A manager’s guide to managing remote team

A Manager Guide to Manage Remote Team

Businesses today are embracing remote trends and are hiring top talent from different countries.

As a manager of the remote team, it’s your job to nurture, guide, and support remote team members. In this modern era, managing remote teams is not an easy task. It requires practice, and people skills, and comes with time. You can not master it in a day or two as a manager has to face a lot of various challenges.

Here is the best guide for managers to manage remote teams and make employees happier.

Challenges in managing remote teams

As it is becoming increasingly common for employees to work remotely, challenges are taking a raise related to remote team management.

  • Lacking the right communication tool
  • Hiring the right resources
  • Missing accountability program
  • Respecting everyone’s time
  • No clear roles and tasks
  • Setting schedules
  • Difficult tracking employee performance
  • Lack of cohesion within the team
  • Making everyone feel part of the team

Remote work management: How to manage remote teams

Companies like Aha, NationBuilder, Automatic Buffer, and many more are successfully working as 100% remote companies.

Still, many companies are going through thick and thin to successfully run around as remote working companies.

If you are constantly wondering “How to Manage Remote Teams” and are looking for some ideas about how teams have successfully set themselves remotely, we have got you some tips.

Best practices for remote team management

Remote team management best practices
Best practices for remote team management

1. Set Boundaries with remote workers

Remote teams often need some kind of boundaries to outline their work and personal lives.

As the teammates are working from different time zones any notifications chat messages or emails can ruin someone’s sleep or disturb their family time.

Discuss work schedules with each team member by respecting their time and showing them that you care for their time.

This will help in building positive relationships with employees making sure nothing is too hard for anyone.

2. Encourage and embrace diversity

It is no surprise to come across cultural obstacles when managing remote teams. The problem with multicultural teams involves misunderstandings and conflicts that divide the teams apart.

It becomes pretty hard to manage people of different races, embracing cultural diversity to allow team building.

A simple way is to find how different people from different areas are open to receiving feedback, promote a mindset of celebrating differences, be respectful about national holidays for your global team, and respect every cultural difference.

3. Set expectations early and clearly

Every business has expectations: whether working remotely or virtually. Being clear with employees will keep them focused on working towards the same goals.

You should set clear expectations for:

  • Work hours
  • Availability
  • Communication system
  • Timely meetings
  • Key projects and deadlines
  • Scheduled meetings
  • Respond to email

4. Brush up on your online communication skills

Many remote working teams come across a setback in communication when working on projects. It is always going to be difficult to connect with your teams in different areas without having good communication skills.

And of course, online communication skills. As you start with the conversation, be quick and concise, so the teams do not get confused.

Develop your writing skills, talk precisely, and use the right remote collaboration tools to collaborate effectively as awesome communication is vital in the remote workplace.

5. Give them help when they need it

Being out of sight, you may have to struggle to address the needs of every employee. Though you may be out of sight, don’t ever let them be out of your mind.

Unexpected problems related to the project, a teammate, or how the work is being done are common in every business.

If something is bothering your employees or they’re feeling under the weather, understand the clues they might be giving you and give them a helping hand.

6. Invest in the right remote project management software

Your remote team working culture will flourish when you have everything under one roof.

And this can be made possible when you rely on remote team management software to plan tasks, projects, and even people. Here’s what you can do with project management software:

  • Communicate with your scattered team
  • Keep track of project evolution
  • Track productivity
  • Maintain and manage timesheets
  • Share information in real-time
  • Have discussions
  • Manage the tasks on a task list
  • Interact across different time zones
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7. Learn about everyone

It becomes much simpler to know a person who is sitting the whole day beside you. You work together, spend hours together and you start knowing them in and out, their strengths and weaknesses, and what personality they possess.

But when working remotely you will have to try a little to know about your team. You will never know when you want to know.

Make it a point to have a discussion that gives you a learning about their personality. Do not try to know unwanted things that may bug them. This will grow a positive culture with your remote team.

As the market is going global, so your team should. And when you have to manage your remote team, make sure you know their pulse.

Problems that managers face while managing remote teams

In this article, we will be shedding light on these challenges that the managers come across:

Remote team management problems
Remote team management problems

1. Rely on the right remote work tools

Are your workers using the right tools for remote teams 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 in one place. You can use the ProofHub tool for chat, task management, proofing, project management, and many more.

2. Collaborating on projects

Collaboration has often been an important part of a business and also another issue with remote teams.

Mattie Stepanek Quote on Teamwork
Mattie Stepanek

Lack of coordination leads to a lack of project management and poorly organized projects from start to finish. When looking for remote work management, managers find it difficult to keep all the team members on the same page.

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Track and collaborate online with your remote team on ProofHub. Try for Free. (No-credit card required)

3. Cultural differences

One of the other greatest challenges in managing employees from various countries where people have different attitudes towards careers, and families 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 cultural 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 certainly not as hard as many managers may imagine. Here are some major tips on how managers can manage remote employees at your fingertips:-

4. 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 a lack of visibility and control. Thus, for 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 the working schedule, holidays, meetings, and other ground rules of the teams
  • Bring out the in-house recruitment process
  • Track key metrics of the project
  • Try to oversee problems

5. Have regular one-on-one

Since you are working remotely with your teams, you won’t have the moment to talk about issues.

So, give more time to employees for one-on-ones, and give them the time to contact you on Skype or any other app without conflict of time zones. Always turn your availability on 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 discussion because of not being merely present in the office.

6. Different time zones

A big challenge in building a distributed team is poor communication over distance because of different time zones. Varying time zones lead to issues of communication.

“Lack of communication leads to lack of trust that leaves room for doubt.” — Amen Amare

When a manager is managing remote employees distributed globally scheduling meetings can be tough because it is really difficult to choose a time that is convenient for all teams and yourself.

7. Work on team bonding

When working with remote teams, you cannot have that washroom meeting and talk to each other, gather around the water cooler to get to know each other or enjoy the happy hours after the office.

So, to have 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 work teams. Keep the energy high and have big discussions around what would be difficult to do with employees working in different parts of the country.

  • Say hi

When asking your employees about work updates, do not forget to say hi, and 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.

Conclusion

Having the right tips and tricks on how to effectively manage remote employees, you should be ready to create an energetic business with your remote workers.

You can do wonders for your business by remote working if you are ready to put in those little extra efforts and drive your team towards success.

If your remote team is already working at its peak, what are your amazing tricks and tips for managing a remote team at its best?

Good luck with your remote working culture!

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