How to manage remote team in an effective manner?
To effectively manage a team and build an environment that boosts productivity is not an easy task, even when the entire team is under the same roof. An efficient manager is a building block of any great team. Things become more complex when the team is spread over different cities and continents. In today’s business climate, it is normal to have remote resources and team members working together. While a few employees might be located in London, others might be in Birmingham – which makes it more difficult to effectively manage all of them.
When you have remote workers, a number of different challenges arise. Long-distance relationship, whether professional or personal require more efforts. As a manager, one of your core duties is to have guide and support all the team members to boost their morale and overall productivity.
“As the world has become a global village, businesses now can hire resources from all over the world. Managing these resources effectively is the make or break.”
To get the most out of your team, here are a few practical tips and suggestions that will help you in managing them.
Communication
Communication is the key of managing a team in the most optimal way. If you do not regularly communicate with all team members, you won’t know the difference challenges and problems they are facing. In an ideal scenario, you should arrange a meeting with all the team members at least once a week. In the meeting, every member can communicate with each other, and have a friendly environment. By having an ‘open door policy’, which in the virtual world means to always be ready to listen to the concerns of your employees – you can build confidence and trust in your team members.
Organizing work
If your team members are working in different locations and different timelines, it might become difficult to keep a track on what is the progress of each member. The best way is to organize the work and distribute it uniformly among the team members. At the start of every month or project, a team meeting should be called where work is distributed and explained to each member. Using a project management tool or application can also help immensely.
Set expectations
In remote teams, transparency and accountability play crucial roles. When the team members are not present in the same physical location as yours, how do you ensure that they are working? To facilitate transparency, here are a few steps you can take:
- Step up milestones
- Clearly define roles & responsibilities
- Set timelines for every milestone
- Use key metrics of the project to track performance
Be open to diversity
When working with remote teams from different regions and areas, it is important to be open to diversity. Different team members might belong to different cultures, religions and ethnicity groups. To have an accepting corporate environment, know the cultures of your team members to have a better work relationship with them. Once you understand the cultural backgrounds of team members, you’ll be able to understand them more. This will help in boosting productivity as there will be less communication gaps and misunderstandings.
Be a leader
A successful team manager has the leadership capabilities and farsightedness. Although you are not in the same physical location, you still have to be there for each of your team member. If they have any problem regarding their work or something is bothering them – you are expected to help them in every way possible. When the team members feel you are vouching for them and supporting them – they will be more enthusiastic to work hard.
Zepto Systems offer Remote Teams
Understanding the current business needs and goals, Zepto Systems has been offering remote team services to its diversified clientele for more than a decade. We have built professional and experienced teams so that our clients can get maximum productivity. Whether you want to create a project from scratch or simply improve it, our resources will help you in every way possible.