Set clear objectives upfront
One of the most important tips for leading remote teams is, when beginning a period of remote work, be sure to set objectives upfront. This gives everyone a guidepost to steer towards, and fosters alignment in goals and actions. By setting alignment early, this creates clear expectations of how your teams are working together, and ensures the distance doesn’t get in the way of working to the same mission.
Encourage two-way communication
Regular communication with your teams is critical, but to make it as effective as possible it’s important that it works both ways. Encouraging open and honest communication with your teams enables them to feel heard and appreciated, and builds a strong level of trust. They’ll feel that you’re listening to their needs, looking out for them, and working with their best interests in mind, delivering a more engaged and productive working environment.
Encourage flexibility
With remote work, face-to-face time is at a premium. So before you book time for remote calls, really interrogate the need for it. Instead, encourage your teams to create quick briefing documents, fact sheets, or even dropping an update into your Microsoft Teams chat to summarise the topic. This frees up time, provides a clear written record, and helps your workers to avoid video call fatigue.
Don’t forget ongoing training
Just because your teams are remote, it doesn’t mean their career development should suffer. Another useful tip for managing remote teams is to provide training opportunities wherever possible. This can be in the form of training in new platforms your team uses, or looking into forward-thinking professional opportunities to boost their overall development.
Automate wherever possible
One big tip to manage your remote workers effectively is to streamline your processes and embrace automation wherever possible. Multi-step administrative tasks, like booking leave, software requests, and even onboarding and offboarding, can all benefit from process automation. Utilising No-code apps like Microsoft Forms, or Low-Code apps like Power Apps, can allow your business to build digital request forms quickly, modernising your operations, and untethering your administrative tasks from outdated practices.
Consolidate your platforms
Consolidating your business’ tools and apps streamlines how you work, particularly for remote workers, and reduces the risk of shadow IT within your workplace. Liaise with your IT provider to determine the exact capabilities you need from your tools. It’s likely you’ll find multiple platforms delivering the same service, which allows you to eliminate any ineffective and unnecessary tools from your workflows. Then, get in touch with us. Nexon can work with you to manage the seamless consolidation of your existing suite of tools into a comprehensive Microsoft 365 solution.
Create a tip log for your teams
One of the more often overlooked tips for leading remote teams is to create a central repository of all the good ideas and practical information your teams have learned working together remotely. This can then be used as a resource for new team members, and even when you change roles, to ensure this important information isn’t lost and your employees can continue to work as effectively as possible.
Undertake the staging and provisioning of devices and software
This may sound obvious, but ensuring your teams stay up-to-date with your technology is critical to ensure a business that’s ready for the future. And as a leader, it’s your job to make sure they have the right set-ups at home so they can work to their best capacity.
Undertaking the staging and provisioning of devices and software upgrades provides a plug-and-play option for your IT team to quickly and efficiently upgrade, then configure your devices, at enterprise scale. This ensures your remote employees are always working with technology that enables them to perform their work as efficiently as possible.
Outsource your IT to a managed services provider
Remote workers require a higher level of IT support than those in-house. Engaging a Managed Services Provider to manage your business’ IT needs delivers a more flexible, responsive, and effective IT service for your remote workers. After all, managed IT providers work remotely themselves, so their practices are already optimised for providing support at an arm’s length.
At Nexon, we can help set up and manage the IT needs of your remote workers, wherever they are. From start to finish, we can partner with you to deploy the necessary software and apps, ensure security protocols are set up correctly, and that your teams’ remote workspaces are optimised.
Get in touch with us today to discuss how we can help you implement these 10 tips for leading remote teams, along with broader, long-term strategies, to ensure you remote employees can work as effectively as possible.