Introduction
Managing remote teams has become common practice in organizations worldwide. The shift towards remote work has introduced both opportunities and challenges for managers. Effective remote team management can lead to increased productivity, better work-life balance for employees, and overall success for the organization. Before the pandemic, around 6 percent of employees worked remotely. However, the percentage has reached 28% and is expected to increase progressively in the coming years.
As this trend is here to stay, it has become crucial for managers to develop effective strategies for managing remote teams. Do you have distributed teams or remote employees? Do you want to ensure consistent performance from them?
In this article, we discuss best practices for managing remote teams that can help make things easier for team managers. But first, let’s address the challenges managers face when supervising a remote team.
Common Challenges in Managing Remote Teams
Before exploring how to manage remote teams, every manager should understand the challenges that come with remote work. Some of the most common challenges to consider are:
Communication Barriers
- Challenge: Remote teams may often face delays, misinterpretations, or lack of clarity in communication, especially when relying primarily on digital channels.
- Solution: You must try structured communication tools (like Slack for chat and Zoom for video calls) and establish clear guidelines for response times, meeting schedules, and message formatting to ensure everyone in your team is on the same page.
Maintaining Team Cohesion
- Challenge: Without daily face-to-face interaction, team members may feel isolated, and it can be challenging to build a strong sense of camaraderie.
- Solution: Create opportunities for team bonding, such as virtual team-building activities, “watercooler” chat channels, or occasional in-person meetups if possible.
Tracking Productivity and Performance
- Challenge: It can be difficult to monitor productivity and ensure accountability without in-office oversight.
- Solution: Use time tracking and productivity monitoring tools, such as Monitask or Mera Monitor, to understand work patterns, help employees stay focused, and provide performance metrics without micromanagement.
Overcoming Time Zone Differences
- Challenge: Remote teams spread across different time zones may struggle with synchronous communication and project coordination.
- Solution: Define core hours when all team members should be available and rely on asynchronous communication for updates that don’t need immediate responses. Tools like project management software with flexible task timelines can help bridge the gap.
Ensuring Effective Collaboration
- Challenge: Remote teams may find it harder to collaborate on complex projects due to limited real-time interaction.
- Solution: Implement collaborative project management software, like Karya Keeper, which allows for task assignment, progress tracking, and document sharing in a centralized platform, making collaboration more accessible and streamlined.
Building Trust and Accountability
- Challenge: Trust can be harder to establish in a virtual environment, and some managers may worry about team accountability.
- Solution: Focus on outcome-based evaluations rather than time spent online. Set clear goals, regularly review progress, and build a culture of trust through transparency and supportive feedback.
Maintaining Employee Engagement and Motivation
- Challenge: Remote work can sometimes lead to disengagement or lower morale due to a lack of in-person interaction and recognition.
- Solution: Regularly recognize team achievements, set up structured one-on-ones, and encourage participation in decision-making. Social events like a virtual “Fundoo Friday” trivia game can also help boost engagement.
Best Practices for Managing Remote Teams
Many well-known organizations have witnessed success with their remote teams, and some have become 100 percent remote companies. So, are you ready to achieve this? Here are some effective practices for managing a remote team.
-
Set Clear Expectations
More than 32 percent of remote employees agree that transparency creates a feeling of connectedness at work. You can maintain transparency by establishing clear regulations for all. Set expectations and boundaries for remote teams. Communicate the company’s vision and mission clearly. Ensure that every employee understands their individual goals as well as team goals.
One of the most effective ways to implement expectations is to organize a kick-off meeting and explain all procedures and policies to the remote team. After that, prefer to hold monthly or weekly meetings.
-
Use of The Right Tools
Every employer should ensure that remote employees have access to the tools, information, and training they need to complete assigned tasks. Deploy the right tools to empower them. Use tools that support better engagement and collaboration. There are multiple tools that works best for project management like Trello, Asana, and Karya Keeper. Some tools aces at time and productivity tracking like Mera Monitor, worktime, and insightful. Use these tools to handle every task of a business wisely. From AP tools to IT tools for tech teams, the tools can simplify a lot of tasks.
-
Create Clear Policies for Remote Teams
Don’t forget to establish a proper remote work policy for distant employees to maintain compliance. Besides, set clear guidelines. While making policies, ensure that they are tailored to the organization and the specific role of the employee. Implement policies for total work hours, compensation, use of office equipment, employee leave, security, etc.
-
Hold Face-to-Face Meeting
Meeting as a team or individually can offer a lot of benefits. With purposeful meetings, managers can create a strong work culture, boost engagement and develop rapport. Even though you have a remote team, arrange face-to-face meetings. You can use tools such as Google Meet, Zoom, Skype, etc. to discuss work progress, employees’ requirements, and much more. These practices make remote employees feel connected. Keep your meetings short but meaningful.
-
Create Space for Flexibility
Every remote employee has a different work environment. Besides, some will have children and spouses while some won’t. While some employees will have a private workplace in their home, some will be attending meetings from a café or closet. Well, the point here is that managers need to understand such circumstances and allow flexibility.
For example, allowing employees to work at their desired time, setting reasonable timelines for tasks, etc. Just a little bit of flexibility can work like magic for remote employees.
