manage tasks.
- Zoom: Zoom is a video conferencing tool that enables remote teams to hold virtual meetings and workshops. It is essential to ensure that everyone has access to a reliable and stable internet connection to ensure seamless video calls.
- Project Management Tools: Project management tools such as Trello, Asana, and Monday.com help teams manage their tasks and projects. They provide a central location where everyone can access critical project information, including deadlines, task assignments, and progress updates.
Establish Clear Expectations
One of the most significant challenges remote teams face is managing expectations. Managers must set clear expectations from the onset to ensure that everyone knows what is expected of them. This includes defining project goals, expectations around work hours, and communication protocols.
It is essential to establish a clear set of guidelines that outlines expectations, responsibilities, and deadlines. This helps everyone stay on track and ensures accountability for performance. Managers can achieve this by holding virtual meetings and one-on-one check-ins to ensure that everyone is aware of their performance metrics.
Celebrate Achievements
Remote teams often face feelings of isolation and detachment from the rest of the team. As a result, it is essential to celebrate milestones, achievements and recognise outstanding performance. It is vital to creating a positive company culture and foster team spirit.
Establish a reward system for exceptional performance or hitting key milestones that align with your remote team’s goals. You can use project management tools to track progress and identify contribution levels to celebrate.
Prioritise Team-Building
Remote work can often create a sense of isolation and detachment in teams. Fostering social connections helps to promote a sense of belonging, boost morale, and improve collaboration. Take time to organise team-building activities. These can be informal events, such as virtual coffee breaks, lunches or fitness challenges. Managers can also organise team events such as virtual happy hours or dinners to facilitate social bonding.
Encourage Self-care
Remote teams are at a higher risk of burnout and fatigue due to the challenges they face with remote work. It is vital to encourage self-care and promote work-life balance. This includes setting boundaries around work hours and encouraging employees to take breaks during work hours. Encourage employees to take time off when they need it and to take care of their mental and physical health.
Provide Ongoing Training
Remote teams often require additional training to acquire specialised skills to improve performance. Business owners and managers must offer their remote team members ongoing training opportunities to enhance their performance levels. Offering ongoing training opportunities not only enhances the team’s performance, but also improves employee engagement and satisfaction levels. The training can be virtual or self-paced, depending on the employee’s availability and learning preference. Encourage employees to take up training opportunities to improve their skills.
Regular Performance Measurement
Regular performance measurement helps to identify areas that require improvement and provides an opportunity to celebrate accomplishments. The metrics should align with key business objectives and be communicated from the onset. Managers should conduct regular performance reviews with each team member to evaluate progress and provide feedback.
Best Practices for Remote Teams
In addition to the seven tips mentioned above, remote teams can benefit from other best practices that promote teamwork and collaboration. Here are some best practices for remote teams:
- Foster a culture of trust: Creating a culture of trust is essential in remote teams. Trust will promote efficient communication and effective collaboration between team members.
- Set boundaries: As mentioned earlier, it is essential to set boundaries to manage expectations around work hours and ensure regular communication to avoid burnout in your remote team.
- Encourage accountability: Remote teams need to be accountable for their deliverables. Managers should hold team members accountable for their performance and provide feedback on deliverables.
- Promote diversity: Diversity enhances teamwork and promotes creativity in problem-solving. Remote teams can benefit from encouraging diversity in hiring and in team building activities.
- Foster innovation: Remote teams need a culture that encourages and rewards innovation. Managers should create an environment that rewards creativity and innovation in problem-solving.
- Support mental health: Business owners and managers should prioritise employee mental health. Remote workers often face feelings of isolation and detachment, which can lead to poor mental health and burnout. Encouraging work-life balance and regular check-ins can promote mental wellness in your remote team.
Handling Remote Work Distractions
Remote work can be a double-edged sword when it comes to distractions. While working from home can reduce the number of office distractions that employees may face, the home environment can present distractions of its own. It can be a challenge to switch off and focus on work when you’re surrounded by domestic tasks or other home-related distractions.
