Studies show that 92% of individuals want to work from home at least one day a week, even when COVID-19 is done. 80% of people thought they would have to work from home for up to three days. That means that businesses today will have to fully accept remote teams as a necessary element of the workforce.
The good news is that remote teams are more flexible, let you look for outstanding talent in more places, and are appealing to many people who work today.
Start a program for training leaders
The best ways to do things start at the top. You will also need to put in place a good way to make sure that everyone on your remote team learns how to talk to, encourage, and engage remote workers who may have very different problems than someone who works in the office.
It makes sense to spend money on leadership training courses that will assist your company’s leaders learn the greatest leadership skills of today. These courses will also help them come up with new ideas and ways of doing things that they may try out.
Over time, leadership training can completely change your company’s culture and help you make the most of the unique benefits of having a remote workforce. You and other leaders in your firm will learn how to spot the particular problems that remote teams confront and how to help them succeed all the time, instead of having to constantly work to keep them engaged.
Put Employee Productivity First
One of the hardest things about managing remote workers is making sure they can make the most of their time. It’s not as easy to keep track of how they’re spending their time when they’re not in the office, and even hard-working employees can wind up putting off important areas of their job that aren’t as important to the company’s success.
To fight that, it’s a good idea to use monitoring software for employees such as Controlio that can help you learn more about how your remote teams work and what you can do to make things better. Some people may frown upon time tracking software; such individuals often have privacy concerns. However, tracking tools have more to do with supporting employees in performing well and less to do with keeping an eye on how they will spend their time.
Noticing patterns in how they spend their time, you may be able to help your employees better see their chances of doing the most each day. When you start to understand the wider picture of how your remote team manages their time, you could notice what tools they need to do things faster and better.
Talk About Goals
Helping remote teams understand what they are working toward is a big part of making sure they are successful. As we talked about in the last section, setting the correct tasks is an important element of being productive.
Be Ready to Give a Hand
You must be just as available to your remote workers as you are to those working in the office. Yes, it can be difficult to keep in contact with people working from home or even in another country, but it is the only way to ensure they will remain just as important to your organization as colleagues you can speak to in person.
There will be numerous problems that remote workers might experience that they do not know how to solve. Part of your role as leader is to be that guiding presence to help and share your knowledge in the best way to handle the situation. If you do not do this, your remote teams may be left feeling alone, and less willing to tackle any challenges, with potentially costly mistakes damaging the company’s reputation or bottom line. Therefore, make sure you emphasize that you are prepared to discuss or answer queries.
Bottom Line
There are a lot of problems that come with managing a team of remote workers. But it also opens up new doors that make it possible for all businesses to hire remote workers.
Using the leadership tactics we’ve talked about, it will be a lot easier for you to stay in touch with your remote teams and help everyone do well.