-
Focus on Creating Streamlined Workflows
It is common for a remote team to encounter various challenges when it comes to coordinating their tasks and staying on the right track. But you can avoid this by setting clear workflows. Besides, establish clear processes for every task. What’s more? You can also cut out unnecessary steps using modern tools to simplify some tasks for remote employees. With this, you can ensure that every task is completed on time and efficiently.
-
Regular Performance Reviews
Just like in-house teams, remote teams can also benefit from performance reviews. Regular performance checks will allow organizations to discuss clearly about work expectations and progress. Besides, it helps to identify areas for improvement. Furthermore, these reviews can keep employees and managers on the same page. Try to offer constructive feedback, as remote teams may lack in-person feedback which is common for in-house employees.
-
Create a Culture That Supports Work-Life Balance
As remote employees are working remotely from various time zones, any notifications, emails, or chat messages can disturb their sleep. So, be conscious while setting meetings and deciding on working hours. Respect the time off of every remote employee. Just because these employees are not available physically in the workplace, that doesn’t mean they can be bothered or called on their leave. Show that you respect their time. With this, you can cultivate the trust factor and create positive relationships.
-
Encourage Social Interactions
As per a survey conducted by Buffer, around 20 percent of remote employees deal with loneliness. Besides, 20 percent of them face challenges to communicate and collaborate. How do we avoid these issues? Encouraging social interactions can be an effective method for this. Set up coffee chats, organize team-building gaming sessions, keep fun Fridays for extracurricular activities, etc. for every employee to socialize and connect with others.
-
Offer Emotional Support
Isolation can affect employees’ psychological health negatively. It is crucial for every manager to understand stress and listen to remote employees’ concerns and anxiety. Showing some empathy can also work great. Don’t depend on others to find out what’s going on with your employees. Go on and ask employees how they are doing. Listen to them actively. Don’t just listen; understand them and come up with the right solutions.
-
Celebrate Every Wins
Achieving objectives and celebrating every milestone together is something that creates a perfect team. So, while managing a remote team, don’t let distance affect the ritual. Make an extra effort and recognize employees’ contributions. This act can keep your remote team motivated to give their best. You can organize virtual parties or send gifts to employee’s addresses. If possible, offer a bonus leave. Don’t postpone such celebrations. Celebrate both big and small wins. With this, remote employees will feel encouraged.
Some Effective Tools to Manage Remote Employees or A Team
Without the right technology and tools, managing a remote team would be difficult. If you are not leveraging these tools, you are likely to face some challenges and reduced productivity. So, here are some of the best tools that can help you in remote team management.
Communication Tools or Platforms
A core element for managing team remotely is effective communication. You should use efficient and reliable tools for remote employees to facilitate smooth communication.- Slack: An instant messaging platform that allows teams to create channels for different projects or topics, ensuring organized communication.
- Microsoft Teams: A collaboration hub that combines video conferencing, file sharing, and messaging, ideal for hybrid or fully remote teams.
- Zoom: Widely used for virtual meetings and webinars, Zoom helps ensure real-time communication, fostering stronger team connections.
Project Management Tools
With the best project management tools, you can increase the efficiency of your remote employees. Besides, they help in attaining work centralization. On the other hand, these tools make collaboration between teams easier.- Trello: A visual tool that uses boards and cards to manage tasks, deadlines, and project milestones.
- Asana: A flexible project management tool that helps teams assign tasks, track progress, and meet deadlines.
- Monday.com: A team collaboration tool that allows remote teams to plan, track, and deliver work with a high level of transparency.
Time Tracking Software
Managing remote teams efficiently means keeping track of employees’ time and ensuring accountability, especially when working across various time zones.- Harvest: A simple time-tracking tool that integrates with project management software to monitor time spent on each task.
- Clockify: A free time tracker for teams that enables tracking of work hours, productivity, and billable hours.
Document Collaboration Tools
Remote employees need to work on shared documents in real time, and collaboration tools make this process seamless.- Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides): Google’s suite of cloud-based tools allows teams to collaborate in real-time, share files, and store documents.
- Dropbox Paper: A collaborative workspace that allows teams to edit documents and keep track of important tasks in a single platform.
Conclusion
Managing remote teams requires a strategic approach, the right tools, and clear best practices. By implementing effective communication strategies, leveraging the right technology, and fostering a culture of trust and accountability, you can ensure that your remote team stays productive and engaged.
- Use communication tools like Slack and Zoom for seamless interaction.
- Leverage project management software such as Asana and Trello to stay on top of tasks.
- Track time with software like Harvest to ensure efficiency and accountability.
- Create a culture of collaboration by encouraging team-building activities and flexible work arrangements.
By adopting these best practices, you can build a remote team that thrives, even in a virtual environment.
FAQs
It is a process of effectively managing remote employees and tasks. It involves a lot of effort, and the use of tools and policies to maintain collaboration and productivity in a distributed work environment.
Whether you are managing a single team or multiple teams, it is important to focus on communication and deployment of the right tools like MeraMonitor, Asana, ClickUp, etc. Besides, consider recognition and work structure.
Conduct regular check-ins, follow a results-based approach, and motivate every employee to attain success independently to keep them productive.