5 tips for managing your team remotely

Teleworking: 5 tips for better managing your employees remotely

Are you one of those who feared the sudden shift to teleworking and a potential drop in productivity for your employees a year ago? If so, experience and time have surely reassured you. Certainly, the opposite effect occurred. Workers, across all sectors, redoubled their efforts and were more productive in 2020. However, performance obstacles can disrupt teleworkers (bugs, lack of feedback, bad environment, work overload). As a team or business leader, how can you address these issues and provide the tools your employees need when working remotely?

This article is mainly based on the podcast by Bill Kerr and Joe Fuller, professors at Harvard Business School: “Managing the future of work”, in which Michael Peachey, vice president of RingCentral is interviewed.

Tip 1: Understand and know your collaborators and employees

Adapt to their needs and promote their work

Most of your employees seem to have managed to familiarize themselves with digital tools such as data sharing or videoconferencing platforms. Despite everything, they express particular needs which you must respond to as superiors. According to the Statista website: 51% of French employees working remotely in 2020 expressed having greater technical difficulties in mastering remote IT tools.

In the podcast, Michael Peachey explains how he helped remote workers stay connected by letting them choose the tool that was best suited to their needs. His responsibility was first and foremost to support them in this transition by recognizing that everyone's experience may vary.

Working remotely requires a different approach and requires more effort. Asking the right questions and finding solutions is essential. Also, valuing the work of your collaborators and employees, showing interest in them, can give them the feeling of being truly integrated into a team, even remotely.

 

Tip 2: Use a tool resource planning for better performance

Better schedule management and time savings

Meeting the needs of your customers is your priority. However, you devote most of your pre-sales efforts to tasks without added value and which take up a large part of your time.

Resource planning and schedule management, revenue tracking and reporting can be combined in one single software. Stafiz is both an ERP and a Resource planning software. Using the platform guarantees enhanced performance and time savings so that your team members can focus on more impactful tasks.

The use of a planning management tool and resource planning helps reduce fatigue and stress linked to long hours of working in front of screens and the numerous bugs encountered.

 

Tip 3: Keep your team connected and productive

Train your employees in digital tools

According to Neil Kidd, Team Development Manager, in this Welcome to the Jungle article : “ Adaptation means adjusting to new tools .” Be in possession of a tool resource planning or digital platforms that make tasks easier is one thing, ensuring that the whole team doesn't waste time understanding how to use them is another. Whether for the Stafiz solution or for other technologies you use, there are demos, online training, and resources that you can share with your colleagues.

Involve everyone equally

The digital sector offers the advantage of having a “portable” or “portable” career, in the sense that each individual can work from anywhere. That said, not everyone benefits from the same amenities and a teleworker may find themselves at a disadvantage vis-à-vis their colleagues in terms of their involvement in the missions or tasks to be accomplished. In addition, 57% of teleworkers found exchanges between colleagues more difficult in 2020.

To unite his teams and maintain social ties during confinement, Michael Peachey invited his employees to connect to an uninterrupted videoconference every day, as if they were all together in the office. As a leader, creating that community at work helps you stay connected and “ emotionally healthy ,” according to Peachey.

According to this article : maintaining weekly meetings by videoconference helps maintain team cohesion if speaking times are respected and if the meeting is based on visual support sent in advance. That said, let's keep in mind that the accumulation of meetings reduces productivity and causes fatigue. Let's find the right balance!

Tip 4: Three soft skills to have

Emotional intelligence and empathy

Soft skills are essential at work today and for a manager, they are significant. Your employees as well as your customers generally have high expectations of you. Empathy is surely one of the most sought-after qualities in a superior. Your employees work a lot and don't always let their feelings and emotions show.

According to Hospitality Insight EHL , emotional intelligence allows others to express themselves confidently and to receive the expected advice and encouragement to avoid losing the taste for work, or even falling into health-related problems. mental.

 

Availability

“ As a manager, check in on your team frequently and support everyone as an individual. Don't just ask them about their to-do list, but ask them how they're feeling. We know it works, and we've seen relative winners and losers across the different industries we serve, depending on how an organization is connected internally." Michael Peachey, RingCentral

To properly rally your troops you have to be present and listen . By nurturing this social and emotional connection, your employees will be happier and more efficient. The key is knowing how to trust them and not disrupting their daily tasks which are generally interrupted by a number of meetings.

Enthusiasm

Stay excited! Show your colleagues that nothing is impossible and use imagination to motivate your teams. It's well known: if the leader has enthusiasm, the rest will follow – and therefore the growth of your company too.

Tip 5: Inspire your employees to adapt to changes

Be a resilient leader

In the podcast “Managing the future of work”, learning by doing is discussed. Peachey explains that we need to start leading in a new way. Resilience partly defines this concept in the sense that adaptation to the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis is key. Acquiring this strength will allow you to exude the optimism and determination your employees need to continue working productively and in unison with your goals.

Always set goals

Having a short and long term vision is the only way to get the results you want to grow your business. Setting goals, reviewing them and adjusting them with your colleagues can only help them feel involved. Michael Peachey explains that it's no longer about tracking progress and assigning tasks, it's about " bringing the full power of the remote team to full capacity, versus a leader who draws only half the team's power from a distance. » These are the teams who will be successful and who will get the right projects.

Encourage your employees to reinvent themselves

Finally, according to the Welcome to the Jungle article: “ Leadership qualities are made up of a blend of soft skills such as decision-making, integrity, problem-solving, and the ability to teach and mentor. These skills are obviously important for bosses and CEOs, but employees can also demonstrate leadership and, in doing so, become more autonomous, more productive and more influential. »

For them, it's about being proactive, taking on new responsibilities, finding how to stand out and demonstrate creativity and innovation. A leader can inspire their employees to take the reins and instill that confidence and level of commitment with these five tips. This way, managers will no longer have to wonder how to keep a team invested in the company's priorities.

In a world that continues to evolve, we anticipate a collaboration between teleworking and being in the office for some employees. This experience may present greater difficulties. Michael Peachey believes this hybrid environment won't necessarily be fair to everyone, and those who have to work remotely will likely be at a disadvantage in their search for career advancement. The question for managers regarding how to manage their teams and collaborators in this situation is already beginning to arise.

 Read this article on Responsive Management