Struggling to manage your remote team? How to build commitment and deliver RESULTS

In the ever-changing business world, how you need your team to work and operate is also always changing. From sitting in the same office 9-5 Monday to Friday, now we have team members not only all over the country, but sometimes, all over the world. This way of working used to just be reserved for the sales team, out in the field managing customer accounts, while you scrutinise their expenses.

Now all managers are having to develop skills to not only manage a virtual team, but achieve amazing results through great performance. It can take a different skill set to have the influence, authority and strength to lead from a distance, as well as a lot of trust, which isn’t always a manager’s natural approach. In particular; whether you admit it or not, business owners often prefer a micro-management style.

We all see the roll of the managers eyes when one of your team have asked to ‘work from home’ on Friday afternoon. Will they get the work done? How long will they spend working on that important project compared to lying on the sofa binge watching Netflix? Or rushing off to catch happy hour.

Consequently, business owners and managers shy away from enabling these roles in the business, which according to research may be damaging, as remote working has been shown to have a great return on productivity and therefore performance, as well as being able to attract and retain top talent, which may not be as easy when trying to recruit someone on your door step.

The CIPD research demonstrates that flexible working leads to direct and indirect business benefits. The direct business benefits are reported to include savings on office space, for example through hot desking or remote working, as well as being able to effectively match the business resources to demand, for example serving customers 24/7. In particular, multi-skilling, freelance and part-time working, and alternative shift patterns can increase efficiency and increase ’agile’ working'.

The CIPD also highlight the indirect business benefits are achieved through an improved employee psychological contract and that ‘workers on flexible contracts tend to be more emotionally engaged, more satisfied with their work, more likely to speak positively about their organisation and less likely to quit’. Flexible working options can also be attractive for new talent, especially as employee expectations change with regard to their jobs, careers and work-life balance.

I know personally, working from home always meant I had more time to actually ‘do some work’, through missing the long commute as well as getting dragged into office social conversations or meetings I didn’t need to be in, allowing me to be focused, productive and have a greater sense of achievement and satisfaction. Consequently, I felt more positive and engaged as well as wanting to ‘pay back’ for the opportunity to work from home.

From experience of supporting managers in different contexts such as multi-site businesses, field based teams, remote employees and home workers, I’ve found that half of successful remote team working comes down to the right team member and hire and half of the success comes down to the skills and techniques of the manager, being able to lead, wherever the employee is based.

Here are my 5 top tips for making this set up work, whatever size your company is, from your first remote worker to a big team.

Recruitment

Working independently, autonomously and remotely is NOT for everyone. Having a high performing remote team starts with your recruitment process. Ensuring that you are taking people on, not only for the technical skills you need in that role but also the behaviours and competencies that match with a remote worker; organised and be able to prioritise, self-motivated and disciplined, time-management skills, great communication skills, confident at using the technology you need them to do the job and keep in regular contact as well as be able to solve problems and make decisions alone. These are essential.

You need to be really clear on setting the expectations for the role at the interview and testing the responses to those competencies to ensure you are hiring the right fit. That also goes for interviewing for your culture and wider team fit. There is no point hiring someone who loves working in a team environment every day and requires that social interaction and support face to face. It isn’t going to work in the long run.

Operating procedures

Take the assumptions and margins for doubt out of the equation, set up the operating procedures to ensure that everything you need to happen, does happen. Ensure you have methods of checking up on those operational requirements for you to manage the work in your business without the individual feeling disheartened or harassed that you are checking up on them. Tell them when you need them to check in, how they report back, what process you need them to go through to deliver the work or fulfil the role and what they are accountable for.

If you are managing the workload or, providing the work for them to manage their work load and you know what they have to do, they won’t have the time or bandwidth not to complete their job. Nothing is more counter-productive than feeling you aren’t trusted or supported to get on with your job. Put the tools in place for the worker to be able to ‘get on with it’. Manage the performance, outcomes and results, not the hours.

