Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work has been on the rise. At first, it was a necessity, but as people grew to love the comforts and advantages of working remotely, the practice became normalized even after restrictions were lifted. While remote work has definite advantages for employees, it also poses challenges for the employer. When you have a remote team, you need to employ a different management approach. Managing a remote team means mastering a whole new set of problem-solving skills. Are you ready?
Common Problems Faced by Managers of Remote Teams
The good news for employers is that the remote team challenges faced by managers are universal. That means you don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to problem-solving. Here are a few of the most common issues with managing remote teams and what you can do to solve them.
Poor Communication Across Time Zones
Communication issues are something that many workplaces struggle with. With remote teams, communication often doesn’t happen as often as it should. Or there can be miscommunication that occurs that isn’t cleared up as quickly as it could be. This can especially be problematic if you have employees in different time zones. When communication doesn’t occur regularly, or employees are faced with frequent miscommunication, it can reduce productivity and even cause issues between coworkers.
Most workplaces have some kind of instant messaging platform, and email is always available. However, just because it is accessible does not mean employees will use it. You need to find ways to encourage your workers to have regular conversations with their team members. If your employees are in different time zones, you will need to find a common time when they are all available so that they can connect. If your team is global, and this isn’t manageable, asynchronous updates may be needed, or you could create team leads for different segments of the globe.
How To Solve It
If communication is not a major part of your company culture, you will likely not find success getting your remote team to communicate. You need to make it an integral part of the daily routine. When everyone is communicating regularly, it will encourage your remote team to do so as well. This will ensure that issues or challenges are brought up immediately and can be quickly resolved.
Another helpful way to improve communication is to use a shared calendar. This ensures that everyone knows what everyone else is doing and when and will make it easier to make meetings and meet deadlines. Along with the calendar, there are many business tools out there that help create closer teams. Explore your options and find the one that works best for you.
Lack of Trust and Accountability
It can be said that remote workers are sometimes more productive than office workers. However, office workers are always there for meetings, and it is easier for them to stick to a schedule. With remote workers, this is not the case. If they are not online, meetings can easily be missed, and tasks might not get completed. This can result in missing or delaying milestones and can ultimately lead to losses for the business.
How To Solve It
Accountability starts at the top. It’s imperative that your leaders display leadership skills and exemplary behavior. If remote workers don’t believe that their bosses are putting in the effort, then there is nothing encouraging them to do so. Everyone should be held to the same standard of working within normal operating hours. If your business allows for some flexibility, make sure plans are known so that employees are not trying to reach out to others during times they are not available.
Isolation Leading to Disengaged Employees
One of the most common scenarios remote workers struggle with is the feeling of isolation. When someone works in an office, they have consistent social contact with others. When they work alone, they may talk to people over the phone or on a messaging service, but face-to-face contact doesn’t exist.
When workers socially engage with each other at the office, it not only sharpens their social skills. It helps them recover from stress, promotes better moods, and can even increase physical activity levels. When workers don’t have access to a social life, it can lead to depression or a lack of interest in completing their job. This will inevitably lead to a decrease in productivity.
How To Solve It
One of your jobs as a remote manager is to motivate your team and ensure they feel a close connection with their coworkers. One great way to do this is to organize online team gatherings once a week, where employees are given the chance to socialize. It can be framed as a happy hour event and is often hosted at the end of the day on Fridays. There are engagement tools like Workmates that you can use to help build team rapport and improve employee productivity.
Difficulty Tracking Productivity and Output
When your team is working remotely, it can be challenging to monitor their task completion. When an employee is in person, it’s easy to check in and see what they have accomplished. If you’ve never managed a remote team, you might be unsure how to manage this. You must find a way to make sure your employees are completing their tasks efficiently, while not interrupting their work excessively or making it seem like you don’t trust them to do their work.
How To Solve It
Since you can’t physically check in with remote workers, you need a system that can verify their daily progress without requiring employees to verbally check in with you each day. This can be done via time and billing software. The platform can track daily workflow and allow your employees a place to detail what they have completed each day and any issues that they ran into.
Problem-Solving Strategies for Remote Team Managers
When it comes to working as a team remotely, there are certain problem-solving strategies that can be employed.
Clear Communication Protocols
If you want your remote team to communicate effectively, then you need to have a plan for how they will do it. Don’t just assume that they will communicate what they need. If they get deep into their work and don’t have a plan for speaking with others, it might not happen.
