Managing remote teams is a lot more challenging than one can imagine. Keeping a check on their hours, ensuring they are not overburdened with work, helping them maintain their mental wellness, and keeping the work on track are just a few of the challenges that managers need to face.
It is also important that your employees are well-equipped with all the latest technology. Retaining employees when they are working remotely is also another difficulty that is often faced by the organization.
While it is true that there is no one approach that fits well for all the organizations, there are still several ways that can work for employers and employees both.
Some include the use of digital tools that are available in the market and some require efforts to be put in by the managers.
In this article, you can read about a few tips to know how you can manage your remote teams easily and conveniently.
Set a strict clock-in and clock-out time
One thing that can certainly be the most challenging aspect out of all is the timings and number of hours an employee works for. With remote working, these hours are often not measured well. This means that employees tend to work for long hours due to varied reasons.
This is where time management software can do wonders for employees and employers. With this tool, you can set fixed timings for your employees. This way, your remote team will clock-in and clock-out at the designated time.
When they will have designated time, they will try their best to finish the work in a given time. This will help them maintain their work-life balance, take care of their mental well-being, and also plan their work accordingly.
Moreover, it will also help employees stay productive and ensure that they are not losing out on time.
Keep a check for distress
As managers, it is your responsibility to keep a check on employees. Make sure they are not feeling overburdened, stressed, or anxious because of the amount of work.
Make sure your employees know that you support and care for them. Grab every opportunity you can to learn more about your employees’ concerns and challenges that they are facing. Have direct or indirect conversations with your workforce and see how they are doing.
Whenever you feel your employees feel overburdened or are unable to handle the pressure, make sure it is taken care of then and there. This will help you retain employees and help employees stay productive.
Initiate team communication
One thing that can be missing from remote work is the feeling of being in a team. When you are working in an organization, it is essential that all your teams are bonding in order to maintain harmony in the organization. When there is harmony, the chances of achieving success also increase.
Thus, it will be best for you to ensure that your team is communicating and feeling like a part of the organization. Communication is the key to success. Moreover, when your employees are communicating effectively, it will be easier for them to resolve issues if any. Otherwise, the chances of conflicts escalating can be pretty high.
For this, you can either initiate any of the many communication tools that are there in the market or host virtual informal breaks for employees.
You can encourage virtual lunches where your employees can grab food together and also indulge in formal or informal conversations. It could be an interesting brainstorming session.
Conclusion
Managing non-desk employees is no walk in the park. However, thanks to technological advancement and many other methods now, remote working is not as challenging as it used to be perceived.
