One of the biggest benefits that has come with this pandemic is the fact businesses all over the world have opened themselves up to remote working. The reason this is such a positive is because it allows for better, more productive working; those who are differently abled are able to work once again and people have a little breathing room when it comes to their schedules. Thanks to the pandemic, business owners everywhere are redefining the way in which people communicate, the way that they communicate with staff and they are enabling better flexibility. It’s due to all of these changes that remote work is looking likely to be offered beyond the edges of the pandemic and into the new world going forward.
With better communication in the workplace, people are able to work better and the boundaries of their roles are more clearly defined. Teamwork becomes more of a priority for a business as more effort must be made to keep people in the loop. While there are some who buffer against the idea of remote working, preferring their staff within arms’ reach, and those who cannot make their job a remote working one, there are still companies that can make it a permanent solution in their businesses. As with anything, remote working has its pros and cons. The pros being the ability to communicate – especially when you learn how to improve AT&T signal so that everyone is contactable when you need them to be! The cons being a difficulty with motivation if you are across the country from your staff! You have to consider whether you can continue the arrangement for working from home, and you have to work out whether you can offer the right support to your remote staff. It’s not just IT support, it’s everything support! It’s the way that you interact, communicate and work together to get things straightened out in your business.
Remote work is changing everything, and it’s not a bad thing! Keeping your business running smoothly is a priority – or it should be – but without the right support for your employees it’s all going to go wrong. You want to avoid any disruption to your business where possible, and while it’s a hectic time right now, you can still be a great influence and help to your staff. With this in mind, here are some of the best practices that you can implement when you are managing a remote team.
- A Sense of Belonging – It’s sometimes difficult to make people feel comfortable and happy in their office environment. This is often the case for newbies to the business, too. People want to feel as if they belong to something, and if you can ensure that you make your employees feel as if they belong within your office and business as a whole, you’re going to really want to help people to feel like they are a part of your company. You will be set apart from other businesses when you make an effort to get to know what works for individuals in your business. A sense of belonging when working remotely is often difficult, but that doesn’t mean that it cannot be done! Team meetings, catch-ups, the open door policy for chatting together – it’s all working to ensure that people feel like they are a part of something.
- Define The Goals Whether people are in the office or working remotely, they need to be given a chance to define their goals. People working at home are often more able to work faster. This is because they are in a more relaxed environment, but for this to work, they need to have clear goals that are also measurable ones! Remote employees are motivated, but it’s helpful to have something to work towards. When communication is more challenging (especially with a poor AT&T signal), they need to have something to reach for and feel responsible for.
- A Better Internal Communications Strategy – When you put together an internal communications strategy, you want it to be as clear and as concise as possible. You want to know that you are prioritizing the efforts you put into your employees, and if you build a better company culture with more improved internal communication, you will find that people work harder and better. All people need is more than radio silence, so be mindful of how you speak with people and offer better engagement.
- Regular Communication – Along with a better communication strategy internally, you want to ensure that the communication between you and your remote staff is also regular. You can’t go for weeks at a time and expect people to be okay with that! Put a plan together with how often you speak to people and when you plan to catch up with others, and you will find your employees happy to hear from you. Remote employees are often left alone for longer periods of time, and while you won’t be able to catch up with everyone individually every single day, you can still make sure that you are touching base with everyone.
- Be Proactive – If things feel disconnected in your business, then it’s time that you make yourself more available to your staff. For this to be the case, you need to send out a survey to all to ask them what works for them in terms of communication methods. For example: some staff may better respond to online chat over telephone calls, and others would prefer to receive an email that they can respond to as they please. You can often feel disconnected to your staff, but that doesn’t mean that you have to be. You have to make it a part of your day to make an effort to speak to people, and it should be something in your daily goals!
- Efficiency Is A Must – Your team will work together for a while, so you want to ensure team collaboration is efficient for as long as possible. You need to have productivity in your employees and for this, improving the way that people work together is a must. Employee engagement solutions are going to help you to eliminate the challenges of team collaboration, though. Knowing how remote working will help your business can help you to better plan for easier collaboration with your team.
- Make Information Available – There is no employee out there who should spend time feeling uninformed. You have to make the information that your staff needs available to them and at their fingertips when they need it. The information should be available easily, without frustrating searches to find everything available. If you can change the way that people search for information, you can help your staff to be far more productive. This will help your remote working efforts greatly!
- Keep Being A Cheerleader – As a business leader, you are also the fiercest support for your staff. You are the person who will help your staff to be the best that they can be at their job. You have to be their biggest cheerleader and encourage your remote staff to be as involved as possible in the conversations within your business. The remote staff are easy to forget, but this is why communication is so heavily pushed!
- Make It Fun – Collaborating and communications between you and your employees has to be fun – they shouldn’t fear the emails with your name on it! You engage your staff with an element of fun to continue a river of company culture that they can thrive on rather than feel left out.
- Empower – People working alone at home can feel overstretched and overwhelmed. They should be a part of the decision making in your business, and they want to feel heard. Make it so! Empower your remote staff to come to you when they need to, and empower them to make their decisions themselves. When you do this, people feel wanted and needed, and they then feel more inclined to work hard for you in your business. This is exactly what you want – and it’s exactly what they want, too.
- Encourage Sharing – Knowledge is valuable, and if your entire remote team has access to one another and communicates together, you will enable them to share information. Fostering a culture of knowledge is so important when you want to bring everyone together. If they can access each other through social media groups specific for remote employees of your business, they will feel better equipped in their role.
- Offer Better – Do you see potential in your employees? Tell them! They need to know they are doing well. People thrive and do better when they are able to feel as if they are doing something good in their roles. If you know that people do better when they are praised and recognized for all they do, you’ll see the results of that praise fairly quickly.
Supporting your remote workers is not an option – it’s a must. Be there for them and watch your business exceed!
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