Communicate

Keep the communication flowing. Managers are often concerned they don’t have the worker in front of them to ask questions, have instant responses and check on what they are doing. If you have set out a clear job description, priorities and check in with the worker regularly, they can get on with the work with less interruptions and more focus. Using an agreed tool can help managers and team members communicate with each other quickly and easily, whether it is a Whatsapp group for those out in the field, or Slack for those working from home, you can save and archive chats and use project management tools such as Asana to assign tasks and manage work that has been delegated to completion, quickly and simply.

Remote working in this form can be more effective than teams sitting chatting and interrupting each other’s flow. Identify the best tools for you and your type of business and ensure everyone has the training and support to use them. Then make them a habit! Once everyone has the hang of them, making an effort to use them everyday soon becomes effortless and the new norm. Business change can be notoriously difficult to implement, but keeping up with the changing business world is imperative, explaining the benefits to the individuals and keeping them updated and informed means you will take them along with you.

Manage Performance

If they don’t perform? You can still manage that as you would do in the office. Ask, how you can support or help, what they are struggling with, and continue to lead and coach as you would someone sitting next to you. It is for you to continue to actively manage a remote worker and putting in the schedules to do so, whether a daily, bi-weekly or weekly call to keep in touch with an agenda will help that run smoothly rather than frantic or stressful calls when you can’t get hold of them or don’t know where they are or you need them to pick something up. You stay ahead of the game and they can get on with their job. If things aren’t working, move through your procedures, whether capability, poor performance or disciplinary, based on the evidence and conversations you have been having.

Ensure they have their say and follow the employment law guidelines and your company policies. But take action, don’t let things continue as you will damage your reputation, performance and wider team morale as well as your own stress levels.

Team work

Face to face communication, project reviews, business planning is still imperative, you need to ensure everyone is still bought into the business and vision and works together, but this can be through group messaging and chats as well as regular face to face, whether in person or via Skype. The key is to ensure that you keep that feeling of team working going to create and build on the engagement that you get through people feeling part of ‘something’ and that sense of community and social interaction which has been shown to be an important part of happiness in a job. The Guardian recently reported findings that although, as we know, competitive pay and benefits are important, employee happiness is dependent on so much more. With research showing that ‘increasingly workers are reporting greater value placed on conditions such as wellbeing and working conditions, where flexible working, collaboration, career progression and a great team spirit are part of the company culture’.

Celebrate successes, share problems, ask for input and suggestions. There are many reasons you can bring everyone together regularly; the important thing is to do it regularly. You are responsible for the team morale so make sure you are bringing the enthusiasm, excitement and encouragements to your interactions and model the behaviours you want to see. Sending praise to remote workers is as crucial as saying ‘thank you and well done’ to someone sitting next to you, we all want to know our hard work is noticed and appreciated. Then we are more likely to repeat it.

Trust!

If you have gone through a robust recruitment process, you believe in the technical skills of the individual and the behavioural competencies they have displayed and demonstrated meet with the team and culture fit, the references and qualifications check out and you think they are a great hire, then trust them to get the job done!

As promoted by Richard Branson’s unlimited Virgin holiday allowance, trusting workers focuses on the work they get done, not the hours they put in. This policy support the culture of people first and trusting employees is the first step to create that. Is your culture really reflected in your policies? Have you set up your inductions and employee handbook and practices to actually support that?

Lead with assuming trust first and nine times out of ten, you will get that back. As well as productivity and performance. Fostering a culture of accountability, ownership and performance through following the processes you have put in place to check standards, achievements and attendance will allow you to motivate and encourage remote workers as you would an office worker will lead to results.

Don't forget to consider your policies and processes.

Also, a note to think about, with remote and field workers you also need to ensure you have contracts and clauses in place to protect confidentiality, company property, managing and processes expenses as well as health and safety (particularly with those employees driving regularly).

Lead from the front. Implement these ideas and practices and manage your remote team with confidence.

Contact us to help you put these into place.