According to a workplace survey conducted by Staples in 2019, 90% of employees believe that flexible arrangements increase employee morale. This also makes for a healthier work-life balance and saves both time and stress of the commute. Once you begin trusting your employees, you’ll find it easier to relax and focus on other tasks. Empathize with your remote workers and try to step into their shoes.
Remote Control Keep on top of your work from home life with these tips and ideas from our team to yours.Earnings Reports “Open company, no bullshit” isn’t just one of our values. Ultimately, good communication is key to creating a strong foundation for a positive remote work experience. Keep in close contact with your team and encourage open and honest 360 feedback year-round, not just during annual performance reviews. Developing effective communication skills is always a critical part of a successful management strategy. Yet adapting your communication skills can be a major challenge to managing a virtual team. If you’re serious about building an effective and productive remote team, you need to invest in its development.
And since we were already a distributed team, it made sense to keep moving that way since we could hire people we knew were awesome but just didn’t live in the places we lived. You can also make “shout out” videos that highlight contributions each team member made that week and why it matters. Statistic after statistic extols the virtues of remote work – it’s a boon to productivity, it boosts morale and lowers stress for the majority of workers, and it reduces operating costs.
As you no longer have easy access to your employees, you may feel nervous or out of your depth during decision-making. This can lead you to carefully micromanaging every aspect about your virtual team remotely. Listening is one of the strongest soft skills you can develop as a team leader — especially if you’re leading remote teams. Ensuring your employees feel confident and empowered to do their best work no matter where they are is key to improving engagement and performance. Whether a new hire or a veteran employee, make sure your remote team has the tools and training to get the job done. Regular recognition from peers and managers helps employees feel connected, appreciated, and valued. Schedule staff meetings, and incorporate video calls with screen sharing on a regular basis.
How to manage a virtual team
Start with easy icebreakers like each participant’s name, role and dream vacation. Then, you can check out our list of ice breaker questions for virtual meetings for more inspiration. The money that you save by not spending on office space and utilities for your employees? Put that aside and use it to sponsor in-person meet-ups at least once a year. Be willing to spend to bring everyone together for team-building, whether to attend a conference or a company getaway. Finally, onboard a remote or hybrid worker as you would anyone else.
It’s (practically) impossible to transition to an office.
When it comes to communication with and among a remote team, more is always better. When it comes to successfully leading a remote team, flexibility and creativity are paramount.
Creating a Virtual Space
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Research has shown that remote workers are between 35 and 40% more productive than employees in-office. However, without good management principles in place, your remote team may be doomed to fail, as its members will lack a unified vision and sense of purpose. They could also lack accountability to you and one another, and they could ignore various team processes such as knowledge sharing and following the chain of authority. Depending on your team’s nature of work, they may need access to other tools besides computers. They may need a good business communication system, a quality photo printer or editing software, a content management system, or access to a stock photography account. Increase your remote team’s chances of success by providing them with what they need in order to do the job efficiently. A few of the topics to include are time tracking, contact persons for issues or specific projects, and how to handle documentation for tasks they complete.
Because we set up this rule ahead of time, we both know it’s an option. This can be overwhelming, so finding ways to keep on top of what’s going on is imperative for communicating efficiently with each other. If you’re in an office with your teammates, for instance, you’ll notice if someone is especially quiet and withdrawn. But if you’re accustomed to working together in an office, working remotely is a workflow disruption to your team on top of an already high-stress crisis.