6 Tips For Setting Your Team Up For Remote Working Success
Communicating effectively with a remote team has always been one of the biggest challenges of moving to an office-less culture of work.
A lot of the nuance of face-to-face conversations can be lost over email. Also, how do you build an office culture when you don’t have an office?
Moving to a flexible remote working structure can seem daunting at first, but if you follow these simple tips for effective communication with a remote team you’re sure to see the benefits and make it work.
1. Be Prepared to Adapt to the Challenges of Remote Work
Remote work comes with its own set of challenges. Especially if you’ve only ever worked in “in office” roles, adapting to setting your own schedule, moving your communications digital, and learning that you can’t actually be very productive from bed can be difficult.
But if you’re aware of the difficulties you’ll be more prepared to face them. Before your team transitions to remote work, think about what obstacles you might face. Consider things like communication, technical difficulties, procrastination, and work life balance.
Write these down somewhere, as a team, and come up with strategies to handle them - this becomes your team’s agreement for working remotely/from home.
2. Ensure Regular Check-ins with Your Team and Workmates
Remote working can be lonely. It’s important to regularly check in with your team and workmates - regardless if your a manager or not.
Checking in isn’t just good for morale, by checking in on a regular basis you can touch base on any current or potential roadblocks/problems/issues before they become an actual issue.
3. Use the Communication Tools that are Right for You
If some of your best ideas come from having conversation your team, remote working might seem like a disaster for you. But with good collaborative software you can recreate that “in-person” experience.
At our DHB, we use Microsoft Teans and ZOOM for video calls, but you and your team might have other ideas about the best tools to stay in touch. Put simply, there are so many options to stay connected so have a conversation with your team about the best way to stay connected.
4. Trust Your People
You can’t work effectively with a remote team unless you trust your team.
Remote workers aren’t present in the office, so it can be much harder to check in on an ad hoc basis. Micromanaging via email is frustrating for everybody involved.
Remember, just because you can’t see them working, doesn’t mean that they aren’t working, so have faith in your people!
If the work seems to be unusually slow, or different than expected, start with a conversation and simply ask “how can we make this work better?”.
5. Set Clear Deadlines and Outline Expectations
When working remotely it’s very easy to be lured into procrastination. Unless you have a dedicated at-home office, you’re probably working from your bedroom, kitchen, or living room.Avoid possible distractions by setting very clear deadlines and expectations of work. Check in frequently to make sure these deadlines are being met.A great place to start is to define some ‘house-rules’, such as expecting that you’re team will:
Be online during agreed work hours.
Have a good internet connection.
Be available for agreed meetings.
One expectation that you should also set is clear office hours. Working from home doesn’t mean working all hours. Encourage your team to log off at the end of the day, and lead by example by not answering messages out of office hours.
Tip: Once you’ve agreed on the expectations for remote workers, why not create a visually appealing check list that you and the remote team can all refer to for reference? The checklist doesn’t have to be complicated, but you can use colors and icons to help differentiate different line items by importance or topic.
6. Communicate Ideas Visually Over Using Words
Nobody likes reading a wall of text at the best of times. But when you’re working remotely, it can be extra easy to skim.
Often, when people are trying to explain a process or an idea, they wave their hands about a lot. Sometimes they doodle on a piece of paper. And they often know if their explanation is making sense by checking the persons’ reaction.
How does this translate to remote work? A diagram or visual can be the solution. Diagrams are designed to be easy to understand, and can be a great way to communicate difficult processes or ideas.
A simple process diagram, can be shared with your remote team to make sure that processes are followed consistently. Using simple icons and short sentences, you can explain things simply.
Having a one page visual is great too because you can send it to new staff as part of their on boarding process too. This saves time for yourself in the long run.
About The Author:
This article has been adapted from the team at venngage.com.