To successfully manage a remote team, you must do more than simply allow employees to work from home. You also need to keep the lines of communication open. Ensure accountability. Improve productivity.
It’s not an easy job, and it doesn’t come naturally. But it’s not impossible — far from it, in fact. You just need the right tools and insights.
After analyzing data from thousands of remote and hybrid organizations, the ActivTrak team has learned a great deal about what it takes to build a highly productive remote team. And we’re about to share those best practices.
Let’s look at what it takes to master the art of remote team management.
Challenges of managing a remote team
Yes, managing remote employees is challenging. Even managers with a proven track record in the office face new challenges with remote work. After all, the remote work environment is very different from that of working in an office.
Whether you’re new to remote team management or looking to get better, here are the biggest challenges you’re bound to face:
Communication
Fostering effective communication is essential for any team. But this is difficult to achieve when employees are distributed across regions and time zones. It’s your job to create a culture where remote employees feel comfortable communicating with each other without the social cues of face-to-face interactions.
Transparency
Another challenge remote managers frequently face is a lack of transparency. In an office setting, you see how employees work — if their plates are too full, if they have capacity for another project, if they arrive early or leave late. In contrast, remote employees aren’t as comfortable approaching managers to discuss heavy workloads and work-life balance issues.
Collaboration
Another essential element of any successful team is effective collaboration. Unfortunately, encouraging collaboration when employees work remotely is challenging. While digital tools like Zoom and Teams help, it’s a much different experience compared to in-person sessions.
Compliance
It’s easy to see when in-office employees clock in and out. You also know who’s at their desks, what devices employees use and which network they connect to. Not so with remote workers. It’s much more challenging to ensure compliance with your work policies — especially if you don’t use monitoring software.
Data security
Every organization faces the constant threat of data breaches. But this concern is particularly challenging for remote organizations. In addition to securing corporate devices, IT must stay ahead of account takeovers, phishing attacks, unsecure Wi-Fi networks and other cybersecurity threats that put corporate data at risk.
Work-life balance
With the virtual office mere steps away, it’s hard to unplug. Which means many remote employees struggle with setting boundaries. And unfortunately, regularly opening the laptop or checking email “just one more time” is a recipe for employee burnout.
While these are some of the biggest challenges facing remote teams, they’re not the only ones. Navigating long-distance collaboration, staying focused in a home office and effectively onboarding new hires without the benefit of face-to-face interaction all make remote team management difficult. Luckily, following the best practices below allows you to address these challenges head-on.
10 tips for managing remote teams effectively
True, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for how to best manage a remote team. But by reassessing and re-adjusting your approaches until you find the best one for your specific team, you set the stage for unprecedented productivity. To help guide the process, we’ve identified 10 essential best practices to help you support remote employees and create a positive work environment — no matter where your team members are located.
1. Set clear expectations
Effective remote team management starts with setting clear expectations — and ensuring everyone has the resources they need to meet them. Outline everything your remote workers need to know, including expected work hours, the frequency of check-ins and proper communication channels. Your remote work policy is also a space to answer any questions about the work environment and provide easy access to helpful resources.
2. Document processes and procedures
It’s not enough to define your expectations. You have to document them. Create an accessible guide that clearly outlines what it means to work remotely at your company. Some items to spell out include schedules, home office standards and technology usage policies. Not sure where to start? Use ActivTrak’s remote work policy template.
3. Invest in proper remote technology
Using the right technology effectively — whether it’s digital collaboration tools, communication apps or remote workforce management software — is critical in a remote environment. Virtual teams must interact as efficiently as if they were together in a physical office. Try out a few remote work tools to determine which ones help your remote teams the most. At a minimum, evaluate project management apps like Asana and Monday.com, virtual team meeting options such as Zoom and collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. Set clear expectations around using each tool to ensure they’re well-integrated into daily workflows. This is also a good time to stay ahead of data breaches by adopting an employee monitoring solution.
4. Watch for signs of overwork and burnout
While the benefits of remote work abound, many remote workers struggle to keep work time from bleeding into personal time when working from a home office. For this reason, all managers should take steps to proactively prevent team burnout and overwork. Best way to do this? Use workload management software to ensure work is distributed evenly and fairly, and to spot issues before they balloon into bigger problems.
5. Organize remote social events
Company culture is essential to the success of any organization. But finding opportunities for team-building and watercooler moments is challenging for remote team managers. Take steps to create hangouts and get-togethers — even if they’re virtual — to foster a sense of community and camaraderie. Something as simple as highlighting recent employee wins and milestones during video calls goes a long way in unifying remote team members. These interactions are just as essential to remote employee success as understanding their productivity.
6. Optimize workflows for remote employees
Did you know businesses can lose up to $1.3 million a year on inefficient processes? While properly managing workflows is important for all teams, it’s especially critical in remote settings. When employees rarely or never interact in person, your workflows serve as the glue to keep everyone on the same page. Follow our five-step guide for assessing, optimizing and managing your remote team workflows. Trust us — taking time to follow this process makes a huge difference.
7. Set up regular syncs
Another easy way to promote communication? Schedule regular check-ins. Virtual team syncs are a staple of effective remote work. They allow you to celebrate what’s working well and discuss what needs improvement. These touchpoints also boost remote employee engagement and help remote workers stay productive. Just don’t overdo it. While some strengthen bonds, too many team meetings hurt productivity.
8. Create channels for feedback
You may not see and talk to remote team members on a regular basis, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn about their needs. You just have to be intentional about it. Work on creating an environment where people feel comfortable sharing concerns. Then get into the habit of asking questions such as:
- Do you face any roadblocks right now?
- How can we communicate better as a team?
- What would make your job easier?
Then implement suggestions right away. This not only helps you achieve goals faster, but also shows your employees you care about their success.
9. Recognize employee effort and achievements
When working with remote employees, a little recognition goes a long way. When employees understand how their work impacts the organization, they’re more likely to put in extra effort. Create a team recognition program to celebrate milestones and achievements on a regular basis. This could be as simple as sending a monthly “thank you” email. Or you might reward team members who go the extra mile with paid time off. Find out what matters most to your remote employees and build a program around their preferences.
10. Offer development opportunities
Most managers know how important it is to plan team building activities. But do you help your remote team members build new skills? Professional development is one of the biggest predictors of success. It’s also key to retention — 94% of surveyed employees will stay longer at a company that invests in learning.
Start by identifying skills gaps within your team and asking your employees what they’d like to learn. Then find opportunities that match your needs. Virtual training programs, on-site seminars and conferences are all strong options. It all depends on your specific team members, so gather their input before registering for any new programs. Better yet, let your employees do the research and planning.
Manage your remote team with insights from ActivTrak
Managing remote teams is challenging. But if you follow the best practices outlined above, creating an effective, open and collaborative remote work environment isn’t just possible — it’s highly achievable.
At ActivTrak, we believe data holds the key to unlocking your remote team’s potential. By gaining insight into how your employees work, you ensure they get the support they need to increase productivity, improve time management and work wiser — no matter where work happens.
For this reason, more than 9,500 organizations rely on ActivTrak’s remote workforce management software to:
- Discover what fuels remote team productivity
- See how policies impact remote work
- Find and fix inefficient workflows
Get started today with a free account, and get in touch to learn how companies like yours use ActivTrak to make remote teams more productive.