Learn how to manage a remote team successfully

Nowadays, it’s safe to say you no longer need to have all of your employees working in the same office.  Technology now allows businesses to rely on remote teams. In this case, good remote team management is essential to keep productivity high.

There are numerous advantages to working with remote teams. You can expand your business’ area of operation and at the same time, hire qualified professionals from anywhere in your country or even around the world, expanding your team’s repertoire.

However, managing these teams brings a good deal of challenges to your day-to-day. If one doesn’t carry out this work effectively, your business might suffer from productivity and relationship issues.

Therefore, we have prepared this article so you can learn about the characteristics of good remote team management. Check it out!

Knowing a few requirements to manage remote teams

Even before you structure a remote team, you need to consider the particularities of the business and the team of professionals that work there. You need to evaluate the needs and especially, how to prevent potential problems, which is key for this type of work.

Organization is one of the most important requirements for the good operation of remote teams. 

This is the case for example, of properly managing documents so that they can be consulted without difficulty by both those who are at the office and those who work remotely.

In order to take advantage of the benefits of remote teams, you need to build a suitable structure where they can work. 

Technology is a great ally here, in addition to being necessary to reformulate your processes to deal with this new possibility.

Operating good remote team management

Remote team management creates a series of challenges that need to be overcome on a daily basis, but most of them are facilitated by improving the quality of your leadership. 

You need to pay attention and make certain decisions in order to ensure that our team will work properly.

Below you’ll find the main remote team management tips to help you increase productivity.

1. Establish your expectations

All professionals need to keep in mind what is expected of them, but this becomes even more valuable when it comes to remote teams. After all, they aren’t in the office with you and the opportunities to meet and discuss a topic are slim.

Therefore, before you start working with this team, make sure you talk to the members about each one’s exact role. 

In addition to allowing the work to be done properly, this makes it easier to delegate tasks among team members.

2. Hire good professionals

A decisive part of remote team management involves the selection of the professionals who will join the team to work remotely.

Since there’s no need to select people only in your headquarters’ region, your range of choice becomes much wider. Therefore, keep in mind the characteristics of the ideal professional you want to hire.

3. Document important information

Remote teams might find it more difficult to consult information if they aren’t well documented, and they make many mistakes if a team member doesn’t know the paths to follow.

Part of good team management involves documenting important information in a clear and accessible manner. Make sure that all team members can find what they need when they need it.

4. Use the right tools

Connecting professionals from several different places in the same virtual space is perfectly possible with the use of certain smart tools. You need to gather the main ones in order to start working in a productive manner. 

For example, you will need video conferencing, instant messaging and file-sharing software.

Understanding the characteristics of a successful remote team

Can you imagine how a good remote team works? By concentrating on the right group of professionals, your remote team can add a lot of value to your business. 

Knowing the desirable characteristics is a great way of establishing goals to be met at the level of quality of your professionals’ work.

Below are the main characteristics of a good remote team:

1. Synergy with your local team

Those who work with a combination of local and remote teams need to make sure that they work synergistically. This means providing the necessary tools so professionals can interact in a positive manner and collaborate with each other.

For example, just because the local team has physical access to the office’s structure, this doesn’t mean that they should be the only ones able to find certain information. All relevant professionals must have the same level of access.

2. High level of motivation

A quality remote team also needs to be motivated. It is relatively easy to motivate those inside the office, but this might become more difficult for those who are working remotely. 

You can be certain that you are working with a quality remote team when you realize that these professionals are able to stay motivated even when facing adversity.

3. Experience with remote work

Being part of a remote team can make life quite difficult for those who have no experience with this type of work. Therefore, you should keep an eye out for people who are used to working remotely.

This way, you can work with people who are already aware of this type of work challenges and have the necessary experience to deliver quality within this context.

Improving remote team management

Now that you know more about the characteristics of good remote team management, and have discovered the paths to achieve this goal, it’s time to put your plans into practice.

Take into consideration the tips contained in this article so that this management can start generating increasingly more value for your business by capitalizing on all the advantages of a remote team. Good luck!

And speaking of team management and generating value, how about learning how to improve your customer service?