Since the pandemic has hit the world, the work from home culture has seen an upturn offering benefits not only to the organization but for the employees as well. Perks like money-saving, no location boundaries, and a better-life balance to their employees for companies, the culture has given the flexibility to the workers too.
It has been investigated that people are equally productive in working remotely and collude with their other team members to generate leading results. Remembering the fact that good things always come at a cost, managing a globally distributed team is nothing less than a challenge that could be sustained by employees working remotely. Handling surpassing meetings, stabilizing clear project goals, keeping great communication, leveraging the individual is a sturdy job!
Here are a few tips described that could help as a solution for this challenge-
1. Intensifying communication could help
It is found to be an influential issue while working remotely. Remote communication can lead to decisive the normal speed of conversations that can be easily solved when you are at a common physical workplace.
What you can do to resolve this is to assemble all the communication among the team members. Time zones can be a major concern many times, hence determining broader goals for the week to keep the employees in the loop will help in effective collaboration.
2. Assisting the team bonding well
As each employee is sitting miles apart, bonding with them can be a tough task. Encourage them by conducting visual team building activities, or creating a virtual space where they can share their ideas, topics, etc. Understanding your globally distributed team on a more personal level and building companionship will bring out more confidence and trust in them.
3. Taking up the right tools
How can you define remote work or a team without technology? Unimaginable! Technology has made this culture work flawlessly. Thus, what you require are the right tools that should be a good fit for the team. This can make you stay focused and prolific at the same time. Thorough research on the requirements should be made before going for a final take.
Once you are clear with the needs, the verdict would become easy. Make sure not to go with adding dozens of digital tools for different collaboration as that may confuse you. Some of the suggested tools include Zoom, Skype, Slack, Basecamp, and much more.
4. Keep a check on employee’s performance
As per the survey conducted by the FlexJobs in the year 2018, it has been observed that more employees are highly productive while working at home as compared to working at the office. The companies that have globally distributed teams can also achieve the high-level productivity of their employees by managing the performance of their employees systematically. When every employee starts working remotely, they have a different game plan and they use a different approach for completing the assigned tasks.
When the employees work remotely, then one approach to completing the task may not be suitable for all. Therefore, it is imperative to keep track of the productivity level of the employees. One of the best ways to keep a check on the productivity of employees is to ask them to share the daily reports. The employees need to create an efficient work environment.
5. Centralize the resources
The excel sheet can be quite messy, especially when you have to maintain a huge volume of records. It is a good idea to have a centralized database for the employees in which all the sections are segregated such as marketing, sales, tech, etc. It will let you stay organized and help you to find a doc quickly and easily. By centralizing the resources, the probability of error will reduce and increase the collaboration among team members.
6. Dedicated fun time
The employees who are working in office premises take short breaks together, go for lunch together, and enjoy together. It is imperative to follow a similar practice while working remotely. The businesses should set a dedicated fun time for the employees so that they feel united and do not miss their daily conversations.
Bottom Lines:
Hope the above-mentioned points work as a helpful hand. There are some misconceptions too around working with the teams that are globally distributed as they are classified as a hassle work. These doubts are, however, unjustified. During the situations, likely when remote work is the only option, the organizations could take the benefits. Maybe a better cost-effective option as compared to owning an in-house team! From the employee’s perspective, they are found to have a better work-life balance and potency, as per the studies. What the only requirement is the management skills to make it operate well.
