The idea of a remote team has become extremely common in today’s workforce, and it will continue for the years to come. Being a part of a remote team lets everyone work beyond their office walls. It increases productivity and engagement and also saves you from office politics. But do you know managing a remote team can be challenging too?
As a team leader, it becomes quite a task to manage a remotely located team, especially when you want to do business as usual and have your team members work in a way that makes them feel they are working to attain the same goals.
So what are these challenges, and are there ways to overcome them? Read everything below.
Lack of Communication
Communication is always perceived as a key to success when you work with remote teams. It is vital to gather input from all your team members and to know what each member is working on. When teams work remotely, it is not always easy to foster open communication. Traditional email marketing is a very proper tool and doesn’t allow quick communications.
So, how do you deal with a lack of communication?
It is a good idea to create a dedicated place for communication. You can introduce an internal team communication tool to allow a free flow of interaction among all the team members.
Tracking Work and Productivity
Tracking the work and productivity of the employees becomes easier when you work under the same roof. But the same gets very challenging when the team members work remotely. You cannot figure out how much work your remote team accomplishes and at what rate. Thus, the answer to this question remains unclear for many team members, and it creates many work discrepancies.
You can sort this out by establishing ways to track the productivity and work rate of all your employees. The easiest way is to set up metrics for how much work is expected to be completed each day.
Company Culture
Company culture takes some time to cultivate, including hiring the right employees, instilling culture across the board, and fostering healthy communication. Whether you want to create a professional company culture or a fun and energetic team, it will take a concentrated effort to develop the remote team of your dreams.
Creating a healthy company culture with a remote team reflecting the value of your business requires a plan, much like any other project or initiative. The whole process starts from the top. If you want to foster company culture, make way for open communication. Let your remote workers communicate with everyone, even the CEO, with a virtual open-door policy.
Building Trust
It is one of the most under-estimated challenges you may face while working with a remote team. Building trust is difficult for both managers as well as team members. Managers often worry that the workers are not completing work, while workers have many concerns, such as if they will be paid on time or not.
You can build trust among your remote team members by being transparent about working hours, project expectations, pay rates, payment timelines, and status updates on projects. Wondering how to let your team members build trust with each other? Introduce team-building activities for them. The more they participate in these activities, the better they interact and build trust.
It is a good idea to buy virtual team building kits for your team and host various activities to fill the gaps.
Takeaway
Every challenge comes with a solution. You are merely required to find it and work on it. We hope the above-listed tips help you mitigate all these challenges while working in a remote setting.
