Being able to work remotely has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for both employees and managers. It allows each individual to tailor their work environment to their unique needs, instead of having to conform to a generic office setting that may not be ideal for everyone.
Nonetheless, it’s not without its challenges. For managers, maintaining team spirit, general morale, and productivity levels without face-to-face interaction can be tricky. At the same time, team members may find themselves feeling isolated and unseen.
Largely, this is because the virtual workspace is such an unfamiliar territory for most. The old wheels-in-a-cog management formula is fundamentally at odds with our newly emerging working world, in which individuality is honored and accommodated.
As a result, there are some growing pains involved in tossing out the old to usher in the new. In order to foster synergy in teams, managers have to step outside of their comfort zones and embrace creative solutions to create an inspiring work environment for a highly productive virtual team.
Maintain Open Communication Channels
A common challenge experienced within organizations that have embraced the remote-work model is a sense of isolation. When you can’t just drop by a colleague’s or manager’s desk to touch base, the result is often a sense of each individual working in a separate silo.
Miscommunications arise and hard work is rendered pointless as team members end up working at cross purposes, only discovering this once a deadline is already upon them.
Employee morale and productivity suffer as a result. Especially when this is compounded by an unclear communication of employer expectations and the requirements of the task at hand are poorly understood.
The antidote to these challenges is to ensure that you and your team members are communicating effectively. Effective communication is:
- Clear: Clear communication is, above all, bi-directional. It’s vital that management and team members are on the same page regarding all matters. The only way to ensure that this is actually the case is to encourage two-way communication. By doing so, employees will feel comfortable asking questions to facilitate clarity. Vague instructions should be avoided at all costs.
- Frequent: Managers and their team members should touch base regularly (every day or so) to foster connection, openness and synergy. This does not mean that you need to have a daily hour-long meeting. It simply means that regular touchpoints should be scheduled and adhered to, with an open-door policy for additional communication as needed.
- Constructive: The reason why so many people hate meetings is that they have an unfortunate tendency to fall into aimless rambling, extended griping sessions or even endless managerial rants about the team’s failings. In the virtual workspace, meetings are essential touch points for the team, so you want your team to have positive associations with them. This means no monologue-ing, no raising of unrelated issues, and only constructive feedback.
To facilitate this, you should diversify the types of meetings you hold. Be sure to make time for one-on-ones between managers and individual employees as well as opportunities for team members to interact outside of a formal meeting setting.
Use Technology To Streamline Processes & Boost Team Synergy
The global pandemic may be what initially made remote work essential. But the wonders of modern communication technology are what actually made it possible. Imagine trying to manage a remote team via fax or snail mail!
Here are some great tech tools to make managing a virtual team so much easier:
- Video conferencing and chat programs like Slack and Zoom are must-haves to keep a remote team running smoothly. Additionally, regularly performing a speed test ptcl can ensure optimal connectivity and productivity.
- A shared virtual calendar helps ensure that everyone is aware of upcoming meetings and deadlines.
- Project management software helps everyone to stay on top of team projects, facilitates seamless task delegation, and workflow management. The complexity of the software you choose depends on the functions you need it to perform.
- A customer relationship management (CRM) tool collates all client information and interaction history in one place, accessible to all relevant stakeholders at all times.
- Time-tracking software allows remote employees to work and log their hours, in the absence of a physical office where they would otherwise simply clock in and out.
- Access to a company Wiki, information on how to track business expenses for reconciliations, and how-tos for tools and software ensures employees have the knowledge they need readily available.
- A good old-fashioned company newsletter is a great way to keep everyone in the loop about more general matters and celebrate individual and team achievements. Using an email marketing tool will speed up the process of generating and disseminating each edition of your newsletter.
When using online tools it’s essential that your business information and employees’ privacy are protected at all times. To maintain productivity and give employees peace of mind, you should always utilize a proper anti-virus, ensure every team member is aware of compliance laws regarding sharing of data, and offer regular training on the prevention of data breaches.
Reward Commitment & Collaboration Not Just Results
When it comes to rewarding performance, the key is to take note of the effort put in by teams and individuals and to acknowledge it. This applies even if the end result of this hard work is disappointing. If this is the case, it’s still essential to give credit where it’s due before going back to the drawing board to improve strategies going forward.
A great way to foster team spirit is by offering rewards to the entire team as a whole. This will help them bond over their shared goal and prospective reward. This does not mean that you should not also reward and acknowledge individuals and you should also keep an eye out for one team member doing everyone else’s work. Another great bonding exercise is to have the entire team vote for their team member of the week or month and then to present that individual with a small token of appreciation.
A motivated team is a productive one, and motivation comes from recognition and reward. If team members feel unsupported and like they will never receive credit, regardless of how hard they work, it is only a matter of time before productivity levels slip.
Virtual Teams Can Be Even More Productive
With the right approach, collaboration and communication tools, you can overcome any sense of disconnection that may arise in the virtual space. Plus, you have the added benefit of every team member working in a space that’s most conducive to their own productivity.
Recent studies found that 42% of employers reported an overall uptake in productivity in virtual teams and that by 2028, 70% of organizations will have virtual teams in place. There’s no denying that the future of remote work certainly looks bright!
