During COVID-19 many of us are now in the situation where we need to manage teams remotely. Not having face to face contact with your usual team can present some inherent issues and really put into question the trust you may have with some team members, especially those who may need direction.

So, it’s important for leaders to not only brush up on tips on how to effectively work from home themselves, but to also understand how to get the most from your team while you’re all working remote.

If you’re looking for some tips on taking your team remote when it comes to it then read our latest article: 4 things to keep in mind when taking your team remote.

Manage with goals and complete projects, weekly & quarterly goals.

When you have a remote team it’s important to bring in a series of achievable goals for your remote team to work from. Break down your project into manageable milestones and make sure they adhere to the timelines. 

It’s important for your team to have milestones and structure so they’re able to overcome productivity and distraction issues if they know there is a deadline to meet. Your remote team should also be using lists and organisational tactics to keep on track of their work while working from home. 

Using a tool like Trello, a kanban style collaborative board can help your team with moving projects along at a structured pace. 

Set out expectations early

There will be a lot of confusion and misinformation about a myriad of things when you suddenly take your team remote. It’s important to brief your team about all expectations you and the company has for your team from the outset. 

It’s generally a good idea to create a shared document with all information laid out, working hours, meeting schedule, technology that is needed and support networks you may have taken on.

Use the same collaboration apps

Nothing will cause confusion and lost time in productivity than a fractured team using different collaboration and storage tools. It’s essential you get your team all using the same communication and cloud platform, one such platform is Microsoft Teams, which allows multi-channel communication, voice/video meetings and file sharing, something we can help set up for you for free. 

Set regular meetings and catch ups

Make sure you’re getting your team together with a regular time specific slot, this kind of consistency can be good team morale and productivity and allows you to check in targets and goals you set earlier. Again, try to use a platform like Microsoft Teams, which will allow for multi-party video conferencing, allowing that needed face to face time with your team. 

Prepare for emergencies and sudden changes

The past two weeks have felt like a year and with the rate of changes throwing us all off guard it’s important you expect the worst and prepare for it. Whether it’s understanding the skills and role each member will play and whether you’re able to spread the workload if someone was to become sick, or to prepare for the unfortunate possibility of layoffs. It’s important you have all your bases covered during this time. 

Foster a collaborative and inquisitive mindset

Keep communication open at all times, allow your team members to send you direct messages over team, or to call with queries. Some of your team is isolating alone will begin to feel very lonely, so it’s important to be there to support and encourage and the days go on.

And, the same goes for encouraging each of your team members to discuss and ask questions to each other, collaboration tools like Teams can make that process very easy. One suggestion may be to break the day up with a quick remote team game, or non-businesses related chat, asking everyone how they’re holding up can go a long way. 

If you’re feeling overwhelmed with the sheer amount of planning and disruption caused by suddenly transitioning your team to work from home, then allow us to help with the burden of collaboration, set-up and ongoing support. We’re offering free Microsoft Team’s set-up and training sessions for your team to get them onboarded straight away, as well as offering 24/7 ongoing support for your team remotely. 

Simply fill in the form below to get in touch, or read more here: