How To Build An Effective Remote Team In 7 Steps

Several factors, from the pandemic to Millennials’ desire for better work-life balance, have led companies around the world to embrace the work-from-home model (3). And though this model has proven itself very successful in terms of productivity, but requires careful implementation (1).

We have learned a lot through our own struggles and would like to share some important lessons we have learned. In this article, we will explore the various steps you can take to build your own remote team.

Summary

• Telecommuting is not just about staying at home and working. Just as you have to meet your physical objectives and maintain relationships with your colleagues, your remote processes must follow the same script.
• Remote work doesn’t require advanced technology. Most likely, you are already using this technology to work remotely in other areas of your life. The ability to work as a team is far more important than the technology itself.
• You will struggle to hold your teams accountable and find it difficult to optimize productivity without guidelines and expectations. As you implement these guidelines, make sure you understand the expectations of your remote teams.

Build an effective remote team in 7 steps: The ultimate checklist

Remote working came fast and without warning. And it is not just about taking your work home, it’s a whole reorganization of the way you work. Are you mentally prepared to have remote teams? What basic requirements do you need to meet to start teleworking? In this step-by-step guide, you will learn all the fundamental steps to build your effective remote team.

1. Determine The Remote Team Structure

Every business has its own way of implementing remote teams. For example, your business may be completely remote, have specific teams working remotely, or have certain people working off-site. Whether you are a new company starting the hiring process for the first time, or you have made the decision to start allowing employees to work off-site, you must determine what approach you will take.

Generally, this decision will be left up to your specific business preferences or needs. However, in other cases, it will be out of your control, as was the case with the COVID-19 pandemic. Either way, the following steps are essential to building the most effective remote team for your business.

2. Good communication is key

Communication is key in any business environment, especially when it comes to remote work. However, it is also one of the biggest challenges. In a survey conducted by Buffer, 17% of remote workers said that collaboration and communication were one of the biggest difficulties of remote work.

• For direct communication, employees should use an internal direct messenger
• For official or customer communication, employees should use email
• For project-related comments or questions, employees should use their project management system (unless urgent, direct messaging should be used to avoid delays)

3. Provide clear guidelines and set expectations

Establishing performance and setting guidelines for workflow is essential for optimizing your team’s productivity and holding them accountable. Some examples of how you can set expectations and guidelines for your external employees include:

1. Working hours or specific times when they must be online.
2. How often they should check in.
3. The documentation process for tasks.
4. Yes, they should track the time.
5. Goals for teams and individual employees.
6. Who should be the main contact for certain projects/issues?
7. What means of communication should be used under what circumstances?

4. Use reliable communication methods

Communication is vital to the success of a remote team, so set up several reliable methods that your workers can use. Slack is a great team communication software. Consider using an internal direct messenger for direct communication between team members, while the entire team and customers can use email. See other best team communication software.

A system like Slack can give your team another channel they can use to communicate about specific projects.

5. Use time tracking

You can’t monitor your remote team members in person, but you still need to hold them accountable for their performance. Use time tracking to make sure they follow guidelines and meet expectations, at least in terms of meeting time requirements.

Beyond that, time tracking can help you calculate the right pay for hours worked, identify where workflows could be more efficient, and identify team members who need more training or structure. It will also help you calculate product pricing for customers (if pricing is based in whole or in part on time spent working). You’ll find free and paid time tracking applications and software online. Some of the best time tracking software, such as Open Time Clock and others. See the other best time tracking software.

6. Invest in your team’s development

Providing employees with access to ongoing training and development isn’t new, but Millennials in the workplace have re-emphasized the importance of doing so. Building a remote team isn’t just about initial planning, recruiting, handing out laptops and telling your employees to get on with the work.

If you are serious about creating an effective and productive remote team, you must invest in its development. Do this by organizing workshops and refresher courses. If possible, offer your team members an education or study grant that they can use to take a course that is relevant to their work.

7. Provide the tools with your remote team needs

The right tools can drastically improve your team’s performance. While some tools, such as project management software (See the best project management software) and direct messaging, may be useful for your entire remote workforce, others may be needed on a departmental or individual basis. For example, your graphic designers may need access to a stock photography site, a collective editing platform and an illustrator.

It’s important to make sure that all team members have access to these tools (who need it), either by providing them with company-wide credentials or by setting them up with their own individual accounts.

Conclusion

Research has shown that remote workers are 35-40% more productive than in-office employees. However, without good management principles, your remote team may be doomed to failure, as its members will lack a unified vision and sense of purpose. They may also lack accountability to you and to each other, and may ignore various team processes, such as knowledge sharing and following the chain of authority (2).

That said, building a remote team is not as difficult as some people may think. Use the steps above to make sure you put the basics in place without too much trouble.

References

1. The results suggest that the remote work experiment has gone better than expected for hiring managers. The perceived benefits of remote work are causing companies to significantly increase remote hiring plans in the future, which will cause an acceleration in the already upward trend of increased remote work.
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2. Teleworking or remote work is also a major issue as it, along with distance education, contributes to making efficient use of information technology for productive purposes and drives the sustained development of countries and is part of a contemporary social, labour and life revolution that allows sustainability to be enhanced by reducing carbon dioxide emissions pollution from automobile combustion by reducing traffic through teleworking.
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3. Arguably, the impact of COVID-19 on the way we work represents the most dramatic and rapid change to the global workforce we have seen since World War II. This paper investigates the long-term impacts of this remote work experiment and what we can anticipate in the future, based on the direct impact COVID has had on hiring, sentiments around remote work, and plans for moving forward.
Source