As they are, many workplaces are adopting remote working as an option for their workers. This can be difficult, especially if you’re managing a large group of people remotely. Things like team relationship building, time zones, and cultural sensitivity all can play a part in not being in an office environment. Aside from that, remote working is becoming the new normal, which means finding new and better ways to manage your remote team on a day-to-day basis. Here we are going to look at seven ways to manage your workforce while working remotely seamlessly.
Treating your employees as individuals
Your employees are their people, and they deserve individual attention. The right employer can identify each employee’s strengths and weaknesses that work for them and carefully work with that information to create a report with that employee. This same strategy can and must be used when working remotely.
If possible, this should also apply to the hours they work. If you have employees who like to work different hours, and it’s not a problem, engage that specific work skill-set. It can benefit everyone in the end.
Communicate – and do it often
Communication is key to any relationship, and that goes double for working relationships. Your employee must know what’s expected of them and the time frame they’re working in. Deadlines must be adhered to. There should be no room for a different interpretation than that of what you’re working on.
You want to encourage your employees to reach out via video conferencing, telephone calls, or instant messaging should they have any questions about what needs to be done. Good communication will always rule at the office, remotely or otherwise.
Adapting software to manage attendance
There may come a time you’ll need to purchase software to manage the time and attendance worked by your employees. This can help greatly by allowing you to manage your workforce in real-time, eliminating messy paperwork, giving you automatic record-keeping so you’ll always have that information to fall back on, saving time, and focusing on the meaningful activities of your employees.
Time management software can be a great asset to you, especially if your team is a large one, as accurate as you can eliminate many remote working and payroll issues.
Trusting your staff is up to the task
You can’t watch your employees while they’re working remotely, but that doesn’t mean they’re not getting the job done. If you feel like you can’t trust a part of your staff, you need to ask yourself why you hired them? Remote work requires you to trust everyone is doing what they’ve been asked and in the required time. If you can’t trust that, then it’s time to re-evaluate either your time as a manager or re-evaluate the employee in question. This is again where communication will fall into place.
Stay connected with the right online tools
Start perusing the internet, and you will find many tools out there to keep you connected. From managing projects to meeting up with face-to-face time, there is apt to be the right tool for your company. Each of your teams will have different needs. Still, you need to develop the right channels of communication for each to encourage team members to speak up, facilitate collaborations, or showcase their new ideas.
Providing the right support to team members
Perhaps providing support such as allotting an amount in their paycheck to buy office supplies that they’ll need for a project or paying for your workers to attend different conferences.
Along the same lines, providing an allowance for your employees to continue their education and keep learning to strengthen the workplace with new knowledge. Support can come in many different ways for different employees. Knowing what they need to get the job done is paramount to providing support for your remote workers.
Find team building activities
You need to make your employees feel part of a team, and that can be hard when you’re all working remotely with things like changing time zones and company cultures. Making connections outside of business meetings can be fun. Perhaps a virtual happy hour to allow everyone to get to know each other?
A Facebook group where people can share their likes, dislikes, or photos of their families? Team building activities such as getting fit or eating better with each other? Things like this build positivity and connections with employees they might otherwise not get while working remotely.
Managing a team remotely doesn’t have to be a chore with the right tools. This is the wave of the future, and the more you understand it, the better you’ll be as time progresses. Make sure you are using the right tools of the trade and keep the lines of communication open, and your team can and will thrive with you.