Since the pandemic started, many businesses had to make their employees work from their homes. Because of this, many employees now prefer to continue working remotely. It allows them to balance their work and life without much difficulty.
By hiring remote employees, companies can hire talent without worrying about their location and saving money that is spent on company infrastructure. Adapting to the lifestyle of remote working is easy. But many companies are unable to provide their employees with the necessities that they require to complete their projects and collaborated projects.
A group of experts that work together on a project is called a remote project team. The role of a remote project manager is to make sure that all the members of the remote project team are working together and doing their part. There are also challenges that the manager faces when trying to manage remote project teams. Such as not being able to set the timeline or the right schedule etc.
Here are some points that remote workers need for project management:
- Being flexible in your work time
If you want to be successful at project management, you need to be flexible with your work time, which means that you need to work at different times of the day. It’s important to be available when your project customers need you; thus, you can offer more to your role of remote project managing.
- Use programs for communicating with your team
When you need to communicate with your team, you can use programs like Slack and Google Hangouts so that it will be easier for you to chat and discuss with them. Using this method, you can discuss and share your doubts with your team and take suggestions from them.
Communication is a responsibility that you, as a remote project manager, must carry. So that means that every skype call to every email sent will be up to the project manager.
- Check-in on your team members
It’s important to familiarize yourself with your team members and build a relationship with them, not just based on work. You must form a level of understanding between them and yourself. Make them feel comfortable around you.
It’s also important to check in on a team member occasionally. You can do that by privately messaging them and asking them how they’re doing. They don’t have to feel obligated to share, but at least they’ll know that they can come to you if they ever need help or advice on something. This way can help you build a stronger bond with your team members based on trust and respect.
- Acknowledge your remote employee’s efforts
Every remote employee deserves to be appreciated and have their efforts be acknowledged. When an employee finishes an important deadline, you can show your appreciation in many ways, such as sending gift cards, giving small rewards, and announcing it during a video call with your team. Be enthusiastic and passionate about their achievements as it helps your remote employees to keep working hard while staying motivated.
When it comes to collaborating with remote teams, remote workers face many challenges. Such as not respecting each other’s boundaries and routines, having communication complications such as not hearing the other person during video calls because of poor internet connection. Most remote workers might even back out or not participate in the collaboration because they feel ignored or left out.
So here are some tips that remote workers need to collaborate with remote teams successfully:
- Assign a specific task to everyone
Everyone has a part to play in collaboration. So, try to find out what job each team member is an expert in and assign them to a role that fits that job and allows them to perform that task without difficulty. This way, everyone will be able to participate, and no one will feel left out.
- Set goals and objectives
By setting goals and small objectives, remote workers will focus on reaching those goals and objectives. This method will also help them to increase team productivity. Remote workers will know what is expected of them, and they can do their best to exceed that expectation.
- Monitor work progress
When it comes to tracking or monitoring remote teams’ work progress, it can sometimes negatively affect the pace that the workers have set for themselves. Hence, you must use the right software to check your team’s progress that doesn’t affect productivity and cause the remote team’s complications. There are several apps for small businesses that provide tools for assigning tasks and recording the time taken to complete them.
- Adjust time zones for your team members’ ease
We all know that we have different time zones. It will be nighttime for some of your remote employees, while it might be morning for you. Instead of pulling all-nighters to complete their work, they can hand it over to the next team member who is just starting their shift to complete it so that they can get some rest. This adjustment helps team members to depend on one another and feel comfortable around each other, and this way, their work can get done much faster.
- Maintain transparency among team members
Many companies’ remote employees don’t feel comfortable working around each other because of their lack of transparency. The only way remote teams can collaborate and work on projects with other remote teams together successfully is to build a level of trust and understanding between one another and feel comfortable around each other. That’s why it’s important to be transparent with each other.
Conclusion:
With the arrival of the pandemic, many people are confined to their homes and work individually. People feel more disconnected from their colleagues due to decreased levels of interaction. Therefore, it is a necessity that employers apply the right techniques for their remote teams to enhance collaboration and project management. It will improve their productivity and enable businesses to grow at a faster pace.