It’s no secret that the world is in a unique situation right now as Covid-19 continues to escalate across the UK and globally creating new challenges for businesses we have never witnessed on this scale before. The majority of office spaces have been closed for a week now and for many people this could be the state of play for the next couple of months, but how individual workers react to these new changes will no doubt vary drastically.
For managers, it’s all about finding a balance between trusting your staff but ensuring that work continues to be completed to the same high standards you would expect during normal business function. You don’t want to appear micro managerial but you want to maximise efficiency where you can.
Here, James Bell, customer experience and production director at Mitrefinch, provides some practical tips for employers on how to manage remote teams most effectively.
Communication is critical
Streamlining the use of software is often key to effective communication and helping to ensure no members of the team miss any vital information. The easiest way to do this is to agree with your team on the core methods of comms and ensure everyone sticks to this for core business discussions. At a time where you have the added barrier of not being in the same physical location, using one programme alone mitigates the risk of messages getting lost in the ether.
And, while regular contact should continue as usual through email, internal messaging (or whichever platform you typically use on a day-to-day basis), phone calls and video chats are critical at the moment. Not only will a friendly face-to-face talk be welcome during this time of self isolation, it also helps staff to feel they’re not alone and ensure any potential miscommunication through text is minimised.
In situations where particular employees need to be on certain calls or video meetings, make the relevant parties aware well in advance and ensure that their calendars are updated to reflect this; when working from home, it can be easy to lose track of important calls and upcoming meetings, but you can prevent this by making use of a shared calendar system.
Outlining all of this in one central document can ensure all of your employees are on the same wavelength and ensure staff are using the correct lines of communication and are responding correctly to internal and external enquiries.
Set expectations and manage tasks
Once all staff are aware of upcoming meetings or calls and using the same means of communication, managers will find it much less complicated to monitor the progress of tasks whilst remote working. Using streamlines methods of communication, staff will be able to check in with each other on a regular basis to ensure tasks are on track as planned without appearing overbearing from management.
Project management platforms, when used correctly, can also be a great way of managing workflow across teams to ensure work is completed on time and that tasks are shared fairly and evenly.
Instruct your employees to continue updating the status of tasks as they would under normal conditions; issues can arise when a staff member neglects to keep others up to date with a piece of work when working from home, particularly with projects that involve sequential tasks and multiple employees.
It is now even more important that managers are clear with setting objectives and timeframes in which work is to be completed and to keep staff engaged throughout the process and when a task is completed. For example, public recognition through an instant messaging system or social media can help employees to feel a sense of achievement when they have completed a particular piece of work.
Don’t let remote working limit your ability to collaborate
Team members can easily move about to facilitate collaborative work within a physical office, however this doesn’t need to stop when teams operate remotely. With the entire workforce cooped up in their homes, they may begin to feel isolated so collaboration at this time is more critical than ever.
But, this only works well if staff are encouraged to reach out to each other through conference calls or video chats. It’s a good idea for management to instigate such collaborative sessions from the outset to get the ball rolling, then contact employees on a regular basis to ensure that they are still taking place.
It is therefore essential that all members of staff have easy remote access to any data and documents that they may need and that adequate security measures are in place to mitigate the risk of breaches. Ensure that some form of file-sharing system is in place and accessible to everyone before the remote working period begins – this is where brands should utilise cloud-based hosting where possible.
By James Bell
James Bell, customer experience and production director at Mitrefinch. Mitrefinch is a global provider of integrated Time & Attendance, Payroll, HR and Access Control solutions. The company has designed user-friendly and cutting-edge products that help organisations increase productivity, profitability and manage their workforce effectively.