With the global pandemic forcing people to stay at home, the corporate world has ditched the cubicles, and work culture has significantly shifted towards working remotely. Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, 4.7 million people were working remotely in the United States. And a global survey conducted by Gartner Inc. stated that 88% of organizations worldwide encouraged employees to work remotely after COVID-19 became a pandemic.
Remote working saves your commute time, keeps you healthier, motivated, and allows you to work with freedom. While there are advantages of working remotely, employers and employees face particular challenges too. There are several employee management tools and applications, but managing a remote workforce can still be daunting. In this article, we’re looking at the most significant challenges and their solutions to managing a remotely working team.
Managing Projects
Teams working across multiple locations often face project management challenges. Missing a single update from a team member can end up hurting team productivity. Employers need to ensure their remote workers and team members’ operational readiness. They need to be available during all business hours. Unavailable or inaccessible employees end up taking longer for tasks and impact project deadlines.
Solution
Install a powerful project management tool and take on-board all the remote employees to keep everyone updated with the current progress of on-going projects. Define specific times for your employees to be available for important tasks or client meetings regarding project updates.
Communication
Communication is the key to success for any team. However, with so many communication channels currently available, it isn’t easy to pick a reliable one. Everyone has different recommendations, but at the end of the day, consistency is critical.
The workspace is not just about work. Snickering from within desks, subtle glances across tables, small office talks, all are part of team spirit. Remotely working lacks that communication and team members may feel unheard sometimes. Moreover, the lack of communication sometimes also results in task repetition affecting team productivity.
Solution
Invest in empowering communication channels. Working remotely requires a robust communication channel where all the employees can have live updates about the project. Employers should be quick to adapt to the workforce needs. A reliable and advanced unified communication system such as UCaaS can leverage the cloud to eliminate any communication bottlenecks from traditional channels.
Moreover, employers can also make up for face to face communication by frequent video calls and team chats. Try to invest time in each team member and listen to their problems. You can also get a cloud-based telephone solution such as Microsoft 365 Business Voice for ease of communication. A single app will enable your team members to chat, talk, and conduct meetings on any device.
Tracking Team Productivity
When you don’t know what work rate to expect from a remotely working team, you end up delivering projects late. Several managers have complained about a significant decrease in productivity while working remotely. Sometimes employers end up underutilizing an employee without monitoring the productivity of their teams. It is imperative to use effective team tracking systems if you have allowed flexible timings to remote employees.
Solution
Time/work output is difficult to measure with remote workers since you don’t know who works for late or takes bigger breaks. Remote workers need the same management level as in-house employees with a robust system where they can log their working hours. You can install any time tracking system to record sign-in and sign-out times.
When your team is in the office, minimal system failures result in maximum system uptime. However, remotely working employees sometimes face software issues and sometimes complain about the lack of internet. Implement and enable systems management for in-house and remote employees.
Do you need help boosting your team’s productivity? Get in touch with Endeavor today to learn about all of the options we offer to help businesses thrive– even remotely.