The concept of working remotely is full of benefits for both the employer and employees of a company. For employees, this can include less travel time and the opportunity to balance home and work life. There are also cost savings to the employee on things like gas for commutes and wardrobe.
The perks for employers can be equally beneficial. These include a reduction in staff absences, less overhead costs, and an increase in productivity. Per Global Workplace Analytics, Fortune 1000 companies are becoming astute with this trend as it gains popularity and are redesigning their workspace to account for less in-house employees. If you’re intrigued as to how you can make it work with your team, here are three ways you can follow to successfully manage employees remotely.
Bond with your team
Not having that daily in-person interaction with your employees means that you must go the extra mile to connect with them. Make sure that when you’re having a phone conference or face timing, you leave room for some small talk. Check-in on how the family is doing or get their thoughts on the latest movie releases. Try your best to get to know every single one of your employees on a personal level. You’ll be surprised at how learning about their lives off the clock will help you gain some empathy for them when you’re all on the clock. Plus, if you only have time for business with your team then you’re probably missing out on getting to some awesome people.
Encourage camaraderie
All good leaders know their pack and all great leaders know the particular place of everyone in the pack. Being privy to the strengths and weakness of your employees and knowing how they stack up against one another will help you help them. Get to know their personality differences, such as the amount of risk they are comfortable with. Knowing what makes each team member tick will give you the information needed to create winning teams. What could be better than bringing your team together with a competitive round of a favorite game?
Communicate clearly
As important it is to recruit employees with great communication skills, it is also important that you set the bar high for yourself in this area. You can execute this effectively by asking questions, not assuming anything, explaining everything, and taking detailed notes after each meeting. You can also bring your team together by using online team communication software like Slack. Platforms like this allow you to message each other in real-time, archive communication, and make direct calls to your employees. Employees can’t read your mind so make sure you do everything within your means to encourage and foster a good exchange of ideas. Thank goodness for technology readily available to help you with this task and with other aspects of your business.
In recent years, working remotely has been gaining momentum because of changes in technology and a change in management mentality. If you follow the tips above you may be able to run your team like a total dream, remotely.