Remote Managing — Tips and Tricks to Get the Best Out of Your Team

Your employees can be happier.

If they work remotely — that is.

A study done by Owl Labs discovered that compared to people who never work remotely, full-time remote workers are 22% more likely to be happy. And these reasons are beyond the monetary sort — 91% are happier with a better work-life balance, 79% are enjoying the benefits of increased productivity, 78% feel less stressed, and 78% love not commuting to work.

The same study also discovered that employees would probably stay in a company longer if they were offered more flexibility, and were prepared to work longer hours if they could work from home.

That’s no wonder — because employees will start feeling more trusted when their remote working stint goes well. A pilot study done by MIT discovered that more than half its employees (62% to be exact) reported feeling more trusted and respected. When employees have to trust one another to be professionals working towards a common goal, they worry less about what other team members are doing and focus on the task at hand.

Maybe you’re a team manager who’s wondering if you can still trust your employees without having them there. Or maybe you’re not sure if they’re still working well with each other. No matter the reason, here are some tips to help manage your team even if you’re away.

Paint the Big Picture

When a cog in a machine fails, so does the entire operation. Every person in your team has a role to play — and if they don’t carry out their responsibilities to the best of their ability, the team is less likely to accomplish its reason for being.

Give your team members a goal that is bigger their roles — your team’s goal. This way, they’re more likely to know how their role affects the efforts taken to reach it, and how they are responsible to help everyone achieve the big goal.

But for you to give them a bigger purpose to work towards, you’ll first need to set the ground rules for everyone. Help them understand:

• What’s the big goal?
• How does my role help the team?
• What are my responsibilities?
• How often should I speak to my team members? What methods should I use to communicate with them?

Agreeing with your team before the project begins will help to reduce any nasty surprises and/or resentment that might take root during the process of remote working. But here’s the difficult bit — it’s enforcing it.

Which brings us to our next step.

Real-time accountability

Accountability helps to build trust whilst allowing supervision and guidance. Begin by building a dedicated channel to foster a feedback loop between your subordinates and yourself; this gives you direct access to your team members from the get-go and provides a clear channel for your team members to communicate directly with you.

It also provides a co-working space where parties involved can be virtually present, mimicking a situation where you would typically work side-by-side. This helps to get everyone on the same page in real-time, encouraging transparency and fostering accountability.

On Lark, you’d be able to open a chat specifically for each project — reducing the amount of cross-messaging and confusion, especially if your team members were working on more than one project with different team members at a time.

Also, it helps to provide a platform where all your documents are accounted for in a single space — ensuring everyone has everything they need to work together apart. On Lark, your team members can enjoy 200GB of cloud storage per person — and with real-time sync too!

Communicate face-to-face — even when apart

Every employee should be able to work as effectively as possible, no matter where they’re working. And that includes easy and clear communication with team members.

But in a climate where meeting face-to-face is a no-go, we’ve discovered that the best way to support remote workers is through the use of video. Not only will they be able to communicate more quickly and succinctly with an almost face-to-face approach, but they will also be able to read verbal and non-verbal cues to reduce the possibility of misunderstanding.

Moreover, video conferences also add a human touch to remote working, especially for employees that are permanently working from home. According to the 2018 State of Remote Work, loneliness is a significant contributor to employee burnout. Having “face-time” not only helps with keeping employees from feeling isolated, but also helps to unite a team around a common purpose. This helps speed up communication for more effective teamwork.

And if you’ve got a bigger team, consider productivity tools with a video conferencing function that allows for a large number of participants. Lark allows up to 50 participants in a single video conference, which could prove helpful whether your team needs a little face-to-face time, or if you’re planning a company-wide town hall held online.

Thinking of implementing remote working?

Whether you’re thinking of rolling out remote working only during a time of world crisis or keeping it as a privilege even during regular days, now’s a good time to try it out.

Responsible remote working can allow both leaders and employees happier, more assured, and feel more trusted with their work. It just takes a little planning to help facilitate face-to-face interaction and real-time accountability — allowing everyone to move in the right direction together.

Fortunately, Lark’s here to help. Find everything you need: from video conferencing to real-time document sync, and everything in-between for your remote working needs on Lark. And best of all, it’s now free.

Discover how you can work remotely more smoothly when you sign up at www.larksuite.com