How to Manage a Team of Remote Employees: A Simple Guide

Even before the COVID-19 crisis, working remotely was rapidly gaining popularity. In our earlier post, we mention nearly over half of all workers worldwide work at least a couple of days a week from home. Many employers were realizing that having remote teams is good business. It not only lowers operating costs but also improves productivity.

However, the benefits remote teams offer notwithstanding, this arrangement has its fair share of challenges. When you don’t have an eye on your employees, it’s harder to supervise them and ensure they’re putting in the work. If you’re not careful, a team of remote employees might actually not be beneficial to you.

Continue reading for a guide on how to manage a team of remote workers and ensure your business is reaping the benefits.

Not All Positions Can Be Remote

While we would all love to work from home or coffee shops, as a business owner, you have to embrace the fact that not all positions can be remote. Depending on the nature of your business, there are vital positions that must be in-house.

As such, the first step to properly running a team of remote employees is to ensure some of them don’t have to be in the office in the first place. If you’ve certain workers who’re working remotely but should be in-house, ask them to come to the office and explain why their positions have to be in-house. Otherwise, your business will certainly run into operational challenges when people who should be turning crucial screws are working from their couches at home.

Provide Reliable Technology

Keep in mind you’re managing a remote team of employees, not contractors or freelancers.

As such, it’s your job to ensure your employees, whether in-house or remote, are using reliable technologies to perform their duties. But with remote employees, the stakes are higher. They need to be using the best technologies.

From providing your remote employees with fast computers to ensuring they have access to high-speed internet, it’s in the best interest of your business for them to be using the best tech. With unreliable tech (hardware and software), they will not be able to complete their tasks on time, which means productivity will dip.

In addition to the tech that gets the core tasks done, you need to set them up on a collaboration platform, such as Slack. This way, they’ll be able to communicate with each other and share ideas easily.

Set Clear Goals

Remote employees might not have as much motivation to put in a proper shift as freelancers. Freelancers must work to earn money, but remote employees will still get paid their full wages even if they put in a half-hearted shift.

To ensure your remote workers aren’t slacking on the job, set clear goals; goals that must be met by everyone. If appropriate, you can set consequences for those who don’t meet their goals.

Check-In On Your Remote Employees

How often do you check in on your remote employees?

No, we don’t mean the daily check-ins to see how work is progressing. We mean checking on your people to find out how they’re doing beyond work. Ask how they’re doing and even offer them remote worker tips that can help improve their work-life balance.

Checking in on your employees fosters your relationship with them. By knowing they have someone who has their back, they could be more motivated to do more.

Know-How to Manage a Team of Remote Employees

Having remote employees can help your business reduce costs while improving productivity. With this guide on how to manage a team of remote employees, you now know how to get high productivity from them.

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