Proficiency in managing remote workers requires a leap in the mindset of the managers, especially leaders who are used to traditional methods of managing.

The managing skills required for managing teams either working at the office or working remotely are similar. The primary motive of a manager should be to help the team succeed in achieving their goals and contribute towards organisational growth. But sometimes, the same managerial approach Will not work while working remotely. In this case, a different approach is required to improve productivity and efficiency when working remotely.

Following are the essential traits of an ideal manager or leader:

  • Compassion towards team members
  • Focus on the personal and professional development of the team
  • Clear communication of expectations and goals
  • Regular and constructive feedback on work
  • Promote creative problem-solving
  • Encourage prioritisation of important tasks
  • Direct and fair conflict management
  • Build and foster positive relationships in the working environment.

Here are 7 essential tips to effectively manage remote workers and build a productive, efficient and happy remote working team:

Establishing Clear Expectations

As a manager, you need to set clear and realistic expectations, goals and deadlines for your team. You should be accessible at all times and provide clear instructions on priorities, performance goals, milestones and objectives. You must clearly explain the responsibilities of each team member and ensure that you are available and reachable when required.

Managers should keep the team members updated on the changes in the organisation‘s policy and any other major changes. Managers serve as role models of expected behaviour in the organisation.

Managers should outline the guidelines for working remotely such as went to respond to official emails or texts during and after working hours. It enables the employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance and prevents them from stressing out unnecessarily.

In a work from home setting, the best thing to improve productivity and get the most out of remote working is setting expectations. Managers take time to think through this and explain the team members.

Below are a few important things that should be clarified clearly explained to the team members working remotely:

  • Response time to emails and text messages during and after working hours
  • Timelines for completion of tasks and updates of work progress
  • Expectations for a calm and quiet background during phone calls and virtual meetings.

Offering Flexibility

Managers need to realise that remote workers have various demands on their time such as caring for a family or any other personal problems. Offering flexibility to workers by letting them work during early mornings or late evening hours so that they can take care of personal requirements on their end. This helps in reducing stress and improves the concentration of workers on their tasks.

A strong action plan is essential for a project but it is also important to adjust the strategy to make it successful. Experts suggest that whether the employees work during the morning hours or the night hours shouldn’t matter as long as they complete the work within the set timelines.

Can you offer flexibility in the working hours, you can accomplish the fulfilment of the project by asking your employees their work schedules and tasks that they are supposed to complete within the given time.

You can help the employees in fulfilling their roles by providing guidance. Managers should trust their employees when employees communicate their work progress, complete their tasks and accomplish their goals within the specified time.

Focusing On Communication

Managers must ensure to stay in frequent contact with their team members to keep track of their work progress deadlines, availability of resources and challenges in the work and expectations.

Managers must take time to determine what kind of communication tool is best suitable for the team such as email, text messages, video chats, video conferencing, phone calls and any other communication channel. Be careful not to ping your employees constantly which can interrupt their workflow.

Managers who are good listeners and can communicate respect and trust without micromanaging or over-communicating are the most successful. Whether you are enquiring about the workload or taking progress updates on the work you should be able to communicate trust and support.

You should provide constructive feedback frequently so that the employees can take action on your suggestions. You can also encourage and motivate employees by complimenting them now and then but know how they would like to be complimented. Some people like to be complimented publicly while some prefer a private compliment.

Here are a few key things to be taken care of when communicating remotely:

  • Facilitate two-way communication with employees
  • Adopt communication tools suitable to the team’s culture
  • Conduct monthly or quarterly employee surveys
  • Encourage suggestions and complaints
  • Provide frequent feedback
  • Do not over-communicate and ping employees frequently.

Resisting Micromanagement

As the manager of a remotely working team, you should trust that your team members are communicating clearly and completing their tasks within the specified timelines effectively.

You cannot ping your team members frequently and ask them for updates on work progress every hour. Regular one on one check-ins with every team member helps in having adequate information on work progress and eliminate the need to micromanage.

Shortening Video Conferences or Meetings

You should be aware that people have very short attention spans and video conferences or virtual meetings. People can only focus on screens for a little time. Instead of lengthy meetings, you should have shorter meetings where you can discuss action plans, team resourcing and work progress.

Helping your team in being efficient productive and healthy is also the responsibility of the manager. It helps in delivering quality work even in a highly stressful environment.

Managers should look for opportunities to celebrate achievements and work milestones just as they would be celebrating in the office. Video conferences can be used as a platform to celebrate or recognise the contributions of high performers.

Celebrating team members achievements on video conferencing are more personal than an email. They also help in boosting the morale of the team members and encourage them.

Even these video conferences should not be excessively long or they will just become burdensome.

Protecting The Team’s Working Hours and Priorities

Managing a remotely working team also requires the protection of team members’ priorities and time to do their work.

Small talks can reduce the focus from work and other important tasks. And sometimes helping out your team members with different things may leave you working for several extra hours or rushing to get your own work done on time.

It is important to understand what processes give greater visibility and how much time is spent on a specific task. Moreover, you should also understand what conditions under what conditions you are team is the most productive and efficient. If somebody requires uninterrupted hours to work then you should try to manage or schedule meetings when they are less busy. You should always communicate to your team members that you trust and support them, and that you are always there to help them.

Whenever a team member has way too many tasks or has a heavy workload, you should figure out a way to take a few tasks off their plate or reassign them. You can also help your team members by prioritising important conversations in regular one-on-one meetings or check-ins so that everyone is equally focused.

Even when managers trust their team members to perform their work efficiently there are times when the project is quite large for the team. In such a case, the team is bound to get into a few problems. As the manager of the team, you should be able to find a way to guide them in the right direction.

Encouraging Creative Problem-solving

When working remotely as a manager it is easy to think that you have to solve all the problems alone. But it is not entirely correct because managers set the tone for the entire team.

Managers must encourage the team to work together to figure out how to solve problems and challenges that arise.

At the workplace, you can have meetings and welcome suggestions through whiteboards, post-it notes or other ways.

The same cannot be done in a remote company over a video call. But you can still encourage problem-solving by finding the right tools that work for you.

Let your team brainstorm ideas and solutions to the problem by asking them to drop their ideas in a cloud-based spreadsheet or a document or an online whiteboard.

Delegate projects and tasks to small teams and let them solve their own problems creatively. When the team overcomes its challenges and problems you can appreciate and elevate their work to the whole company.

The qualities of an ideal manager and a great leader are attained through experience and consistent hard work. Managers and team leaders are the strongholds of an organisation and a good manager will lead better teams and improve the productivity of the company in no time.

If you are looking to prosper in the Management field, enrol yourself in managerial courses and get one step closer to your career goal!