The standard in-office team isn’t the only format for successful teamwork anymore.
Welcome to the new world of work, where remote and hybrid employment are the new normal and your employees can stay productive wherever they are.
Around 1 in 4 Americans expect to continue working from home throughout 2021 and beyond, after the pandemic of 2020 changed workstyles for good.
We’ve discovered on a massive scale that virtual teams can be just as efficient and motivated as their counterparts. Indeed, many employees claim that they feel more productive when they’re working remotely and that they have better work-life balance.
The only problem? There are challenges to managing a virtual team.
Without the option to simply check in on your employees by walking around the office, how do you keep people inspired and focused? These tips can help.
1. Empower Employees with Tools
For a virtual team to be as productive as their in-office counterparts, they need access to the same tools and solutions. Fortunately, many of the services that employees rely on today are available in a cloud-based format, so they’re accessible from anywhere.
Consider these types of tools:
* You can build virtual desktops for your employees to access securely from the comfort of their home.
* With tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack, you make it easier for employees to share files and even screens with colleagues wherever they are.
* Remember hardware too. If you expect your employees to be taking part in virtual meetings, do they have a camera that allows them to do so?
2. Promote Regular Communication
Virtual employees tend to be more isolated than their in-office counterparts. When the majority of the interactions you have with other staff members is through text and email, it’s easy to lose the sense of camaraderie you have with friends around the watercooler.
Therefore, effective communication is a vital component of company culture for virtual teams.
This means giving your staff members the opportunity to communicate in a range of ways: through video, audio conferencing, text, and SMS. It could also mean ensuring that staff get regular updates from leaders and managers about what’s happening in the workplace.
Get your staff involved in video conferencing when possible, as this can replicate face-to-face interactions, allowing for a deeper level of conversation.
3. Experiment with Management Tools
Gartner advises that one of the most important things you can do when working with virtual employees, is show them a sense of trust.
Checking in on your team members might not seem like micromanaging when you’re not physically hanging over their shoulder. However, many employees can feel frustrated when they’re receiving endless messages about project deadlines.
Project management tools that allow you to assign specific tasks to certain employees can be helpful here. They’re a chance for you to tell your employees what you need and leave them to get the work done.
These tools can also automatically remind employees when a deadline is approaching, meaning you don’t have to do as much follow-up.
If you’re concerned about things like tracking the number of hours that employees spend working and so on, you can also implement time management tools.
4. Reinforce Company Values
Employees that are working outside of the office need regular reminders of the values and expectations of their employers. It’s easy to lose track of what matters in a company when you’re not regularly interacting with other members of staff.
Give your employees regular reminders of what your business sees as important. For instance, if creativity and innovation are significant parts of your company culture, share newsletters with staff where you pinpoint examples of creative behaviors.
Investing in regular feedback and recognition will also help in reinforcing your company values. Rewards for team members who perform well ensure that they’ll continue to go above and beyond for your organization, even when they think no-one’s watching.
5. Encourage Balance and Wellbeing
Finally, managing a successful virtual team isn’t just about ensuring that your employees stay productive.
Remote workers often suffer from increased chances of burnout and stress, particularly when they don’t know how to separate their home and work lives.
These strategies will help you support the wellbeing of your team:
* If your staff members are working from home, help them to build a separate area in their space that they can work from by giving them advice on how to set up an office.
* Teach your team members how to respect an employee’s wishes when they set their status to “away.”
* Focus on giving everyone a clear line between their work life and the rest of their day.
Keep an eye out for signs of distress and burnout in employees who are over-working or doing more than they should. An unhappy employee can’t be a productive one.
Virtual workers can be just as valuable (if not more so) than your in-office employees. However, it’s up to you to ensure that you’re delivering the management that cultivates success. Make this a priority, and you’ll be well rewarded with a happy, productive team.
