1. Communication
Communication is essential in the workplace, and it’s especially important for those who communicate primarily via email, chat, or calls. Ensuring open and fluid communication throughout your organization requires hiring the right people, cultivating a culture of communication, and using the right tools for the job.
Technology is what makes remote teams possible. Below are the types of tools that can facilitate communication within remote teams:
Chat: Slack, Google Hangouts
Project management: Trello, Jira, Asana
Web and video conferencing: Google Hangouts, Zoom, Cisco Webex
Collaboration and prototyping: Invision, Marvel, Adobe XD
Planning: Calendar, Doodle, Google Calendar
Another often overlooked tool is workflow automation . To successfully manage a remote team, you need to create well-defined processes. Streamlining remote employee workflow reduces tedious and time-consuming tasks. An ADP Research Institute study shows that 81% of employees have a positive attitude toward using technology to complete tasks and communicate with peers.
For example, onboarding a new remote employee can be easy when you have the right BPM platform in place. Using third-party applications like DocuSign or Amazon Textract, businesses can easily extract information from scanned documents like a passport or national ID to verify employee eligibility for work. This workflow can be easily managed via email or other communication tools like Slack.
2. Trust
Trust is paramount in any relationship. When employees trust their managers and colleagues and believe in the work they produce, collaboration happens naturally. But trust is not easy to achieve when face-to-face interaction is nonexistent.
To earn trust, organizations must establish a mission malaysia business email list statement, as nontraditional workers value mission-driven organizations because they want to feel like their time is being used for something important. Organizations can demonstrate their dedication to a cause by donating to charity, providing volunteer incentives, or partnering with nonprofits that share their mission.
Organizations should also encourage collaboration and team building by having clearly defined teams. This means that people are expected to work in tandem with each other. By not forming teams, employees often become disoriented and are not motivated to work. It is important to know who belongs to and who is accountable to.
3. Productivity
In an environment without daily supervision, low productivity is an obvious risk. On the other hand, some employees may be at risk of burnout when working remotely due to the lack of boundaries.
The best way to ensure everyone is doing their job is to set clear expectations for each role and conduct regular check-ins to assess progress. Organizations should have a general idea of how long tasks are taking and what each person is accomplishing week over week. Companies can also conduct regular one-on-ones with each team member, not only to hold them accountable for their work, but also to check in on their workload and whether support is needed.
