Remote work has proved to be beneficial for employees for an array of reasons. This rapid increase in work from home popularity makes you think about jumping on the bandwagon, letting your teams work remotely. But still, you have major questions and doubts when it comes to the effects of remote work on your business like:
- Will my teams be equally productive working from home?
- How can I avoid misunderstandings and communication breakdowns?
- Are they going to have set work hours and spend them effectively while working from home?
These are all valid and reasonable questions that you might have when you’re about to step out of your comfort zone and embrace an unconventional work model that requires specific management skills.
In this article we decided to offer you possible solutions that’ll help you improve your remote team’s time management, boosting their performance and focus along the way.
Make an Easy-to-Follow To-Do Lists
Once you decide to transfer your business operations online, creating a full-functioning digital office, you’ll need to focus on reaching set goals and making your company successful. Creating clear to-do lists for every ongoing task or project can do wonders for your team’s time management.
Putting all your tasks and goals on paper is a well-known hack that helps you stay organized in your day-to-day life, so why wouldn’t this apply to your remote team management. By putting objectives on paper, listing all the activities that may lead to desirable results, you’ll help your team visualize set goals and follow well-defined steps towards them, focusing on getting the job done.
However, if you want to create clear to-do lists that your employees can follow easily, make sure to break complex tasks into a number of clear, achievable steps. Also, prioritize tasks by putting demanding tasks that require focus and hard work first, putting simple ones that are handled daily on the bottom of your list.
Even though your significant and most demanding tasks deserve a “top priority” label, make sure to include lighter tasks after those time and energy-consuming ones. By doing this you’ll offer your employees the time to unwind and relax after being sharp-focused for hours. In this way, you won’t expose your team members to additional stress that may lead to overworking and burnout.
Foster People-First Culture
One of the challenges that remote work has brought is the lack of in-person communication. Yes, technology can be an amazing ally in providing seamless communication between you and your remote team. However, nothing can compare to the social interaction people have when sharing the same office.
This said many employees working remotely could often feel lonely and isolated, not knowing whether their work and accomplishments are seen and recognized. These negative work-related feelings may devastate their motivation and productivity.
If you want to prevent this from happening, you need to ensure your employees that their well-being is your number one priority. For example, you can use one-on-one meetings to discuss their goals, take in their suggestions, and pay attention to their complaints.
Then, make sure to take steps towards improving work conditions, making your employees feel like they play an important role in your company’s success.
Offer Meaningful Feedback
Everyone loves to be rewarded for their hard work. This said, try to provide frequent and specific feedback. The times of vague “job well done” and “you need to be more engaged” performance evaluations have long gone.
Nowadays, people want to hear detailed feedback that focuses on specific skills or strong sides, offering guidance for improvement. Luckily, for you, efficient employee monitoring and time tracking tools can be a perfect solution.
Click here to learn more about the way this digital tool works and how it can help you with employees’ productivity and engagement. By analyzing this information, you’ll give your employees, detailed, objective, and real-time performance evaluation they want.
By making these small steps, you’ll build a culture where employees come before results, statistics, and profit, making them feel heard and appreciated.
These simple tips will help you run a highly effective remote team that doesn’t waste time at work and is ready to go above and beyond to reach set goals.
