Maintaining a Productive Team When Remote Working

Now that everyone has set up a virtual office background and downloaded the project management software, it’s time to focus on productivity. What can you do to keep your team motivated and effective? These tips can make all the difference.

Continued Education

New tools and skills can boost productivity, so encourage your team to continue their education. In more technical fields, this may mean pursuing a higher degree or completing certification. However, there are other ways for employees to expand their horizons:

• Facilitate mentorships
• Schedule a speaker for team meetings
• Inform team of webinar opportunities

You can also work with employees individually. Talk to them about their career goals and help them find opportunities to gain skills that can support them on that path.

Regular Team Meetings

While remote work has many benefits, it can make keeping everyone on the same page challenging. Since team members don’t see each other in person, they may not bond as well as office-based teams. A good way to remedy this is regular team meetings.

How often you meet depends on your team’s responsibilities. For teams that collaborate frequently, weekly meetings may work best. If employees are primarily independent, once a month may work better.

Most importantly, schedule meetings well in advance and avoid interfering with essential tasks. If possible, meet on the same day and time, such as the 12th of each month at 4 p.m. This increases the likelihood of people being punctual, as they’ll have time to set up an office background and check their equipment before start time.

Open Channels for Feedback

Communication is a two-way street, so make sure team members know they can give feedback. In fact, encourage everyone to offer feedback about your management style and expectations.

Not everyone will feel comfortable offering feedback one-on-one. To ensure everyone can offer commentary, implement an anonymous feedback process. That way, workers can voice concerns directly to you without concerns of retaliation. This is especially important when it comes to workplace harassment, as victims may worry their harassers will escalate if they find out.

Take each piece of feedback seriously. While not every comment will yield change, it’s important to understand your team’s concerns. Team members also want to know their opinions matter. While you may not be able to implement every suggested change, you can still discuss and acknowledge its value.

Clear Goals and Expectations

Your team can’t meet expectations if they don’t know what they are. Clearly state what you expect from your team:

• Flexibility of work hours
• Communication channels
• Frequency of project updates

You can reiterate these expectations during team meetings but don’t hesitate to remind workers if you notice people slipping. An email restating the expectations every so often not only reminds your team but also provides them with a written document they can reference for clarification.

Keeping a team motivated isn’t always easy, especially when people feel burned out. However, little things can break up the monotony and make employees feel appreciated. A new logo background can add excitement to a video conference, while recognition of hard work demonstrates respect for your top workers.