Managing Remote Teams

The recent, sudden, hit of the pandemic has put most of us, people and businesses, on a steep roller-coaster of disruptive alterations to our lifestyles.

Overnight, the challenge of being agile, tested our ability to reinvent, or rediscover modes of operations, that are, maybe, alien to our comfortable processes. The case in hand is shifting to managing remote teams.

While the process of adapting to work from home with little time to prepare may have resulted in quite a bit of stress and friction, it is likely, on the long run, many businesses and employees will lean towards the benefits of working remotely, and start thinking about implementing more permanent work from home systems for their teams.

Today, businesses must realize that, if your staff are working from home for the first time due to the COVID-19 outbreak, they are likely feeling disconnected and coming down with a case of cabin fever.

Future Depends on the Past

The first step is starting with a deep understanding of how every individual in your team usually works, it is critical to understand how you can best support your remote workers in their home offices. This may seem obvious, but it is an often-overlooked step in developing any workplace strategy. You want to begin by documenting and quantifying how work used to be done, then assessing the validity of that setup for the new disrupted presence & the potential future. And accordingly, you shall be able to determine the needed changes and the level of support & intervention needed from you to enable & engage each individual in your team.

Suitable Home Workspaces

Next, ensure that your employees are supported by their home workspace, the main focuses are ergonomics and interruptions. Can your employee work comfortably all day? From a technology standpoint, you want to make sure that there is no difference between the home and office facilities which the employee experiences (e.g.: proper internet connection at least). 

Regular Virtual Gatherings

A crucial step is to set policies that support employees and help them feel connected. The biggest challenge of remote work is the isolation. It can be difficult for those working from home to feel part of the team and engage in collaborative activities. You can mitigate this by setting policies and implementing technology solutions that bring people closer together. A simple move is to consider daily online brief meetings, every other day one-to-one calls, or weekly virtual social gatherings. How frequently you conduct such calls & meetings depend on the need.

Flexibility is Key

Final advise is avoid traditional methods of control, stop marking volume of work and concentrate on quality and commitment to outcomes. It’s time to resist micromanagement and start enabling your staff through trust and guidance. You’ll need to reset expectations for how work gets done, letting go of when and how tasks are accomplished, allowing team members to accomplish their responsibilities on their own terms. This means focusing on results and offering more flexibility.

This is a difficult time, but we’re all in this together. Remember, real life is about compromise and compromise is only effective with accountability. Don’t leave the success of remote working up to chance. You need to survive today and be ready for an uncertain future.