March 27, 2023
Written by UJJI Team
A remote team is a collection of experts from various time zones, diverse skill sets, and various cultures collaborating on the same project. Each team member works remotely from a different place while residing in a different city. Managing a remote team is more difficult than simply working from home. First, there is a lot of remote work. While the teams work outside of an office, there are significant differences between having them seated directly in front of the office.
You would be aware of the difficulties of managing remote workers, including teams, projects, and deadlines.
Teams can only fully profit from remote work if they improve their teamwork skills and strengthen their social ties. Of course, as a manager, you want to get the best performance out of your team and ensure they are satisfied with their work. But enhancing output and fostering effective teamwork are not the only goals.
According to Buffer's State of Remote Work 2020 report, 38% of the remote workforce cite loneliness and a poor work-life balance as their top issues. These are two of the most significant problems that can negatively impact someone's ability to do their job.
Anybody registered there can receive a free team with ten users and ten active projects. But first, you can buy a Pro or Ultimate subscription, which starts at $5.95 per user per month, if you want to use premium services like downloading HTML prototypes.
Basic and Business are the two subscription packages offered by V2 Cloud. The business plan begins at $60 per month, while the basic plans start at $40 per month per user.
WebWork offers a 7-day free trial, and its monthly subscription plans start at $2.99 per user.
Users of SmartTask can choose between free and paid packages. The free package has a storage cap but allows for unlimited tasks and projects. Nevertheless, if you pay annually, you can receive the premium subscription for $5 per user/month or the business package for $8 per user/month.
The G Suite Basic and G Suite Business are the two tiers in which Google Workspace is available. The Business plan starts at $10 per user/month with unlimited storage for each user, in contrast to the Basic plan's $5 per user/month with limited storage.
Users of Miro can sign up for both free and paid subscriptions. You can initially download the free version to introduce new team members to the software. The TEAM plan costs $8 per user per month if billed annually, the CONSULTANT plan costs $12 per month if billed annually, and the BUSINESS plan costs $16 per month. These are the paid plans. Also, the business offers customized plans.
Slack offers three pricing tiers: Free, Standard, and Plus. Users can use the program indefinitely in its free edition, but only two people can make video or audio calls, and it can store only 5GB of files. The cost of the Basic version, which offers 10GB of file storage, starts at $6.67 per user/month if paid annually. You will pay $12.50 per user monthly for the Plus subscription, which includes 20GB of file storage.
Three options are available from Loom: Free, Business, and Enterprise. With the free subscription, you can assign a team of 50 people, each having access to 25 movies with a 5-minute time restriction. If invoiced annually, the business pack has unlimited recording length for each user, costing $8 per person/month. You can get a quotation directly from the business for the Enterprise pack, which is a customization pack.
Finding ways to collaborate as effectively as possible while everyone is present will be one of your teams' main obstacles as they work remotely. This challenge is even more difficult if your team members are spread out across several time zones.
Discover approaches to unite your teams. Sushma Nallapeta, vice president of engineering at Apartment List, offers one instance. She gave the example of how one of her teams, which included developers in both the United States and India, had to make compromises about the time of a daily standup meeting that aided teamwork.
They divided the days such that some meetings occurred in the morning and some in the evening. They reached a compromise that allowed their complete team to meet without disturbing anyone's time.
It can be challenging for your team members to gauge how their work is being accepted without frequent face-to-face connection. Because of this, the best managers of remote teams regularly provide opportunities for team members to acknowledge one another. They also set an example by publicly praising their team members' excellent work whenever possible.
Giving regular feedback in one-on-one sessions and receiving praise from others can help distant coworkers feel less alone or uncertain.
Clear avenues for advancement should be established and presented by you for both professional and personal development. For example, remote employees frequently experience a sense of stagnation, so they are more inclined to go to their leadership for advice on how to get out of ruts, acquire new skills, and advance their careers.
You need to have faith in your staff. It entails allowing team members to complete their work without you watching over them. Give your team members the reins. Let them choose their objectives. Ensuring they have the resources and assistance required to accomplish their goals is your responsibility as a manager.
Redefining what productivity looks like is also required. When employees regularly attend work, it is simple to gauge their productivity by whether or not they turn up (albeit that is a very different issue). You need new standards for things like how successfully they meet deadlines and the caliber of the work they do when they work remotely.
On a remote team, communication must be a top priority. Schedule regular check-ins, meetings, and discussions between you and your team members. Improve communication. Consider what communications call for a virtual meeting rather than an email or direct message.
Although managing remote teams can be challenging, it can also be interesting and engaging if the right tools and technologies are used. While working from home, keep your team members motivated, as it's quite easy to become distracted when you're not in the office. However, it's critical to realize that working from home is more complex than it may seem because even employees must juggle multiple tasks. However, thanks to the software tools mentioned above, they can easily maintain their focus while working.
