Essential Ideas For Managing A Remote Team

Remote Team : Many companies have a remote work model with employees around the world with differences in schedules, customs, and social contexts between team members. In the current scenario that many companies are experiencing, forced to work from home as a result of the pandemic (Covid-19), they are facing this new way of working known as “home office” or “telework”.

For this reason, today we want to provide advice from the experience of the team that is part of Triangle, which has currently turned 100% to working remotely efficiently.

Virtual chat

One of the biggest shortcomings is that you do not meet your colleagues on a day-to-day basis, as if it were within your company where you would meet if you were all locally located in the same place. You really have to compensate for the fact that there is no physical contact if you are managing a remote team. For this reason, virtually, the teams have to compensate for this natural intersection with people. 

Free chat

We suggest that you have a chat room open constantly. We use Microsoft Teams, but it can be the same Whatsapp, Facebook, or the platform of your choice, basically a free place that offers the fresh feeling of a casual chat. 

Can you talk about anything you want to talk about if you want to talk?  Yes, about what your kids do in the evenings, if you want to talk about a different coding system, or if you want to comment on the latest episode of your favorite series. You can do it in the free chat room, where you really create the environment of bumping into the natural conversation you would have had within an organization.

Information Overload

Be very wary of email and chat overload. This is a common problem in companies that work in physical locations, but it is even worse within companies with a remote team culture as you receive a higher volume of emails and more chat messages.

Remote Communication

Let’s talk about the levels of importance that apply to communication, so we recommend that:

video is the most important level of communication, follow the audio, then it’s a live chat, and finally the email. Video conferencing is essential because the video is the richest form of communication you can have in your team, whether it is from two people to a large group.

Zoom, Skype, or Microsoft Teams, give you the ability to work and collaborate effectively with colleagues remotely, and even if you want to get started quickly and easily, tools like Google Hangouts will come in handy.

Also Read : Digital Signage

Why Is It Really Important To Make Sure You Have Those Levels?

Because email can be slower if what needs to be dealt with is a long topic. So if you need to resolve an issue quickly and efficiently, video is the best tool.

Alternatives To Communicate

If you can’t make a video call due to agendas, for example, video is still one of the most effective communication methods to explain exactly what you need. An alternative would be to use “screenshots” visualization tools.

Some tools, like the ones offered by Jing, allow you to draw a picture on your computer screen and add indications to better understand what you want to convey.

Collaborative documents

Virtual documents from Google Drive or Microsoft One Drive are really easy to handle. Whatever documents you want to work with, you need to make sure it’s in the cloud so you can edit them live and the whole team can get into a document where they can modify, add or edit.

Projects management

Today, or due to the casuistry of the company, we find companies that do not use management systems for their projects. It is very important to us that an organization that works remotely can ensure that all projects and tasks are documented.

Flexibility

One point that some may disagree with is deploying flexible work schedules, as long as there is coherence, and they are productive giving good results.

The important thing is that the team does the work, so focusing on efficiency does not necessarily imply the time that was worked. There are people who are very productive when they just wake up, but at the end of the day their performance drops, and others who reach their maximum pace later than the previous ones, but in the last hours they are still energetic.

Suitable people

You should keep in mind that not all people are cut out for working remotely. You can find someone with an excellent CV, but they cannot perform tasks remotely and may not feel comfortable with this work methodology.

Social gatherings

It’s really important to meet in person (when the lockdown is over), to have group outings for the whole organization at least once a year, but also smaller gatherings throughout the year.

Sharing experiences and experiences outside the work environment gives rise to know each other better and thus we learn the non-verbal signals of the different co-workers.