You might be an excellent manager in the office, but managing a remote team can be very different. You can no longer rely on face-to-face time to cover up any issues with communication and processes. That’s why a 2020 study discovered that poor communication was in fact one of the biggest challenges for managers.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
There are some easy tips for managing remote teams that can make life a whole lot easier.
In this post we’ll cover:
- Challenges for managing a remote team
- Tips for communicating with remote employees
- Tips for making remote work more effective
- Tips for keeping remote employees engaged
So that you’re ready to become the best remote manager that you can be.
Challenges of managing a remote team
One of the first steps to managing a remote team effectively is to know what your biggest challenges are going to be.
Some of the most common challenges are:
Poor communication
Communication is probably the most noticeable challenge managers face when going remote. This is because instead of walking across the office to talk to your team, you’re relying on video calls, chats and emails which can sometimes cause issues. So much so, that a report by the Institute of Leadership and Management found that 88 per cent of workers face miscommunication issues and 83% feel overwhelmed by the excessive amount of emails.
Keeping employees engaged
In some cases, being in the comfort of your own home will help you keep on top of your work and be more engaged than working in an office. But for others, it’s the complete opposite. In a recent study, employees who worked remotely felt nearly two times less engaged than being in the office. That’s a massive decrease, which could really affect team performance if not addressed.
Difficulties tracking work and productivity
It can be difficult to know if your team is using their time effectively. Research suggests that managers often develop trust issues because of this, which can be detrimental to employee-manager relationships.
Tips for communicating with remote employees
1. Be clear and upfront about expectations
Remote workers may work a different schedule compared to working the typical ‘9-5’. This can make it trickier for managers to track progress on projects and oversee what the team is doing throughout the day.
We recommend allowing this flexibility, but make sure that you communicate clearly what’s expected from them. This should include everything from being available for any meetings to their priorities, deadlines, and performance goals.
Set these early and be upfront if these expectations are not being met.
2. Schedule longer one-to-ones
As your team gets accustomed to working remotely, you’ll need to find ways to continue building manager-employee relationships and ensure that communication thrives while being out of the office. Otherwise, you’ll be running the risk of them feeling isolated.
An easy way to do this is to schedule longer meetings than you normally would in the office. During this time, you can both share positive feedback, socialise, and go over any concerns that they have.
3. Choose one main communication tool for your team
When working remotely, your employee’s communication preferences may differ. Keeping up with these preferences is often too much for a larger team, leading to important messages falling through the cracks.
That’s why you need to clearly define how you’re going to communicate as a team. They need to know what:
- Your preferred video call app is
- Messenger to use
- Project management toll is
And when to use each one.
Tips for making remote work more effective
4. Brief effectively
An effective brief can be the difference between leaving the team to crack on with the task to having thousands of messages in your inbox asking for guidance.
Basically, a good brief is the not-so-super secret magic key to delegating tasks effectively..
A good brief will usually include the following:
- An objective/what you’re trying to achieve
- Background to the task
- Supporting documentation or information
- Guidance of what format it should be delivered in
- Clarity on milestones and check-in points
- A deadline
Each one of those steps is vital for setting expectations and giving them a clear indication of what it is you need from them. Fail to include any of them and you’re running the risk of annoying the team and getting back a piece of work that just isn’t up to scratch.
5. Use project management tools
Making sure that you brief effectively is one thing, but tracking progress and monitoring your team’s productivity can be a completely different headache.
Without any visibility on what people are up to and where they are at with tasks, you’ll find yourself wanting to message them all the time. And then before you know it you’ll be micromanaging.
To save yourself the hassle, you can use project management apps to set tasks and deadlines for the team. Allowing you to get a bird’s eye view of where everything is without having to message people constantly.
6. Give and request regular feedback
You don’t know if you’re doing a good job managing your remote team unless you request feedback. Without it, you could think you’re the best manager in the world whilst still making mistake after mistake.
One way to get regular feedback from your team is to run mini-surveys twice a year. In this survey, you should ask questions around:
- Their opportunities to develop
- The amount of support they get
- The frequency and quality of the feedback they receive
- The trust they have in their manager
These questions should give you a sense of where the improvements lie. Then it is just a case of working on getting better at those skills.
Tips for keeping remote employees engaged
7. Encourage health and wellness
The health and wellness of your team should be your priority. If members of your team become unwell, they won’t be able to perform to their highest potential, or at all.
The Labour Force Survey found that approximately 10 million days were lost to stress, anxiety, or depression, which shows us that the healthier and happier your employees are, the more productive they are.
To ensure that the health and wellness of your team are looked after you need to be on top of burnout.
And when it comes to burnout the best cure is prevention.
You can use a tool like Analytics 365 to do this because you get a top-level view of their usage, whether they are working after hours, and how much time they’re spending in meetings. With this, you can start to give them little nudges to take some time off. Or give them permission to push back on meetings.
8. Host casual hangouts
Social isolation is probably one of the biggest challenges when managing remote teams.
But it’s also one of the easiest to fix.
All you need to do is put in some dedicated social time for the team. It could be an afternoon of remote team-building activities, or a coffee morning catchup. Whatever it is, the important thing is that there is a level of regularity and some sort of structure to it so everyone knows what to expect.
If you’re struggling with ideas, check out our post that recommends ‘20 employee engagement activities for remote teams in 2022’.
9. Show appreciation
Many remote workers can feel sidelined or forgotten, with some companies taking an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude to their employees.
Don’t be that company!
When managing a remote team, it’s vital to ensure they feel valued. Otherwise, their levels of isolation and anxiety will affect their performance.
Making your employees feel valued doesn’t have to be complicated either. It can be little gestures like:
– Celebrate their wins as a team
– Praise them publicly and privately
– Remember important dates like birthdays
– Surprise them with a treat occasionally
And most importantly, remember to take an interest in them and their life.
Summary
Before you even begin to manage a remote team, you need to know what your biggest challenges are going to be. Some of the common challenges for remote managers include poor communication, keeping employees engaged and difficulties tracking work and productivity.
To overcome them you need to:
Better communicate with remote employees:
- Be clear and upfront about expectations
- Schedule longer one-to-ones
- Choose one main communication tool for your team
Make remote work more effective:
- Brief effectively
- Use project trackers and productivity tools
- Give and request regular feedback
Keep your remote employees engaged:
- Encourage health and wellness
- Host casual hangout
- Show appreciation
Sometimes, technology can make this a lot easier. If you’re looking for a tool to give you the insights you need to become a better manager then check out Analytics 365.