The key to managing remote work distractions is to establish boundaries and develop healthy work habits. Encourage your team to create schedules for regular breaks and encourage them to take breaks outside, where possible. This can help to reset their minds and boost productivity. Also, ensure that your team adopts the best tools to support their daily work processes, such as video conferencing software or chatbots.
Taking a Painless Communication Approach
Communication breakdown is one of the most common challenges that remote teams face. Managers must develop safe and efficient methods to communicate with and manage their team members. The chosen communication method should be easy to use, responsive and foster trust and efficiency. Good communication tools create an environment in which team members can share updates and ideas with each other, provide support where needed, and stay updated on project progress.
Create a Communication Plan
Developing a communication plan is essential for remote teams. The plan should outline the methods of communication to be used, including the frequency of updates, and the types of information that should be communicated. For instance, your communication plan should stipulate when to use email, texts, conference calls, instant messaging platforms like Slack, video conferencing or document sharing tools. Ensure that the communication plan is accessible to all team members at all times.
Encourage Regular Communication
Regular communication between team members is key to improving performance. Managers should establish regular check-ins and touchpoints where team members can share feedback and insights. Periodic virtual face-to-face meetings on a weekly or monthly basis can help team members connect, brainstorm, and tackle problems together. Video conferencing is an excellent tool to ensure that team members stay connected and feel like they are part of a team.
Help Manage Remote Work-Life Balance
Remote teams are more prone to burnout due to the lack of designated office spaces and clear work hours. It is essential to encourage your team to maintain a good work-life balance. The work-life balance is more than just managing work hours — it entails setting boundaries for work time, such as not working on weekends, responding to emails after work hours only when urgent and taking sufficient breaks during the day. Encourage taking breaks outside, such as a walk or exercise. Besides, giving their minds space to focus on other things than work, it also promotes good health.
Encourage Taking Time Off
Ensure that your team members are taking sufficient time off work to recharge mentally and physically. This will help them avoid burnout and maintain morale. Encourage your team members to take time off when they need it, and ensure that they have access to enough time off each year. In some instances, burnout can result from not taking time off, leading to a decline in work quality and dissatisfaction in staff.
Virtual Team Building Activities
Lastly, remote work can make it harder to socialize with coworkers, which is a vital aspect of team building. You can solve this issue by organizing virtual team building activities. These activities can help your team members bond despite being in different locations. Encourage your team members to organize virtual activities themselves, making sure the activities are understandable, everyone feels included, and they focus on teamwork and fun. From among many online activities that team members can enroll in, some examples include:
- Virtual Trivia Night – Team members can organise and participate in a virtual quiz using any online quiz-making platform.
- Virtual Scavenger Hunt – Organize your team into pairs, and have them compete in a virtual scavenger hunt. This can include finding specific items around the house or online, taking pictures, or recording videos.
- Virtual Coffee Break – Team members can schedule virtual coffee breaks to catch up with each other and discuss topics of common interest.
- Virtual Happy Hour – The end of the week calls for a happy hour. Organizations can schedule and host virtual happy hours where team members can socialize and unwind.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, managing remote teams requires a unique approach compared to traditional team management. Managers must implement various strategies to align teams to achieve common goals, enhance productivity, and foster a positive company culture.
The tips above discussed in this long-form blog include clear communication channels, establishing clear expectations, celebrating achievements, prioritising team-building, encouraging self-care, providing ongoing training, and regular performance measurement. Additional best practices include fostering a culture of trust, promoting diversity, supporting mental health, and promoting innovation.
Remote teams present unique challenges, such as disruptions, communication breakdowns, and a lack of social connections. Managers must ensure that employees are well-supported by developing healthy work habits, establishing communication plans, encouraging regular communication, offering time off, and organizing virtual team building activities. Integrating these strategies can lead to maximized performance, improved employee engagement, and satisfaction levels for remote teams.
By embracing the right approach to managing remote teams, businesses can leverage its benefits, such as reduced overhead costs, expanded talent pools, and improved work-life balance for employees. Ultimately, adopting an effective management strategy for remote teams can lead to increased productivity and business success.