Remote Work Unleashed: 10 Expert Strategies to Boost Productivity and Team Performance
Duty Ventures - Software Design and Engineering Company
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Has your company implemented a #remotework policy, allowing you to work from home during the week?
If the answer is ‘YES’ then you’re part of the 16% of companies worldwide that work fully remotely.
Welcome to the club!
As you might have seen over the news, or on the internet, #remote work has drastically increased since the 2020 pandemic, reaching a 44% rise in the past 5 years. With this, more and more companies, who chose this way of functioning, are confronted with managing their teams in an #asynchronous way.
While it can have a lot of benefits on employees’ well-being, productivity, and #mentalhealth, remote work also comes with its own struggles, integration, and communication being the major ones. But hopefully, there are practices that will allow you to overcome those and help your remote team thrive.
Through this article, we’ll give you the 10 tips you can start applying from now (like right after you finish reading this awesome article) to enhance your #remotecollaboration.
Before diving into the explanations, there are 3 main points you should focus on Clear communication, Clear expectations, and Work-Life balance. By respecting these you can already assure a great company culture and better efficiency.
Tip #1: Set Clear Expectations
To start the collaboration right and make sure everyone goes in the right direction, setting clear expectations from the beginning is essential. It's important to define clear goals, roles, and responsibilities for each team member to avoid confusion and ensure that everyone is working towards the same objectives.
In addition to this, another important aspect of it is setting realistic deadlines for tasks and projects. They are essential to keep everyone on track and ensure that work is completed in a timely manner. However, it's important for these deadlines to be communicated clearly and to also be realistic and achievable. Unrealistic deadlines can lead to burnout and decreased motivation, while achievable deadlines can help build momentum and keep the team motivated.
Tip #2: Establish Effective Communication Channels
In a remote collaboration, communication is key, and it is even more important than in a “classic” on-site collaboration. Because of that regular and open communication is important. You can do it with the whole team, but also by encouraging one on one meetings when needed. To help with it, it is essential to choose the right communication tools that will help your team exchange in the most effective way.
There are many available out there, for video conferencing, instant messaging, and project management. It's important to choose tools that are user-friendly and that meet the needs of your team, but it’s also important to establish rules for using them. Explicit guidelines should be implemented for your team to know when to use email versus instant messaging, or when to schedule a video conference versus a phone call as an example.
Tip #3: Cultivate a Positive Team Culture
Without seeing each other in person and being able to take coffee breaks at the company’s vending machine, your employee's bond will usually be weaker. This is why cultivating a positive team culture is an important part of remote collaboration.
Focus on creating moments where your team can interact all together in a professional and non-professional way through video conference. A weekly, monthly, or quarterly video meeting with the whole team can be a great way to achieve this, and mixing it with the end of the week, or team-building online activities is a great way to create stronger relationships.
In addition to that, if your whole team is in the same city, having in-person team-building activities or meetings can also be a great idea and change from the usual
Tip #4: Encourage Autonomy and Trust
A sense of ownership and accountability is promoted by giving your team members the freedom to make decisions and putting your trust in them. Team members are more inclined to take the initiative, be creative, and accept responsibility for their job when they feel trusted and empowered. Additionally, increased productivity, job satisfaction, and motivation may also result from this.
Also, when given the option to work in a manner that suits them, individuals are frequently better able to manage their time and strike a balance between work and personal obligations. Furthermore, freedom and adaptability might result in more original solutions to issues. Finally, in addition to ensuring that work is accomplished properly and efficiently, striking the right balance between structure and flexibility may help create an environment where people feel trusted and empowered.
Tip #5: Provide Adequate Support and Resources
As for on-site collaboration, having the right support system and resources to provide your employees with, is essential. This is even more important in a remote collaboration, where face-to-face interactions are less usual, and the time to respond to technical demands is usually longer. In a similar way, make sure your team has the right tools to work in an efficient way and attain the goals you’ve set. This includes software packages, but also hardware packages that you might consider buying for any new team member.
The resources you allocate to your team are also very important and can be very different, from media access for your design team to automation tools for your sales reps, to training and career advice for everyone, you have to make sure that most of the needs are covered and that everyone can work and evolve in the best possible way.
Tip #6: Set Clear and Measurable Goals
This is similar to the first tip of the article. Making sure that the goals you set for your team are measurable and attainable is a good reflex to have. It will not only allow you to track your team’s performances but setting unachievable goals can also have a negative impact on your team's morale and productivity.
So make sure to track your KPIs effectively, and don’t hesitate to adjust some of the goals on the go, if you realize you have overestimated or underestimated their difficulty.
Tip #7: Foster Regular Feedback and Performance Evaluation
Continuous feedback is another important point you shouldn’t overlook. Be it from your side or directly from your team, it is important to always be in the loop with what is up in your company and how projects are going. The sessions you hold should be constructive and should focus on both positive and negative aspects of the performance.
In addition to those, it's also important to recognize and celebrate individual and team achievements. By doing so, you can help boost morale and motivation, and can also encourage team members to continue working towards achieving their goals.
Tip #8: Prioritize Work-Life Balance
When it comes to work-life balance, remote work is at the same time, the best and the worst thing that can happen to you. No more commuting to work, no more time lost, enhanced productivity, and work from your own comfort, these are only some of the numerous advantages remote life has to give. But on the other side, remote work also means, being alone most of the day, harder to disconnect after your day is done, and overall much more time spent working since you don’t have to go to work or come back home.
To make things easier, it is important for you to set some boundaries in the working hours but also practices. Yes, allowing your employees to work when they want without having to report to someone and without being tracked is definitely great, but you’d want to make sure that past a certain hour, people won’t receive work emails or calls from their colleagues so they also have some time for themselves.
Tip #9: Continuously Adapt and Improve
Strategies are here to be adapted and rethought as many times as needed to achieve the goals you’ve set. This is why it is important to foster a culture of continuous learning and adaptation to the evolutions of the market. As managers, you should regularly evaluate and rethink your remote management strategies to make them fit your company’s culture and team’s needs but also, stay updated with remote work trends and best practices.
These two will help you stay sharp and efficient, and will also allow your teams to thrive in the remote environment.
Tip #10: Continuously Foster Innovation and Collaboration
While remote work has many advantages, it can also present challenges when it comes to generating new ideas and maintaining a collaborative environment. However, fostering innovation and collaboration is just as important in a remote work setting as it is in an office setting, and there are several ways to achieve it:
As you might have understood, one of the main challenges of generating new ideas in a remote work setting is the lack of face-to-face interaction and the spontaneity that comes with it. So these can help you out on this side.
In conclusion, remote work has become a new standard in many companies and can have many benefits if managed effectively. With the right tools, communication, and culture, remote teams have the potential to be just as #productive and successful as in-person teams.
By implementing these strategies, you can create a great space that will help your remote teams thrive. But don’t forget it's also important to adapt these tips to the specific dynamics of each team and continuously evaluate and adjust as needed.
Good luck with your #projects!
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Always on duty,
Duty Team