Managing a Remote Team: What You Need to Do
The coronavirus and Covid-19 pandemic has significantly changed the way that most of us work. As the virus has spread around the world, the majority of governments have encouraged their citizens to stay home wherever possible, minimizing contact with others. For those who can work from home, this has meant a shift to remote work. The thing is, even though vaccines are being rolled out and many elements of life are getting back to normal, many small business owners have found that remote work better suits them and their employees. From the employees’ perspective, working from home reduces commute time and costs and allows for a better work-life balance. From an employer’s perspective, having a remote workforce means saving money on office spaces and related overheads. So, it’s not all too surprising that many small business owners want to stick with this remote working basis. Of course, you need to make sure that you can still manage your team well while doing this. Here are some steps you can take to achieve this.
When staff work from home, it can be easy for them to lose touch with their colleagues and the wider company. It’s important that you ensure your staff maintain these communications and bonds, as it leads to increased collaboration and higher levels of productivity. But how can you encourage team building within a remote workforce? Start by holding daily or weekly meetings between the team, where everyone can catch up and check in on each other. You may also want to hold a day once a month or so where the team meets up in person, working from a hired venue or meeting for social activities, like visiting a steakhouse for a meal.
Cybersecurity is a significant weakness for many companies with remote employees. Why? Because staff may not be aware of the threats that face them when working from their own internet connection off-site. It’s important that you train your staff in cybersecurity to minimize risk and maximize data security within your business. There are a number of steps you can take to achieve this, but some common ones tend to include using a VPN (or “virtual private network”), encouraging staff to work from devices that you provide and offering training in cybersecurity.
You don’t want to micromanage your staff while they work from home, but you also want to make sure that they are performing as expected. So, set KPIs. KPI stands for “key performance indicator” and will serve as a goal that your team members need to reach in order to show that they are working productively and efficiently. This will offer guidance, as well as giving you a means of checking in on staff performance.
These are just a few suggestions that should help to get the ball rolling on managing a remote workforce. Hopefully, some will come in useful and you will experience success in your venture!
