How to keep control of your remote team

Maintaining a working spirit while going remote has become a real challenge for business.

This transition is particularly stressful on companies and employees that never practiced working from home or a home office.

As a leader managing a remote team, I am familiar with the challenges of collaborating projects based in different locations and time zones.

The most common problems are:

• Chaos, panic, and disorientation among employees.
• Feeling out of control.
• The lack of sync with the team, employees, and senior management.

And it’s in my best interest to eliminate as many issues as possible, help my team feel connected, and drive positive results. This is how I made it.

6 tips on how to effectively manage staff remotely 

In this article, I share a few important tips to help you manage your remote employees and keep them motivated.

Tip #1: Aim to hire self-managers 

Working from home requires good discipline and self-awareness. So, when you’re hiring people to join your remote team, it’s better to look for businesslike self-managers who won’t have trouble making their own agenda and prioritizing tasks. 

During the interview, try to figure out if a candidate can stay focused for a long time and isn’t afraid of making decisions.

I recommend checking some of the top freelance websites where you can find a qualified professional. 

Freelancers usually are good at organizing themselves. And no worries, partnerships with freelancers can be full-time and long-term, too.

If you’re just switching to remote work and not hiring anyone, help your employees set up everything for productive work from home. 

For example, provide all the essentials for their workplaces, set clear deadlines, use collaboration tools (e.g., Slack, Chanty, Zoom) and productivity apps (e.g., Todoist, Noizio), and aim to create a strong company culture. 

Tip #2: Find the time to talk 

When switching to a “remote mode,” you will spend more time communicating with employees. 

To keep the chaos from escalating, hold online team meetings regularly. This can be both group meetings and one-on-one chats. 

Keep in mind, there is no rule to meet everyday or every other day. 

It’s best to experiment with how often such meetings should occur. 

You may even discover that different departments and team members require different approaches. 

For example, while you may need to have daily checkpoints with your team of developers, the SEO people may only require your attention a few times per month. Generally speaking, meet one-on-one once or twice a week with your team members.

If you have a large team, divide it into smaller groups of five to seven people and designate a team lead for each group.

Tip #3: Build a knowledge base and ensure proper onboarding

Make sure employees have all the information and access to it they need. Document everything and share it. 

Furthermore, start storing all the information your team uses or produces. It should be easy to file and easy to find. For example, you can use Google Drive, Notion or Dropbox. 

Proper onboarding is another essential element of employee comfort. Even if you work remotely, consider assigning an onboarding partner to them. As a leader, you can be this onboarding partner too.

Tip #4: Set clear goals and use a management system 

To achieve success, it’s crucial to set clear goals with specific metrics. Break large goals into smaller tasks. This method will help you get a clear structure that won’t seem so overwhelming. 

You can also make the life of your team easier by using a reliable management system.

Write down all the new ideas and add updates in your management software. Development teams usually use this technique. However, you can apply it to any other industry with the same success. Some reliable management systems to consider are Jira, Basecamp, Trello, Asana, just to name a few. 

Tip #5: Lead with trust, not control

It’s human nature to only believe something is true if we can see it. In a work environment, managers and leaders tend to think employees aren’t working if they can’t observe the process.

When working in an office, it’s easy to control what your employees are doing. But when they are scattered in various corners of the city, country, or world, you simply don’t have the ability to look over their shoulders. 

Since it’s difficult to control everyone working from home, remote leaders will have to learn to trust their teams more than in-office leaders, and they should let their teams make more decisions, too.  

Understand that productivity isn’t about control. 

Rather than focusing on what your employees are doing every minute, ask yourself how they’re likely to feel about reaching the goals you’ve set for them. Will they be stressed or empowered? 

In fact, maintaining trust is much easier to achieve face-to-face. 

However, in a situation where you and all team members work remotely, you can experiment with organizing team-building webinars, happy-hour call groups, and dedicated chat groups. 

Tip #6: Value employee well-being

Health and happiness aren’t the results of being productive. Yet, these factors affect employees’ productivity.

If you notice anyone on your team having a hard time, reach out individually to discuss what happened and how you can support them. Perhaps you will need to consider adjusting your goals, offering more flexibility on deadlines, or trying a different communication approach.

Furthermore, a good leader always finds opportunities to show appreciation. So, take time to share employees’ wins, send emails or messages of gratitude to team members, etc. Positive feedback matters when maintaining employee morale.

Encourage them to keep moving, eat more healthy food, or add some flexibility to their working schedule.

Final words

Working from home might be challenging and stressful for both managers and employees. And you, as a leader, need to learn how to support your remote team without compromising on employees’ working spirit and productivity.  

Follow these rules, be flexible, don’t stress out, and you’ll do it.