If you have managed a team from an office space or in a company and now you’re moving to a remote location, you might be wondering how to boost your team’s productivity. With remote work on the rise, there are many helpful tips from experienced remote team leaders that could guide you in the right direction.
Remote work has both its advantages and challenges, but studies show that it could significantly increase a person’s productivity as many people feel more relaxed outside the office. So, let’s see how you can improve your remote workforce’s productivity and stay on top of everything that’s happening.
Set Priorities and Avoid Distractions
Even though it sounds like a simple, easy-to-follow task, setting priorities and avoiding distractions outside the office might be harder than you expected. If you are managing a team, it’s your responsibility to set daily or weekly priorities (whichever suits you best) and assign tasks to each team member. If you’re having trouble creating schedules, you can rent an iPhone or an Android phone to keep up with your daily tasks.
However, do not take on too much — it’s easy to take your work home if you’re working from your living room. Delegate your tasks and communicate with your team members continuously. When you’re working from home (or similar), getting distracted couldn’t be easier. Try to set strict working hours and avoid getting distracted during that time.
Conduct Meetings
If you are used to having regular daily, weekly, or bi-weekly meetings, there’s no reason why you should stop doing this. We know that lack of face-to-face supervision could prove difficult for both the team manager and the members.
We believe that communication among team members is much more significant once you start working from home. Thus, forget about sending messages and writing emails that nobody reads. Decide on the time for your meeting and communicate with your team via one of the many available online video conference platforms.
Centralize Information
Keeping employees up to date with the latest procedures and information can be challenging even when you’re all in the same building. It is even more challenging if you are working remotely. File-sharing platforms are helpful, but they could be a nuisance if you need to find something quickly for your client.
Luckily, there’s an easy fix for that — an online portal for centralized information that’s updated in real time. Ultimately, all team members will have access to this portal at all times, which will allow them to see new documents, links, etc., instantly. Choose one of the many available online portals and save valuable time.
Measure Performance
Although it might sound rough, it isn’t anything you wouldn’t do in a real office. You can measure your team members’ performance at least once a month or more often if you think that’s necessary.
Thanks to innovative apps, you can easily use the gathered data to analyze the productivity of each member of your team, as well as make comparisons. Additionally, you can measure your team’s output quality and provide incentives for top jobs.
Moreover, if you still have employees working from the office, you can compare their performance with the performance of those working from home. Employees need to feel as they are doing valuable work, and measuring performance could be the boost they need to keep up the good work.
