BEST PRACTICES FOR MANAGING REMOTE TEAMS EFFECTIVELY

 Organizations are increasingly accepting remote work arrangements as they become increasingly popular (Fischer et al., 2013). The COVID-19 epidemic has boosted remote work adoption. Remote work has many perks, including a shorter commute and more freedom, but leading remote teams has drawbacks.

 

Best practices to establish remote teams

1.        Any team goal depends on team members' ability to communicate well. Use Slack, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams for online meetings, video conferencing, and instant messaging. Set expectations for your response time to electronic communication to improve communication (Fischer et al., 2013). Distributed teams need dependable communication to succeed. Remote-only companies like Zapier use Slack and Zoom for virtual meetings, video conferencing, and real-time communication. They keep the team informed by fostering open communication and setting reaction times (Ozimek, 2020).

2.        Outlining team goals, roles, and expected results is crucial. Use Jira, Asana, or Trello to assign projects, create deadlines, and track progress. Communicating priorities regularly ensures that everyone knows their position and how it contributes to the goal. Remote teams need clear goals and standards to stay motivated and coordinated. Remote-first firm Buffer employs Asana and Trello to set goals, allocate work, and track progress (Abarca, Palos-Sanchez and Rus-Arias, 2020).

3.        Remote teams need constant communication of priorities and clear duties to build confidence. When you let your team members make decisions in their fields, you can trust them to produce good work (Abarca, Palos-Sanchez and Rus-Arias, 2020). Encourage your staff to take responsibility for their actions and results. Remote team management requires trust and accountability. Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, trusts remote workers to do well. When given more freedom to make judgments in their fields, workers assume more responsibility for their work (Ozimek, 2020).

Benefits of Remote Teams for Employees:

1.        PwC found that 67% of people who began working remotely saw an improvement in the balance between their personal and professional lives. Having the option to choose one's schedule and not have to worry about commuting both contribute to a higher quality of life.

2.        When compared to their in-office colleagues, remote workers put in roughly an additional day of work every week, according to a study published in the Harvard Business Review. There may be fewer interruptions while they are at their best performance, which allows them to concentrate on the task at hand (Fischer et al., 2013).

3.        The ability to work remotely is a win-win for companies and employees alike, as it increases the likelihood that employees will stay with the organization. Research from Owl Labs shows that if given the option to work remotely, over three-quarters of employees would be less likely to seek employment elsewhere.

The advantages of remote teams for employers:

1.        Through the implementation of remote work policies, firms get access to a global network of top people, significantly broadening their recruitment opportunities. Using an employer of record service can make it easier to hire personnel from different nations and time zones if you're considering (Fischer et al., 2013).

2.        By allowing a wider range of individuals to apply, restrictions on remote employment help to meet the growing demand for a workforce that is representative of society at large in terms of perspective and skill set. One insurance broker, Allstate, saw a 30% uptick in applications from underrepresented groups after instituting a remote work policy (Ozimek, 2020).

3.        By enabling workers to do some or all of their work from home, business owners can reduce the overhead costs associated with renting and maintaining office space. Consider Sun Microsystems: they cut $68 million in real estate costs annually, while Dow Chemical and Nortel cut over 30% in non-real estate costs. 

Challenges of Remote team building and solutions

1.        If you're a professional who relies on timely and clear communication, you could discover that working remotely hinders your efforts to keep in touch (Ozimek, 2020). Teamwork and the result can suffer from misunderstandings and delays brought on by insufficient face-to-face communication. Employee communication software helps with this by allowing for the sharing of internal information and creating a feeling of community among workers. (Smith and Ruiz, 2020)

2.        Achieving Optimal Work-Life Balance: A more harmonious relationship between work and personal life is a goal of many telecommuters. On the other hand, if home and work never really separate, it could lead to burnout and overwork. One possible option is to recommend that employees utilize a time-tracking app such as Clockify or Insightful to establish clear boundaries and timelines for themselves. (Smith and Ruiz, 2020)

3.        Breaking Free from Isolation: In the workplace, many people would like to have more meaningful interactions with their coworkers. Feelings of isolation and loneliness are common among people who work remotely since it removes them from the daily social ties that are present in an office setting. The effects on one's mental health and contentment in one's work environment might be detrimental. The best way to ensure that everyone on the team gets together in person at least once a month or once a year is to set up frequent team events. Have a look at throwing events to welcome new employees. (Smith and Ruiz, 2020)

Finally, great remote team management demands trust, responsibility, encouragement, and adaptability. By following these criteria, you can build a cohesive and efficient remote team that helps people enjoy their jobs and work-life balance.

References

u  Abarca, V.M.G., Palos-Sanchez, P.R. and Rus-Arias, E. (2020). Working in Virtual Teams: A Systematic Literature Review and a Bibliometric Analysis. IEEE Access, 8, pp.168923–168940. doi:https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3023546.

u  Fischer, U., Mosier, K., Orasanu, J., Fischer, U., Morrow, D., Miller, C., Mosier, K., Veinott, B. and Orasanu, J. (2013). Exploring Communication in Remote Teams. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, [online] 57(1), pp.309–313. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1541931213571068.

u  Ozimek, A. (2020). The Future of Remote Work. [online] SSRN. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3638597.

u  Smith, S.M. and Ruiz, J. (2020). Challenges and Barriers in Virtual teams: a Literature Review. SN Applied Sciences, 2(6), pp.1–33.