Before hybrid and remote working policies were introduced, managing employee performance was relatively straightforward. You were able to see or spend time with each employee setting objectives and monitoring performance. Now, that most of you team are working in the office at different times, if at all, how do you go about effectively managing your team remotely?
At present, many people are juggling work commitments with childcare and working in unprecedented circumstances. What’s more, we know that many workers have never had to / or are set up to work from home. This can make the entire experience difficult for both managers and their teams.
Here are some tips to help manage a team remotely:
- Communication is key, all team members and managers need to make an effort to keep in touch with each other.
- Take a measured approached to the tone of your emails. It’s very easy for an email to be misunderstood without seeing the body language or knowing a team member very well.
- Understand the pressures the team are under by setting realistic targets and goals.
- Use video tech as much as possible so that you are having face to face interactions with your employee. This also makes them more accountable.
- Ask the team to become accountable for themselves, for example logging time or output (i.e. a weekly report / update).
- Managers should provide opportunities to check in with their teams regularly. This should include conversations working from home and their current set up.
- Any performance problems should be addressed quickly. Provide feedback to the team and work together to come up with solutions or new ways of working.
- Appreciate that this might be new to some of the team and that it may take some time to find a good way of working remotely.
- Encourage teams to get into good working habits and routines e.g. creating their own workspace, starting and finishing work at similar times to normal, washing and dressing for the work day. It sounds basic but can help give the team structure and promote good mental health.
You may also be interested in our tips on keeping your remote team motivated.
Do you need more specific advice on managing a team remotely? Please get in touch.