Remote work is constantly changing as we move through different phases of the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on industries and workplace processes. We’ve previously talked about remote work mistakes that managers make, but today we wanted to dive into some great tips for managing remote workers.
Schedule Frequent Check-Ins
Every remote worker’s environment is different, and that presents unique challenges and obstacles on a daily basis. If your team is new to working remotely, daily check-ins on projects, issues, and concerns can help mitigate problems before they grow to unmanageable levels.
There is no need to keep a rigorous daily check-in schedule if your team is more experienced with remote work. But keeping a regular and frequent check-in schedule, or building an area in your online platforms for team members to leave questions and concerns, are some great ways to stay in the loop when it comes to your remote teams.
Over-Communicate
Much like frequently checking in, over-communication is key when it comes to remote work situations. In the best in-office circumstances, it’s easy to miscommunicate.
When your team is remote, it’s imperative that you over-communicate information related to team tasks, duties, goals, and outcomes. It’s also important to remember that your individual team members may have different types of access to files and other shared data, so keeping those lines of communication wide open can make the difference between constant frustration and smooth sailing.
Manage Expectations
Remote work presents its own hurdles when it comes to getting work done. Therefore, it is not feasible to assume that your team can complete tasks in the same manner or time it took them to do so when you worked in the same physical space with shared tools and access to them.
Creating better ways to measure progress and productivity is paramount to your success in managing remote workers.
Create a Helpful Cache of Resources
If you want your team to perform well, but you don’t give them the right tools to do so, you aren’t setting anyone up to do the great work you expect from them. If you have team members who previously did work on par with their colleagues but notice they are suddenly lagging behind, be sure to evaluate their situation and tools.
Expecting everyone’s home devices to have the same level of performance and cybersecurity that your in-house computers did isn’t feasible. If you want everyone to work on the same level, they need the same technology. IT may be worth it to invest in updated technology for your team.
And since you can’t just pop into your supervisor’s office to ask a quick question as easily, it’s also a good idea to round up digital resources and store them in a central location on a website or VPN. This means fewer requests for your management teams and more appreciation from your employees for the transparency and helpful resources you’ve provided.
Don’t Forget to Evaluate Your Tech
Collaboration tools are constantly changing and evolving to create a better user experience. But if you are not on top of those changes, you could be missing out on some great opportunities to provide your team members with more support, guidance, and better tools and processes within that collaboration technology.
This is where communication helps, too. If your team is constantly struggling with a certain aspect of a task or project type, there may be a new feature in your collaboration tool that can ease some of that strain. Evaluation and training updates with regard to your collaboration technology can help streamline your remote processes.
Meet Me In The Cloud has the correct managed services to step up platform adoption. Looking to switch collaboration tool platforms? Trying to get your staff trained on the latest and greatest changes to your current platform? MMITC can help.
Contact us today with any questions.