There are a few different ways you can set up communication protocols. You can ask employees to update their progress throughout the day, schedule video calls to check in, update a running list of completed tasks, or use software such as Time Tracker by eBillity where employees can track time. You have to find what works best for your team.
Setting Measurable Goals and Expectations
Whether your team is in person or remote, all managers have certain expectations of their team members. Ensure you are clear with all employees if you expect them to stay focused on working towards the same goals.
You can’t just set vague expectations, however. You don’t just want to say, “get your work done well and on time.” You need to create SMART goals.
- S: Specific
- M: Measurable
- A: Achievable
- R: Relevant
- T: Time-bound
Using that method, a goal might be: Improve customer satisfaction ratings by 5% in the next three months through more training and feedback mechanisms.
You should set clear expectations for the following:
- Availability
- Work hours
- Timely meetings
- Communication system
- Scheduled meetings
- Key projects and deadlines
- Time to respond to email
Building a Culture of Trust and Autonomy
Your remote team has no chance of thriving if they don’t have a sense of autonomy and trust in the company. If they are feeling constantly micromanaged and made to feel like they can’t do anything on their own, they are much less likely to be productive. When you have a collaborative culture where employees are encouraged to speak with each other but not micromanaged, it can increase productivity, creativity, and team cohesion.
One way to encourage collaboration is to start with small, virtual team-building activities that help break the ice and build trust among team members. These activities can vary wildly but could be structured virtual games that improve teamwork and communication skills, or casual virtual coffee breaks where teammates can freely chat.
Leveraging Time Tracking Tools for Transparency
With remote workers, it is natural to want to use time tracking tools. To prevent workers from feeling like they are being micromanaged, time tracking tools can be framed as tools meant to keep an eye on how long tasks and projects are taking. They can be helpful in finding areas where an employee may need additional help or identifying tasks that could benefit from automation.
Encourage Regular Feedback Loops and One-on-Ones
While micromanaging your remote employees isn’t a good idea, having regular check-ins and feedback loops is a must. It’s important for your remote employees to feel like you are engaged in their work and want them to succeed. Also, having regular check-ins allows for any issues to be identified and resolved.
Real-World Examples of Remote Team Success
There are plenty of remote team examples that have been successful. For example, Trello is extremely successful, and 50% of their team works remotely. They all come together once a year to connect as a company. The key is the company organizes the traveling arrangements and provides nice accommodations and more.
Another example of a successful company that uses remote employees is Xerox. Their mission is guided by their focus on customer and employee satisfaction. They have more than 8,000 home-based employees and trust in finding a balance between work and family.
Tools and Tech for Solving Remote Management Problems
When managing remote teams, tools and other tech will be immensely helpful. Consider the following tools to help make your remote team great.
Collaboration Platforms
When your team is remote, you need to put extra emphasis on providing ways for them to collaborate. There are many collaboration tools out there, like Zoom, Trello, and Slack. Depending on the needs of your business, one may work better than the others. Once you know what platform you are using, ensure your team is fully trained on how to use it, and set clear expectations for collaboration.
Time Tracking and Reporting Tools
As mentioned above, time tracking is an important part of managing a remote team. Tools like Time Tracker by eBillity allow you to keep track of projects, run business reports, and track the time your employees spend online.
Project Management Solutions for Visibility and Accountability
Finally, you should invest in time tracking software. There are many things that a software like this can do for your remote team.
- Allow for easy communication
- Maintain and manage timesheets
- Project planning
- Track project evolution
- Have discussions
- Track productivity
- Share information in real time
- Manage tasks
Conclusion: Building a Resilient, Productive Remote Team
Working remotely is on the rise, and it will benefit you to be ready for it in your business. If you don’t already have remote teams, you might in the future, and having a plan will make the transition much smoother.
You need to be aware of common issues with remote working, such as poor communication, lack of trust and accountability, isolation of remote workers, and difficulty in tracking productivity and output. However, there are plenty of tools to address these issues.
You should also be aware of some of the most common problem-solving strategies for working with a remote team. For example, you should set clear communication protocols, set SMART goals and expectations, build a culture of trust and autonomy, leverage time tracking tools, and encourage regular feedback and check-ins with your team.
Big businesses like Trello and Xerox have shown that having massive remote teams is possible while still having high productivity. When you use management software that makes it easy for your team to succeed, you can make it work as well. These platforms allow for easy communication/collaboration, time tracking, and project management.
At eBillity, we want to help you make your remote team successful. Discover how Time Tracker can help managers lead more effectively try it free today.