One year ago when the Covid-19 pandemic started, no one expected that it would last that long. In order to keep our business going, we had to take numerous measures. The most essential to us and everyone else was full remote working. As it does not seem that we will return to a normal working pattern any time soon, it is good to recognize the problems that may occur during this time, in order to maximize the team’s productivity.
Problems with remote working:
- difficulties in communication
- working from home might decrease your effectiveness
- increasing the feeling of being alone and bored
- lack of motivation
- builds barriers between workers
- cooperation is more challenging
- difficulties in meeting new colleagues.
Since we’ve already established the main challenges that you may observe while working remotely with your team, it will be now easier to find a way to avoid that. Let’s see what things are worth doing to improve remote team productivity.
How to lead a remote team?
Undoubtedly there is a difference between being in charge of and working with your team face-to-face in the office than in a situation where everyone is working from home. It is more difficult and challenging to keep up with the team.
Some people may think that remote brainstorming won’t work, but in reality, it doesn’t change that much. I work with very creative people who believe that the only thing that limits us is our imagination.
Useful tools for remote working
It is essential to organize our work in a way that pushes our internal processes further. Slack and Trello are complete must-have tools for everyone. It allows us to maintain transparent and constant communication, but also our aims are clear and no target or goal will be missed.
Other helpful tools:
Do you want to learn more about helpful remote tools? You can find them in our previous article about Remote team management tools you should know while outsourcing.
Setting regular meetings for the team’s interaction
Regular meetings are not only a great way to check the progress of tasks your team is completing, but also it is a good opportunity to define some difficulties that may or do occur in that particular moment.
This is also a great opportunity to integrate with your crew, which by the way is difficult during current reality. Remember to always check up on your coworkers and to be real and honest with them. Small chit-chats are more than welcome. As a matter of fact, they boost your atmosphere within the group. In this particular situation, you’re not only allowing them to feel comfortable, but you’re also giving them an opportunity to open up and speak about other things as well. We all want to feel the best in our workplace, don’t we?
Measure the progress
Have you ever wanted to learn how to properly check if everything goes according to plan? Once you’ve set up clear milestones for the projects with your teammates you will be able to monitor them on a regular basis. Project management is crucial for supporting the remote productivity of your team.
It is my duty to support my teammates and organize their work in a clear way. If I want them to work efficiently I must be giving them understandable and transparent instructions so they do not waste time and can focus on their tasks.
Praise and motivate
Communication is the key to everything. It is crucial for every operating business to function properly. Your subordinate did something well or came up with something interesting and valuable? Don’t be afraid to praise him or her in front of the whole team. Being appreciated for doing something well makes us as human beings more motivated and passionate. You see someone else struggling with their task? Ask what’s causing it and how you may help them. Right after you get the answer, try to navigate this person on how this task should be completed.
Trust, but verify
As Ronald Reagan used to say “ Trust, but verify”. You’re checking up on your team during daily calls? It is worth sometimes putting some effort into taking a closer look at what they are doing. Maybe you will find an error or something to be proud of. Updating the to-do list increases productivity thanks to a clear division of tasks.
How to integrate a team online?
Another challenging aspect of remote work productivity is creating opportunities for people to meet and get to know one another. Taking care of the team’s engagement is essential because it not only supports the higher commitment of your staff but also it brings transparency to your communication.
We’ve decided to make our monthly summaries for the entire company so that everyone is up-to-date with things that are going on in our business. We’ve also constructed a survey to establish remote employee satisfaction in order to find the areas that require some improvement. Thanks to it, we will be able to enhance certain areas, thanks to which our remote workers will be happier because satisfied people are more productive.
Since we keep hiring new people, team integration is crucial for us. We are constantly creating situations, which allow our employees to have the chance to meet and get to know each other better.
Currently, we are testing a Donut extension for Slack, which matches randomly people within our organization. It lets our employees discover others from our homes, but it also works for improving our company’s culture and team’s integration.
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Do you want to know more about increasing productivity of your remote team?
Improving employee productivity
Despite all the obstacles that may or may not happen while working remotely, it is important to always think about constant improvement along the way with development within your business. No matter how many people make up your team, while working remotely it is crucial to take care of your productivity in order to achieve set goals.