Tips for Managing a Remote Team

Remote work is becoming more common, but managing a distributed team poses unique challenges. Without seeing employees daily, you must build trust, align work, and create connections remotely. Here are tips for effectively managing remote teams:

Hire Team Players Who Thrive Autonomously

When hiring remote workers, emphasize finding self-motivated professionals who proactively manage their work and communicate well.

Evaluate attributes like independence, accountability, problem-solving ability and comfort working alone. Onboarding sets the tone for autonomy and trust.

Set Clear Goals and Metrics

Prevent misalignments by setting clear goals and key performance indicators for each employee tied to company objectives. Make sure everyone understands priorities and how they ladder up.

Establish regular check-ins on progress and blockers. Use tools like Asana to track work and key results. Shared clarity enables productivity.

Maintain Robust Communication

Overcommunication is key for distributed teams. Establish open channels for discussions and information sharing.

Tools like Slack, Zoom and dispersed meetings keep everyone looped in. Leaders must be highly responsive to prevent gaps. Prompt video chats build rapport.

Document Processes and Policies

With remote staff, diligently record institutional knowledge, processes, policies, guidelines and other references in a knowledge base like Notion.

Documented information prevents confusion when not co-located. Ensure team members can reference details on procedures, guidelines and objectives.

Enable Water Cooler Connections

Don’t lose camaraderie just because a team is dispersed. Facilitate informal social connections through chat channels, virtual coffee breaks and team building activities.

Occasional in-person meetups keep relationships strong. Have fun together as a team to cultivate trust and friendship.

Recognize and Appreciate Progress

Without daily presence, managers must find other ways to recognize employee contributions. Catch people doing good work and call out achievements publicly.

Send thank you notes or small gift cards when goals get crushed. Celebrate wins together virtually. Recognition motivates and builds loyalty.

Conduct One-on-One Check-ins

Meet consistently, even over-communicate, with direct reports. Check on current projects, roadblocks and needs proactively. Provide mentoring and feedback.

One-on-ones enable managers to take the pulse, build connections and deepen trust. Make it safe for employees to share concerns early before problems escalate.

Monitor Productivity Closely

Carefully analyze productivity levels and trends to catch lagging work quickly. Review work volume data, cycle times and individual output relative to peers.

Develop lead indicators for performance issues like missed deadlines. Confront problems promptly through supportive coaching rather than micromanaging. Teach them the trending skills to stay updated with the modern way of working remotely.

Visit Remote Workers Occasionally

While most interaction is virtual, visit remote workers periodically to strengthen relationships. Meet at their home office or nearby coworking location.

In-person time enables deeper connections and insights into environment and work style. Change up locations to keep it fresh.

Managing remote employees well relies on clear goals, proactive communication, performance visibility, appreciation and relationship building. Prioritize frequent interactions and strong team cohesion despite the distance.