In this time and age, remote workers are no longer an exception but an integral part of the corporate world. Improved technologies, better communication systems, and mobile computing are all the factors that make it easier for the employers to work along with a team of remotely working employees.
Nonetheless, hiring remote workers has its set of challenges that include fewer face times of workers, decreased employee loyalty, reduced team collaboration and low work productivity. All these factors call for an extremely proactive leadership and management team.
In the chaos of day-to-day work activities, employers often neglect their remote workforce which results in poor employee engagement and low productivity. With the passing time, the underperformance of your remote workers results in work discrepancies. Consequently, it leads to a butterfly effect where the little inconsistencies in the work come out in the form of bigger losses.
To avoid facing the music of such an effect, you need to implement a proactive business leadership and management skills to engage your remote workforce and take them onboard in your team.
Here we’ve rounded up tips to help you implement a holistic approach at every echelon of your remote workforce:
Streamline The Communication Channels
A successful team exists only when both you and the workers are on the same page. This notion becomes even more important when you are running a team of remote workers. Under the supervision of an IT team, you need to implement systems and processes that can ensure smooth communication between you and your team members.
For a more rapid and effective two-way communication, it is important to line up your entire communication channels in sync with the remote workforce. You need to integrate apps and tools to facilitate your daily, weekly, and monthly meetings with the team.
Have Regular Interactions With Your Workers
Unlike on-site employees, the remote workers do not enjoy much face time with the boss. So it takes them more time to convey their work-related complaints and grievances to the management. As a result, there are more cases of work burnout, lack of professional gratification, and work conflicts in the remote workers as compared to the on-site employees.
Therefore, you should make it a point to talk with your remote workers on regular basis to stay abreast of their issues so that you can resolve them in a timely manner.
Acknowledge Your Remote Workers
Contrary to on-site workers, remote workers are not duly recognized for their work which makes them devoid of a sense of belonging to the organization. Remember that a remote employee deserves your acknowledgment more than your in-house workers as they are not always there for appreciation.
To keep your remote workers feel appreciated, you must send them an email every week or at least when they go the extra mile to finish a task. Similarly, you should reward the remote workforce whenever they finish a milestone project to encourage them to continue the good work.
Make an Employee Development Program
Employee development is one of the primary agendas of any employer. Unfortunately, many employers tend to overlook this important facet when it comes to remote workers. The training and growth of your remotely working employees are as essential as it is for on-site workers.
Remember that you are operating in a market and you’ve to strive hard to beat the competition. So if you are compromising on the budget on this matter, you’re paving way for your competitors to supersede you as he is investing in the professional development of his remote workers. So it can be a difference between the success and failure of your business.
Therefore, it is important to invest in the training and grooming of your workers. Start by giving your workers the paid subscription of online courses. In addition, you need to give your employee free passes to attend the conferences, seminars, and workshops related to their specific area. All these activities will work to build the skills of your employees in the long run.
Plan A Group Meetings
While it is not possible to call your remote workers for a meeting once in a week, it is feasible to call them at least once in a quarter. You can invite them in an official event hosted by the company or you can take them along with your on-site employees on a picnic. Taking advantage of the occasion, you can share your goals and vision with your workers and get their feedback.
At the same time, you’ll be able to introduce your remote workers to your on-site employees and give them an opportunity to get along with the team. Such a meeting is essential not only to sync your objectives with your remote team but also remove their mistrusts and doubts.
Make Team Collaboration a Priority
Team collaboration is one of the primary hurdles that many organizations have to cope while managing a remote team. This is particularly essential for organizations that have to deliver projects on tight deadlines. Unless you are closely associated with your team, you cannot expect productivity from them in return.
To make sure that your remote team functions smoothly, it is important to bridge your communication channels with modern and high-end application tools, such as Skype, Google for Work or Slack. In addition, you need to integrate cloud-based business applications to allow your on-site and remote workers to coordinate in real-time.
All these things can contribute significantly to improving the collaboration of your team and increasing their productivity.
Final Thoughts…
The aforementioned tips are meant to inform you about the various ways you can increase the productivity of your remotely working team in an efficient manner. Hope, they help you get the best out of your distant workers.