Do you have a team of remote employees that work under your guidance?

If yes, you need to learn how to manage them properly to increase productivity.

How you manage remote work can have either a positive or negative impact on your business. If you don't do it correctly, you might demotivate some remote workers. Managing remote workers is, however, not that easy. How can you do it more effectively? Start by understanding the challenges that remote workers go through so that you can relate with them much better. Here is more!

Communicate extensively

Remote work requires constant communication between workers and managers. As a manager, you should develop a reliable communication channel so that your team can find you reliable. The lack of doing this can make the team feel forgotten or left out. Start by choosing the most preferred method of communication. This could be phone, live chat, video conferencing, text message, or email. 

By communicating with a remote employer, they can always know what you expect from them to avoid losing focus. You can call your remote team from time to time to evaluate how far they are in accomplishing their tasks. If there are any changes, you should always share this information with remote workers on time.

Instead of always doing audio calls with your remote team, you can also do video calls once in a while. This can help them feel less isolated. When you create a habit of communicating with remote employees, they will feel free to reach out to you in case they get stuck while working on certain tasks.

Set standards 

Though remote workers can set their own schedules, you should set precise standards as the manager. Standards are important since they help remote workers remain focused and can therefore boost productivity. For instance, you can set timeframes for them to accomplish certain tasks. Sometimes, setting deadlines can help team workers work harder.

Even though your team may be working remotely, it should adhere to certain work rules and understand your boundaries. You should also assign most work activities around the working hours of your remote workers. Feel free to ask them when they are most productive to understand their work schedules.

Delegate work

For you to manage remote workers well, you should learn how to delegate responsibilities. Doing this can prevent you from overloading one team member with so many tasks at a go. Understand what needs to be done and break down large tasks into smaller ones that different remote workers can handle at a go.

As you delegate responsibilities, you can think of which team members are best suited for specific tasks and let them handle them. Once you delegate tasks with the remote employees, you should discuss your expectations with them. Feel free to give them incentives if they perform well in the delegated work. This can motivate your remote team.

Offer the right tools and resources

For you to manage remote work more effectively, you should also ensure that your team can easily access all the necessary tools. Provide collaboration tools that can help the remote workers accomplish different tasks. Some of the tools include Microsoft Teams, Teamwork and Google Drive, and Asana. Ensure that all of your remote employees are using the same tools, especially if they have to perform similar tasks.

Apart from tools, you can also help remote workers grow by providing them with resources. For instance, you can provide articles, blog posts, and templates that they can use to handle different tasks more efficiently. Equipping remote workers with such resources will help them be more productive and help them learn new skills.

Show empathy

As you manage remote employees, you should always treat them as individuals. Understand every remote worker's needs and their strong and weak points. Note that remote employees have different working environments. While some are more flexible to work at any time, others may not be due to responsibilities such as children. 

You should treat each remote worker well and try to understand their situation. If, for instance, one of them is ill, show empathy and give them some time to visit a hospital. Treating your remote team well will make you a good leader.

Conclusion

A certain survey reveals that more than 70% of the companies today are open to working with remote workers. This shows that remote work is here to stay. If you have a team of remote workers, try implementing the tips we have shared to manage them effectively.