The unique circumstances of the current times have prompted organisations to devise new solutions to ensure continuity of business operations. Due to the novelty of a hybrid workplace, there are certain challenges that many organisations and team leaders might not have anticipated. It is important that you equip your team with the right tools to ensure that they can deliver work efficiently.
In this guide, you will learn about the best tools and tips for remote teams management for better success.
Remote Teams Best Practices
The past few months has led to organisations taking a crash course in managing remote teams. When the situation saw some improvements, some employees have return to the office while some continued to work remotely to ensure social distancing is achieved – this resulted in the development of the hybrid workplace.
A hybrid team is when you have some set of employees working from home and the others at the office. The setup is determined based on the requirements of the job. Working with remote teams is testing as it is, but the hybrid work setup also poses its own set of challenges. It is important to rethink how you manage remote teams communication and equip them with the right set of tools so you can ensure an efficient workflow.
Here are a few tips and best practices to implement for your hybrid workplace to succeed:
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Formalise collaboration policies. Not all employees who work remotely have the same pattern to follow. Some might work well with a specific structure while others are more effective when they have freedom to work at their own pace. Set expectations and clearly define these policies to your employees so they know what must be delivered at the end of each day.
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Resist the urge to micromanage. With the hybrid work model, the biggest challenge lies in overseeing employees while at work. However, you must resist the urge to micromanage and focus on outcomes instead. Understand that every member of the team will have their own processes. You must also understand that there are innate challenges that come with balancing work and home life. As long as deadlines are met and outputs are satisfactory, then you have nothing to worry about.
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Make sure everyone is on a level playing field. This is when remote teams tools become truly important since you want to foster communication and collaboration. From informal conversations to virtual team meetings, you need to be proactive in communicating with remote teams and in making sure that everyone is working towards the same goal. Another way to do this is to continually facilitate training and learning for your employees and new recruits so you can transform them into valuable assets for the team.
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Maintain a level of interaction and engagement. In order for every member of the team to be effective, they should feel part of the team in the first place. You can try a few team building ideas to foster good relationships among employees, albeit virtually. You can also schedule virtual team meetings that are not work-related at all. This is a great strategy to boost team morale.
Best Remote Teams Tools
When choosing the best tools for managing a hybrid team, there are two main tools you need: communication and project management. When you have these two sets of tools, everyone can be on the same page and it would make it easier to track the progress of ongoing projects.
Zoom is a good communication tool for remote team engagement. It enables your team to have access to video conferencing, chat, and webinar tools. It is a reliable way to stay connected with the team and keep tabs on project updates. If you don’t have access to Zoom, Microsoft Teams can be an alternative to run video meetings, calls, and group chats to keep the communication lines open. Another notable communication tool available at your disposal is Slack. Each of these tools has their own benefits and drawbacks so feel free to test out some of them and see what works best for your team.
When it comes to project management, Trello has been a consistent performer. This is a web-based tool that allows you to create a list of tasks that you can accomplish for a given period of time. It is like a virtual post-it so you can keep track of your to-do lists and assign tasks to team members in one place. Another modern work management platform is Goodday. It is one of the best tools around for high-level planning, team management and task organisation.
Meanwhile, Pipefy enables you to design a more efficient workflow with its hefty list of features. This workflow management software enables you to streamline tasks and automate your work with ease. It is a particularly helpful tool if you want to integrate different departments of your organisation in one place – from finance, HR, marketing, and more.
Overcoming the challenges of a hybrid workplace is easy when you have the right tools and plan of action. Follow the recommended tips above and implement new strategies with the help of tools designed to simplify how you work.