It’s 2020, and the advantages of hiring remote teams are clear to everyone.
You can get the best talent, no matter where they’re located. You can count on higher productivity. And you can meet your targets in a cost-effective manner.
What business owners feel about remote work:
Yet, many managers aren’t savvy enough in remote team management. There are misconceptions in briefing, feedback, and expectations.
Let’s look at these and how to address them.
Often, managers look at remote working through the lens of full-time employment and misjudge. They wonder if the employee will be as productive, as committed, and available when needed.
Statistics reveal that this is misguided.
With a culture of dynamic innovation, any company can benefit from remote work, even with a majority of its workforce at a remote location.
Managers should treat remote workers as a different breed. They’re focused, professional, and have found productive ways to work from home.
Seek out workers who fit into this new paradigm. Align them with the company’s vision. And watch productivity and innovation zoom.
As Alex Turnbull, CEP and Founder of Groove, once said, “Successfully working from home is a skill, just like programming, designing or writing. It takes time and commitment.”
While many companies depend on freelancers, the drawbacks of such an approach are well-known. Freelancers can be professional, but there are question marks about their long-term commitment.
When you hire remote workers from an established agency, this is not the case.
Very often, managers make feedback only about them and their goals. This is understandable, but effective remote team management involves going a step further.
Effective feedback leads to great results:
Actively giving feedback and then asking for feedback from the remote team is a powerful tool. It puts everyone on the same page, irons out alignment issues, and manages expectations.
Also Read: Uplers Guide to Managing Remote Teams – A Sure-shot Win!
KPIs for remote workers not only establish expectations, but they also help them to stay on track.
Different companies have different approaches to measuring and tracking tasks. Sam Maley, Head of Growth at Bailey & Associates, says that when tracking the productivity of remote staff, “there is no substitute for real-time screen tracking, either through screenshots or screen recording.”
And Jason Davis, CEO at Inspire 360, has a task system: “the task creator adds in the deliverables and the staff member assigned to the task then estimates the time it will take to complete.”
It’s only natural that with a remote team, managers want to keep a constant eye on what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and how long they’re going to take.
However, such micro-managing is not only unnecessary but also unproductive. The best way is to strike a balance between supervision and trust.
With these few changes in your management process, you can ensure accountability and efficiency without looking over everyone’s shoulders.
One survey shows that 400 companies with 100,000 employees each cited an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year because of inadequate communication to and between employees.
Luckily, technology has provided several solutions to get the best out of remote teams. Be it communication, time management, or feedback, there’s every reason to use such tools to get the best out of your team.
Also Read: Best Project Management Tools To Manage Offshore Remote Teams
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