In today’s pandemic stricken world, remote work is becoming a norm rather than an exception. As per a study, almost 67% of the employers have allowed their employees to work from their homes.
But this drastic shift from the office work culture to ‘work-from-home’ culture has prompted managers and leaders to find efficient ways to navigate communication, increase efficiency, and improve work delegation for ensuring high productivity among the employees. Managers have finally got the way in the form of a robust task management tool.
However, a manager’s work doesn’t get finished by merely having a task management tool, you need to develop effective remote work management skills. That is why we have listed the top six ways that will make remote team management easier for you.
6 Amazing Ways to Lead Productive Remote Teams
In the competitive and challenging business scenario, everything is changing at a rapid pace. Thus, the managers should establish clear remote-work policies in advance. Here are a few useful steps that will certainly help managers to improve the productivity of remote employees-
1. Set Up Clear Rules of Employee Engagement
Working remotely does not mean that the team members need to set up the work priorities on their own. Remote work becomes more efficient when a leader sets rules of employee engagement and communication that cover everything from setting up a particular communication channel to meetings and work submissions.
As a manager, you can prefer to use video conferencing apps for daily stand-up meetings only. And for other tasks, you can let your team use Instant Messaging apps. Managers should also create a specific time window for the team members to reach out to him for any kind of help with their tasks.
2. Create a Sense of Purpose Within the Team
A specific purpose can have a positive effect on the efficiency of employees, team leaders, and management personnel. According to a survey, approximately 83% of professionals have expressed a view that a clear purpose adds value to their work.
To build a sense of purpose among the teammates, managers can guide them about how their collective efforts will help the organization to achieve its goals in minimal times. Managers need to show their subordinates what has to be done to accomplish their goals even when the concept of plan can no longer apply.
3. Achieve work goals with technology
Nearly every country across the globe has imposed strict social distancing norms to save its citizens from the adverse effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The lack of ability to gather in groups required many professional organizations to find new ways to communicate, collaborate, and complete projects while working remotely. This has put corporate organizations on the path of digital transformation.
Team co-ordination tools like Zoom, Google Hangouts, and Microsoft Teams provide simple platforms for tackling projects successfully. Initially, this change was a bit uncomfortable, but once fully adopted, it has been a fantastic way to support engagement strategies as well.
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4. Provide Your Team with Essential Resources
In this era of remote working, it becomes extremely important for managers to provide proper resources and digital training modules. Therefore, you should consider providing your team with all the necessary equipment.
When you provide your team with sufficient resources, their accountability towards you will more likely to increase. In addition to this, availability to get the necessary resources will encourage an entrepreneurial mindset in your team as they can use the resources without taking any permission from their seniors.
5. Keep Realistic Expectations for Team
Nowadays, a majority of companies have started adopting remote work culture to adjust to the recent scenario. That is why it becomes essential for the team leaders and managers to spark positivity among their employees when they are working from their homes.
Managers can make the task assignment more precise by clarifying deadlines, establishing quality standards, and clear-cut task details. But then you cannot manage every aspect of your remote team and the way they spend their time.
Here, a task management tool comes into the picture. It can help managers to assign different tasks to their teammates and let them manage different tasks like team meetings, product launches, and much more. Because of this, managers can save a lot of time as they have to focus on important tasks only.
6. Encourage Social Interaction in Remote Working
Remote working offers immense benefits to both the employees and the managers but there is also a flip side of it. While working remotely, it is hard for employees to avoid the moments of loneliness. Thankfully, the managers can avoid such issues for their teammates with the help of interaction and engagement activities.
The best way to boost employee engagement is to create an interactive chat platform where employees can celebrate their achievements. Also share their views, or they can mentor their subordinates. Also, you can come up with virtual happy hours, pizza fest, meme-fest, or another way to interact with each other.
Concluding Lines
Remote staff management comes with its own share of challenges. However, you can resolve these challenges by fostering accountability and a specific level of operational intelligence. With a clear set of norms and expectations, right tools, and above-mentioned management practices. Also you can be an effective leader and make your team ready to thrive.
