Remote employees often do not feel like they are full-fledged team players and do not fully understand their role in projects. In this article, I will talk about some methods that you could use to effectively manage remote teams.

1. Consider the time difference with colleagues from other cities and countries

Share your calendar with colleagues so they could choose the best time for calls and communications on projects. You can use Calendly or World Clock Meeting, so as not to get confused in time zones.

In case the team is spread out over the World, It will be a good idea to mark national holidays for each region on that calendar. Perhaps your colleagues from other countries have an official day off on your workday. This will help you plan your work schedule.

2. Provide regular feedback

Researches show that 39% of respondents call ineffective communication as a major cause of stress in the workplace. This is especially true for remote workers. Remote work makes it difficult for people to correctly assess their contribution to the project. So in this case, timely feedback makes it clear how well the work is done, engages, and motivates.

Managers must have regular one-on-one meetings with their subordinates. Schedule online calls, such as video conferencing via Zoom, MS Teams, or GoToMeeting, with remote employees and meet regularly — once or twice a month. Such a format helps to evaluate intermediate results and answers the question — “Whether the expectations of the employee and the team coincide?”. It is important to enable not only sound but also video so that communication is as close to personal as possible. It is very important to organize two-way feedback.

What should you talk about in your one-on-one meetings:

• How are the employee’s projects progressing?
• Are they satisfied with the work in general?
• Whether they are having difficulties?
• Do they need help from a manager or teammates?
• How sprints and projects go, what could be done better and how exactly?
• What is the employee’s progress on personal goals or key results (Objective Key Results, OKR)? In case the company uses OKR that allows you to synchronize individual and team goals and monitor the progress of the project.
• Discuss neutral topics not related to work, if the employee is ready to discuss them.

3. Ensure transparency in work processes

When there is a lack of transparency in work processes, employee efficiency dramatically decreases. Often the problem arises due to fragmentation of the information. Employees use lots of different tools to communicate on projects like email, instant messengers, video conferences, project management tools, etc. They try to find out about the project’s status during meetings or in personal correspondence. It takes a lot of time, and the full picture of the workflow may not emerge in front of the employee. Make a list of specific expectations from remote employees and discuss them at the beginning. Methods and ways of interaction should be transparent and understandable to all involved. This will require flexible tools that can be tailored to the needs of the team. Use services where you can leave feedback and comments in images and files and quickly make changes to them.

4. Conduct online Q&A sessions with management

Remote employees often have more questions compared to office workers. However, they do not have the opportunity to come to the manager’s office and personally ask them.

At open Q&A sessions, all employees will be able to take part in the discussion and receive answers from managers online in real-time.

5. Motivate and engage

It can be difficult for a manager to keep remote employees motivated and engaged due to a lack of communication. Create one working chat for the entire team, for example, in Slack or MS Teams to discuss project details and progress. In case your organization has multiple departments, create several chats: for marketing specialists, content managers, sales representatives, technical support staff, etc. This way, remote employees will be able to communicate with colleagues and remain involved in the workflow.

Implement an internal reward and motivation system so that remote teams have an incentive to work even more productively. Services like Bonusly make recognition easy and engaging, helping every team member feel that their work is valued. Every month, employees get an allowance to give small bonuses to their colleagues to recognize their contributions. Then bonuses can be exchanged for corporate gifts or extra time offs.

6. Help the team to overcome the language barrier

Due to the language barrier and the difference in mentality, it can be difficult for teams to build trusting relationships. Draw up general communication rules to be used in the corporate chat.

For instance, you can define English as the only communication language that is allowable in the team chat. This will help to avoid situations when some employees discuss a common problem using their local language in the team chat, whereas the rest of the team have no idea what they are talking about.

Create a shared chat room for informal communication where the team will share interesting facts, photos, links, and articles. Play smart online games and connect with remote colleagues. Send each other gifts for the holidays. All this will help to get to know colleagues and strengthen relations.

7. Have informal meetings

Be sure to budget for collaborative or team-building events with remote workers. If possible, include the fare and several days of stay in hotels for workers from other cities. Try to have one or two employee meetings outside the office every year. This can be an off-site team-building, a conference, or a travel event. This is a great opportunity to discuss joint tasks, share ideas and plans for the future. After the meeting, be sure to collect employee feedback on the results of the past event. If it is not possible to organize an informal meeting, invite remote employees to work in the office for a few days. It’s also a great way to strengthen team communication.

Each of the tips above may look simple but not easy. Each of them require time, consistency, and attention. But trust me, your team will thank you. The company will benefit. And you will be more equipped with the battle gear necessary for navigating the murky waters of change.