5 Tips for Building a Successful Remote Team
Many businesses are embracing teams of remote workers, and for good reason. When they are built the right way, remote teams can be a huge asset to employers and employees. Research shows that telecommuting and other flexible work options can improve productivity, reduce turnover, boost employee morale and save companies money.
Remote teams are not uncommon for a digital marketing agency in New Orleans. Speaking from experience, here are some helpful tips for distributing your teams and building a stronger workforce.
- Practice Great Communication
Communication is key in any relationship, and it’s not any less important with your remote teams. It can be difficult to get messages across when people are in different places, but it’s possible to do with today’s technology.
Between emails, chat messaging, videoconferencing and conference calls, you can communicate with your teams on a regular basis. To ensure that communication is consistent, define regular communication protocols and set expectations for when remote workers must be available.
- Make Work Accessible
To streamline the work-from-home process, it’s important that your work is accessible and easy to find. If it’s not, you’ll spend hours a day answering questions like, “What folder is this in?” or “Where can I find this?” Keep all documents and resources in an accessible folder so that telecommuters can easily access the information they need.
- Foster Real Connections
It’s important that all of your team members feel like part of the company, even if they aren’t in the office each day. To accomplish this, you’ll need to build a strong brand and foster real connections with the people in your company.
For example, when chatting on a conference call, start by asking everyone to share what they did over the weekend. Once everyone has had a few minutes to talk on a personal level, you can dive into business matters. These small conversations are important at developing genuine relationships.
- Use Software to Hire the Best Candidates
One of the great things about hiring telecommuters is that you can choose the best candidate for the job. Instead of being limited to candidates within a particular location, you have a huge pool of top talent to pull from. Smart leaders are relying more on hiring software to identify and hire the most qualified candidates, despite their location. This leads to stronger teams and more diverse skillsets.
- Create Opportunities to Meet in Person
If your company is big and you have distributed teams all over, create opportunities to meet in person. Allocate some of your budget to arrange team dinners, outdoor activities and volunteer opportunities. Not only are these meetups great for team building but also your company’s image. Imagine the reach you could have in communities across the country!
Technology has changed the way people do business. Having distributed teams is a great way to expand your reach, hire the best talent and grow your business, but you must be willing to put in the time and effort to build great teams.