A combination of recent events and improvements in technology has made more businesses consider making the switch to remote work teams. While this approach to business has the potential to save both time and money, it can take some getting used to. For that reason, we’ve decided to list three of our best tips for successfully managing a remote team.
Let’s take a look!
1. Meet First Thing in The Morning
If you’re going to stay on top of all the important tasks that need to get done during the day while working remotely, you’re going to need to have regular meetings with your team.
You might not think that the time of these meetings is all that important, as long as you meet at least once per day. However, meeting times can actually significantly increase productivity and improve communication for your team.
The best time to meet is first thing in the morning. This will ensure all of your employees have a clear direction for the day and can begin working on their respective tasks as soon as the meeting has concluded.
2. Use The Right Tools
Communication is one of the largest barriers to successfully managing a remote team. Luckily, there are plenty of tools that can help you overcome this obstacle. Here are a few of the best communication tools for remote teams:
- Slack – Slack is a channel-based messaging platform. This is helpful because it allows employees to filter the messages they receive based on relevance. For example, each department (marketing, sales, etc) can have its own messaging channel on Slack so that everyone in the company doesn’t receive messages that are only relevant to one group.
- Asana – Asana is a workflow management software that allows you to view the progress of multiple projects on a simple dashboard. Asana also has a built-in messaging platform.
- Google Hangouts – an extension of Gmail, Google Hangouts provides the perfect platform for instant chat and video calls between employees.
3. Stay Organized
When working from home, it can be tempting to delay or put off important tasks. For example, if you have a system in place for managing your files on a weekly basis, perhaps one week slips by without you noticing. Then two weeks… then three – you get the idea.
Or, maybe you fail to remain consistent with the paper shredding routine you put in place before your team made the switch to being remote.
What ever tasks are required of you, it’s important that they continue to get done. However, sometimes it might be worthwhile to consider outsourcing your organizational tasks to a third-party service provider.
Need Help Staying Organized?
One of the most important organizational responsibilities of any business is document management. This includes anything from contracts to engagement letters to order forms and more. Not only do you need to make sure you have a system in place so that you can find the documents you need when you need them, but you also need to dispose of these documents once they expire.
Western Archives provides document storage and destruction services for businesses in Edmonton and surrounding areas. Get in touch with us today and we’ll discuss how our services can help keep you and your remote team organized!