Remote working isn’t the same as working from an office. There are differences in terms of personal touch, team collaboration, and employee mental health.

This means that managing remote teams require a different strategy.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics claims that 38.1% of the employees in the United States work from home on an average day.

With most of the global workforce working remotely, managers wonder whether it’s possible to expect productivity from work from home teams, like office teams.

To break the confusion — Yes, remote teams can be as productive or possibly more productive than work from office teams. You just need to know the best practices to manage them.

But first, let’s discuss the common challenges you might be facing with remote teams.

‍

4 Common Challenges of Remote Work

The first step for companies is to be aware of the factors that make remote work demanding. For example, employees who work remotely without preparation or training may experience a decline in job performance and engagement.

The following issues are associated with remote work:

1. Social Isolation

Over time, remote workers may become isolated and lonely, even if initially thrilling. Moreover, it may become debilitating if the manager has not provided solutions.

A study published by the Harvard Business Review states that being shunned and left out is one of the major concerns of remote employees. In addition, physiological and physical health issues may result if isolation and loneliness are not appropriately addressed.

‍

Survey of Remote employees feel left out

2. Lack of F2F Supervision

We’ve found that managers and workers both express concerns about the absence of face-to-face interactions. Supervisors fear that employees will not work as hard or as efficiently, whereas many employees struggle with limited access to managerial support and communication.

In some situations, employees feel that remote managers are unsupportive and unhelpful in accomplishing their work because they are out of touch with their needs.

3. Information Inaccessibility

Newly remote workers often find that accessing information from colleagues takes extra time and effort. As a result, even answering what seem like straightforward questions can appear a significant obstacle for workers working remotely.

This phenomenon extends beyond task-related work to interpersonal difficulties that may arise among remote colleagues.

4. Distractions at Home

You might have seen pictures of a parent holding a child while typing on their laptop on social media. Well, no matter how cute it appears, a terrible representation of effective work from home.

We often tell employers to ensure that their remote workers have a dedicated workspace and adequate child care before allowing them to work remotely.

In contrast, employees working in-office when they suddenly are required to perform virtual work are more likely to encounter suboptimal workspaces and unanticipated parenting demands.

In addition, family and home demands may impinge on remote work even when workers are working normally, and these distractions are more common during unplanned work-from-home transitions.

If your borderless teams aren’t as productive as you expect, you might be dealing with some of the challenges we’ve just discussed.

So, how do you manage work-from-home teams and overcome these challenges?

‍

How to Manage Remote Teams

As a borderless team platform, we regularly help companies deal with remote working challenges.

Following are the best practices we suggest for managing work-from-home teams.

1. Utilize Scrum Practices for Daily Check-Ins

To be clear, we’re not suggesting going all-agile. But conducting daily morning calls between managers and employees to discuss deliverables or casual chit-chats can help employees feel more involved in the organization.

Team or individual calls are an excellent way for remote managers to maintain consistent contact with their workers. However, depending on the level of collaboration among employees, either a series of one-on-one conversations or a group discussion might work best.

We’ve found that if managers maintain regular contact with employees, they know that they can approach you for help and advice and that their queries and concerns will be heard.

And this brings us to the next recommendation to manage remote teams.

2. Over-Communicate to Employees

Yes, you heard it right.

In a remote working setup, over-communicating is critical in informing the team's assignments, obligations, goals, and objectives, as a daily check-in is unlikely to be sufficient.

In regular workplaces, communication problems are already a challenge. As employees work remotely and may be focused on different or new tasks and objectives, communication must be prioritized.

How? Let’s discuss this in the next pointer.

3. Set Clear Expectations and Boundaries

Having clear expectations is the first step in managing any remote or traditional team. Each person's individual responsibilities are based on their role, but the whole team must adhere to a set of guidelines.

It is crucial to make it clear to everyone what is expected of them when working remotely, regardless of whether or not people already know what they should be doing in the office.

For example, it’s critical to convey how quickly team members should respond to messages or when they should attend virtual meetings.

According to Scott Bales, vice president of delivery and solution engineering at a time management system company, establishing guidelines and boundaries and reviewing the fundamentals are among the most critical steps to take when establishing a new project. It is important to outline each team member's availability and ensure that we can reach them when required, as well as answer any questions that arise. It is critical to establish guidelines, set boundaries, and review the fundamentals at the outset of a new project.

4. Adopt Multiple Communication Technology

Email is not sufficient by itself. Remote workers benefit from richer technology such as video conferencing, which gives participants a lot of visual cues normally provided by F2F interactions.

Video conferencing has a number of advantages, especially for smaller groups where visual indicators allow employees to better understand each other, reducing loneliness among teams in addition to improving mutual knowledge. Video conferencing is also beneficial in difficult or delicate discussions, as it is perceived as more personal than a text or audio-only messaging.

Furthermore, mobile-enabled messaging services (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc.) are ideal for simpler, casual conversations as well as time-sensitive communications where the visual aspect isn’t important.

Disclaimer: Before you opt for any third-party communication tool, make sure you consult your IT department for data security.

5. Provide a Room for Remote Social Interaction

An important step for a manager to take when managing remote workers is to establish a structure that allows employees to interact casually while working. This is particularly true for remote workers who love to be in the office but have been abruptly removed.

Just an example, establishing some non-work chitchat at the beginning of team conferences is an easy way to encourage informal communication.

Another cool idea for remote social interactions is virtual pizza parties or virtual office parties where pizzas are delivered to the employees' houses.

Although these events may seem artificial or forced, many experienced managers of remote workers (and their employees) state that their virtual nature helps reduce feelings of isolation, which in turn promotes a sense of belonging.

6. Don’t Micro-Manage; Instead, Focus on Outcomes

In remote setups, there is very little room for micro-management. And, this isn’t an issue. On the contrary, it’s good to give employees the freedom to work.

Giving employees the freedom to devise their own approach to achieving goals and objectives is widely considered a smart strategy for boosting engagement and employee satisfaction.

However, it’s critical for companies to communicate the purpose behind every new assignment. This helps employees stay in tune with the goal, and their outcomes will remain more aligned.

7. Welcome Flexibility

2022 is yet another year of the new normal, after all! And if we can survive global pandemics, social unrest, economic downturns, fires, hurricanes, locusts, and meteors, then managing remote teams should be a breeze.

Managers should have this mindset and understand that every member of a team has a different private home office.

Some employees will be conducting business from their closets, bedrooms, or bathrooms, while others will work from their home offices. Some might be at Starbucks, and others might be experiencing relationship difficulties.

‍

To manage a team, a manager must understand each employee's situation. In addition to acknowledging stress, listening to employees’ worries and concerns, and understanding their difficulties, managers should be sensitive to the sudden shift to remote work.

Welcome to the New Normal

Remote work is here to stay, and it’s up to the companies to adopt the new normal.

We’ve discussed the most common remote working challenges companies face and their solutions. Adopting these new management methods should escalate your borderless teams’ productivity and spirit.

Last but not least, hiring the right people for your team is crucial when working with remote employees.

You must hire people you trust 100%, people who are eager to take responsibility, and people who value freedom. Also, it is important to communicate ahead of time what you expect from your team so they may accomplish it.