Magic spell for increasing productivity, team happiness and work-life balance for remote workers
How do you manage to have that long-distance relationship with your employees? No one has ever said that long distance relationships are easy but the distance should not affect your relationship as well. This is true both for both work and personal relationships. Businesses today are embracing the remote trends and are hiring top talent from different countries. But as the manager of remote team members, your job is to nurture, guide and support your team members and this is a challenge in itself. This is a guide for managers to manage their remote team and make employees happier.
Table of Contents
Problems that a manager has to face
In this article, we will be shedding light on these challenges that the managers come across:
Different Time zones
A big challenge in building a distributed team lies in poor communication over distance because of different time zones. Varying time zones leads to issues of communication.
“Lack of communication leads to lack of trust that leaves room for doubt.” — Amen Amare
When a manager is managing a remote team with team members distributed globally then scheduling meetings can be tough because it is really difficult to choose a time that is convenient for all teams and for yourself.
Collaborating on Projects
Collaboration has often been an important part of a business and also another issue with remote teams.
“Unity is strength…when there are teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.” — Mattie Stepanek
Lack of coordination leads to lack of project management and poorly organized projects from start to finish. Managers find it difficult to keep all the team members on the same page.
Cultural differences
One of the other greatest challenges in managing employees from various countries where people have a different attitude towards careers, families and differ in boundaries.
“Once you understand and appreciate other people’s cultural backgrounds, then you can also connect with them more.”
In coordinating a global workforce, managers usually lack an understanding of managing culturing differences. People from different cultures have different work ethics and it is astonishing how they approach their work day.
Working with remote teams has never been easier but it is not certain as hard as many managers may imagine. Here are some major tips on how managers can manage remote employees at your fingertips:-
A program that is see-through
When working with a remote development team, team members have an incredible amount of freedom to work. But how do we know if people are doing work and going to deliver the tasks on time? It is one of the biggest fears because of lack of visibility and control. Thus, for the remote teams to exist and thrive, transparency and accountability are critical factors.
However, to facilitate transparency in a remote environment, you need to follow the following tips:
- Set up clear project roles and responsibilities
- Discuss with team members their specific goals in the project to keep everyone accountable.
- Write down working schedule, holidays, meeting and other ground rules of teams.
- Bring out in-house recruitment process.
- Track key metrics of the project.
- Try to oversee problems.
Have regular one on one
Since you are working remotely with your teams, you won’t have the moments to talk about issues. So, give more time to employees for one on ones, give them the time to contact you on Skype or any other app without confliction of time zones. Always turn your availability on to as your employees will have no idea when your door is open actually. Give them one day in a week for one on one to discuss their issues and you can give them your instructions. This will cover various important topics of discussions because of not being merely present in the office.
Rely on right tools
Are your workers using the right tools to collaborate effectively? Today’s technology has made it possible to have a productive team globally and using the right tools will help to organize remote work and keep everyone on the same page. Trusted by millions, ProofHub will put everything you need at one place. You can use ProofHub tool for chat, task management, proofing, project management and many more.
Work on team bonding
In a remote working environment, you cannot have that washroom meeting and talk to each other, or gather around the water cooler to know each other or enjoy the happy hours after office. So, for have the team bonding you need to stay connected with your team. Try these methods:
- Once a year face-to-face get together
Try to have a retreat once a year for team bonding. This is very important for all remote workers. Keep the energy high and have big discussions around that would be difficult to do with employees working in different parts of the countries.
- Say hi
When asking your employees about work update, do not forget to say hi, how they are doing. Do not communicate as if you are talking to robots, they are humans, talk to them like humans and try to build a team.
- Celebrate their victories
Though, it won’t be possible to meet up and celebrate their victories. But you can surely send emails, GIFs or notes to appreciate them for their work and your victory.
The last tip: Be honest! Be honest with your workers and be honest with your expectations.
You need to be a proactive leader for managing remote teams. Striking a work-life balance is important for all remote workers. Try to get the best for your teams.
