Building and managing a remote team can be very difficult at times. Especially if your remote team members are working on various projects in different time zones. But after years of working remotely, I found that there are a few easy ways to better manage and organize a remote team. These tips will help you ensure everything is running smoothly.
In this article, I’m to cover ways you can better manage your remote team. Including apps and organization techniques to help keep your business running like a well-oiled machine.
Hiring the Right Team Members
Now, this section is for anyone who hasn’t already begun building their remote team. However, it could also still relate to those of you who are having trouble putting the right team together.
Finding talented team members can be difficult. Very difficult at times. But if you’re patient and know what to look for, you’ll be able to put together team members that work well individually and as part of your organization.
Here are a few things to look for when hiring team members:
- Capabilities: You need to make sure the person you’re hiring can deliver what you need. A lot of applicants may not be as good as they advertise. They also may not offer the right skill set for your project. So, it’s up to you to do the proper testing to ensure your applicants can offer the standards and service you require. By tests, you can simply create an example task and see how your applicants respond.
- Responsiveness: How quickly does each team member respond to your requests or messages? It’s usually a good sign when a team member responds to your messages and feedback within a fair amount of time. No more than 24hrs during a working work.
- Responses to feedback: You want your team members to take constructive feedback and apply it properly. If applicants can’t take your feedback and respond to it poorly, it’s best to think twice before adding them to your team.
- Work rate: Quality is paramount. But you want your team to be able to turnaround work pretty quickly. Within a decent time (and to a high standard). You can find out a candidate’s work rate during your tests.
There are many other qualities you need to look out for when hiring your ideal team. So, take time to really think about what your ideal remote team member looks like. Then build your team based on those needs.
Communicate with Your Team Regularly
Once you have selected the right candidates for your team, you need a way to effectively communicate with them regularly.
Simply put, the best way is using Slack and Zoom. Yes, there are many alternatives to these apps. So be sure to seek out alternatives if Slack or Zoom isn’t the best fit for your business. That said, in my experience, both Slack and Zoom have a proven record of being effective communication tools.
Slack enables you to communicate with each team member directly. It also allows you to create group message channels for specific areas of your business. This enables you to have a complete overview of what is happening across your business, all in one place.
Zoom enables you to have live one-on-one or group meetings — so you can give specific feedback to each team member on a one-on-one basis and also announce important company-wide information to your entire team at once.
We’ll release future blog posts talking about how to make the best of both Slack and Zoom, but for now, it just pays to know that these tools will help you to quickly, conveniently connect with everyone in your team to keep yourself and them informed on everything that’s happening with your project.
Use Project Management Software
You can’t run a remote team and not use some form of project management or content calendar software. Sure, you can try to run a team without these tools, but it’s gonna be a whole lot harder…trust me. Using project management software like Asana or Monday is going to help you assign tasks, deadlines, and create a clear workflow overview of every project that needs to be worked on.
Both of the tools I mentioned allow you to virtually automate most of your projects and enable all of your team members to see which tasks they need to be working on right now. You’ll be able to see if everyone is staying on track or whether they’re falling behind, so you can address any issues as soon as they arise.
I really like using project management software, but one thing I have learned is that when creating and assigning a new project, you need to be realistic in terms of deadlines. Allow for some breathing space in case something goes wrong during a specific stage of each project. This will save you stress in the long run, as too many tight deadlines can end up stressing your team, and result in a huge backlog of unfinished projects.
Keeping Your Team Productive
Your team’s productivity can be maintained with the tips laid out in this article. That said, you need to look at other factors when motivating your team, to keep them happy, productive, and producing high-quality work for your company.
Working from home can be tough for many who have been forced into it recently. So, while organization is key, you need to be mindful of each team member’s wellbeing. Take time to ensure each one of your team members is keeping well, and make suggestions on how they improve their work-from-home lifestyle.
For more information on how to manage your remote team, grow your business, or build your marketing strategy, read through some of the awesome posts on the Intentionally Inspirational blog.
Written by Lewis James