If you run your workplace remotely, you may have encountered some of the challenges associated with a virtual workforce. In some cases, remote employees may find it harder to connect with their coworkers, get excited about their work or invested in the company, and create a cohesive company culture or team spirit. If that’s the case for your team, consider modifying your current approach. These four important and clear-cut strategies could help make a difference.
Set Clear Expectations and Engage Often
Without clear expectations, any team may struggle to do its best work. That’s why you need to ensure you’ve told your team members exactly what’s expected of them in this remote environment. Keeping employees engaged is another effective strategy to encourage questions and avoid confusion. Make sure that you:
- Communicate project and job expectations clearly upfront
- Reach out to all employees regularly to check on progress and address concerns
- Encourage employees to show their personalities in remote settings by using a custom Zoom background when desired
Be Transparent and Schedule Regular Team Meetings
Transparency is essential to remote teamwork. There’s no physical office environment where you can simply drop into someone’s cubicle to clear up an issue, so it’s crucial that your team members be honest with each other. One way to encourage transparency is by setting the tone in your team meetings. In addition to spicing up remote meetings by using Zoom immersive view templates, you should take other steps to maximize this important tool. For instance, you may find it helpful to:
- Schedule frequent meetings
- Set a clear-cut agenda for each meeting
- Keep meetings as brief as possible
- Be transparent about your expectations and plans for each meeting
- Follow up on key meetings via email when necessary
Adjust Your Communication Strategies to the Remote Environment
If you’re still reliant on occasional emails or phone calls to stay in touch with your team, it may be time to adopt some new technologies. A remote environment calls for appropriate communication strategies. Once you’ve learned how to add virtual background in Teams, you can master a few other key communication tools, such as instant messaging systems, Zoom chat boxes, and online communications platforms.
Check In With Employees Often and Actively Foster a Healthy Company Culture
Finally, having a healthy company culture is key to building resiliency, strength, and trust among a remote team. Make sure to check in with each individual employee frequently so that you’re all on the same page, and take all complaints seriously. It’s imperative that you:
- Listen to questions and concerns
- Make yourself as available as possible during the workday
- Institute strong HR mechanisms for handling complains
- Host virtual events not related to work to encourage organic relationships
- State company values clearly to foster a healthy workplace culture
Handling a team of remote employees is a little different from managing your team in person. If you’re in charge of managing remote workers and you’re struggling to create a cohesive team spirit, it may be time to change your strategy. Fortunately, there are four helpful, important, and tried-and-true methods that could help change everything. Try them out at your next team meeting.
Conclusion
With the increasing popularity of remote workforces, it’s important to have a plan to manage and communicate with your employees. Here are some tips to help make sure everything goes smoothly:
1. Establish clear expectations from the start. Make sure everyone understands what is expected of them and agrees to abide by these guidelines. This way, there will be no confusion or drama when things inevitably go wrong.
2. Create a regular communication channel. Set up meetings or video calls as often as possible so that you can keep everyone on track and update them on any changes or developments in the company. This way, they know what’s happening even if they can’t be in the office daily.
3. Address concerns immediately. If someone has a problem with their workload or feels uncomfortable with anything related to their job, don’t leave them hanging – take action immediately to get relief as soon as possible. Otherwise, they might start feeling resentful and tempted to look for other opportunities elsewhere – which would be not only bad for business but also detrimental to your employee’s wellbeing
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