Nowadays most businesses are forced to manage their staff remotely. But how this could actually be done? We’ll present the top 5 advice, so you could easily supervise and organize your staff members. Interested?

Tip #1. Selecting matching remote instruments

A company operating remotely will require particular implements to grow, communicate, arrange video conferences, and perform multiple other activities. We’re talking about the most essential personnel managing means.

Under conditions of such specific business functioning, cloud solutions are of great value. Those means serve to set up a comprehensive workflow of corporations.

Vital tools all remote staff needs

• Company emails. They’re required to enable proper communication between each person. The Google service is offering a great solution for the given purpose.
• Messaging systems. They are also known as employees’ communication means. Those are well-established solutions, say, Skype and WhatsApp, Viber, and more. Both individual chats, as well as group communication could be enjoyed.
• Office services. You’ll need to store different documentation. The examples are Google Disk, G Suite, DropBox, and similar frameworks.
• Solutions for video conferences. Meetings could be easily carried out through Slack, Hangouts, or Zoom. They all function perfectly.
• Processes control instruments. Senior management might face certain troubles while giving tasks and following them up, so particular solutions – like, Jira, YouTrack, Bitrix, Asana, and others – shall come to the rescue.
• CRM frameworks. Salesforce, as well as AmoCRM are great representatives of decent Customer Relationship Management solutions. Additionally, content management systems could turn especially useful when owning a web/app service with sufficient data. The mentioned implements will definitely simplify the process of managing remote employees.
• HR activity facilitators. To automate the operation of HR departments, one could apply such services, as BambooHR and WorkDay.
• Personnel feedback tools. Glint and Yva.ai are of good standing. Moreover, you might also want to install appreciation solutions, like, Karma Bot.
• Firm social media solutions. The majority of great market leaders prefer to create official pages on social platforms, say, on Facebook and Instagram. Maybe you need to do so as well?
• Screen share services. Having several employees implementing the same project, you should apply Join.me and TeamViewer to facilitate such operations.
• Other means. According to business specificities, you might demand other different systems to run remote processes. For instance, when operating in the IT industry, you may need GitHub, since it’s pretty useful while dealing with cooperative IT projects.

The presented above are the most useful instruments that could come in handy to handle remote operations. You shall decide what systems will simplify and support your company.

Tip #2. The necessity of both, formal & informal interactions

A fundamental condition to supervise remote personnel is to ensure sufficient interaction between your people. It’s vital to recognize people as social beings who are actually much need for companionship. Otherwise, the quality of the performance deteriorates.

Both, professional (meaning, formal), as well as convivial (informal) communication must be ensured.

Speaking of formal communication, it could be easily established carrying out frequent meetings. We would recommend you hold online sessions on a daily and monthly basis. Those issues are crucial to take care of, since such a systematic approach raises team productivity.

Far-sighted business owners prefer to take advantage of the following solutions to handle operations:

• instant messaging frameworks, say, Skype;
• video conference systems.

It would be quite efficient to conduct short meetings each day to review all open issues, keeping every staff member updated, and make sure every person knows which tasks to perform. Moreover, holding longer online meetings to discuss specific vital points shall build a particular rhythm to organize the required workflow.

It’s more or less clear regarding the formal aspect, right? We’ll reveal more details on the subject in the due course. So, now let’s discover what the informal interaction actually involves.

That would be a brilliant idea, if you foster a culture of implementing video chats to virtually meet under casual circumstances. People will enjoy chatting, sharing what’s going on, discussing hobbies, etc. It would be nice, fun, and pleasant. Such sharing of positive experiences supports employees’ internal harmony, that, in its turn, positively affects productivity.

Tip #3. Proper goals setting

We’re back to formal methods of remote staff operations.

The importance of discussing tasks and setting objectives is undeniable. Those issues could be pretty challenging, thus, we’d like to give some advice to smooth and facilitate them:

• It’s wiser to develop short-run workplan, if you need to meet long-run objectives. The mentioned break-down scheme shall serve to attain the desired in only a few simple actions.
• Be clear to establish specific time-frames. While giving assignments to your team, be certain to clearly define the deadlines. Neglecting to do so might confuse the staff, since people won’t figure out how much time they can take to perform tasks.
• There’s room for improvement at any event. You might have to modify your strategies every few weeks, and it’s the right thing to do. Stay flexible, and be courageous enough to change previously made plans, whenever required. Continuous adjustments are essential to make your strategies conform to changing circumstances.

Tip #4. Remember to follow up your people productivity

This point comes from the above-mentioned tip. Proper implementation of key performance indicators will render excellent service to your business, thus, wisely consider the KPI introduction.

Every company is unique, hence, top managers need to implement KPIs that would be relevant for a specific case. However, we’d like to distinguish certain advice that would fit any business:

• It’s critical for every team member to obtain designated tasks consistently and systematically.
• Every employee shall remember to display the progress of every task received, marking “in progress”, “accomplished”, “reopened”, and so forth.
• At the close of the reporting period, say, one week, a month, or even one quarter/year, managers shall analyze progress and productivity of every staff member.

Tip #5. Strive for building a solid united team

Ultimately, try to turn your personnel into a tight-knit group of people, each of whom plays his/her part for the company’s greater good. Develop your business values to unite the staff. When people are obliged to work from home for whatever reasons, every person still needs to feel like a real part of the team.

Here are a few ideas on how to create such a community spirit:

• Video conferences will bring out inspiration, and your people will be more willing to share ideas and visions of your internal culture.
• Your personnel deserves to know what’s going on inside your company, so try to keep them posted on all changes.
• Remember the importance of friendly non-business interaction.
• Your staff will feel cared, if you send greetings and congratulations on various holidays & events. The team can get even more excited and happy, if you decide to send them some small presents, souvenirs, etc.

You could come up with other great solutions on how to help the staff feel a part of your division and the company as a whole.

Consider the mentioned key 5 advice, while running your remote team, thus, you’ll facilitate multiple processes, prevent various unnecessary problems, and increase your personnel productivity.

My Bio

My name is Anastasiia. I’m a writer for Agilie. I’m working closely with the mobile and web application development, so I often write tips on the development process optimization, various design solutions, and relevant business cases.