How to Keep Remote Teams Together

September 20, 2020

Remote Teams

Many business owners have preferred the idea of going fully cloud-based over lockdown. Although many are back at work and back to their usual routines, there are thousands of others who have remained working remotely. When remote teams can function like a well-oiled machine without being micro-managed – you, as a business owner has done something right.

In a previous article, we shared ways to keep employees creative and one way was giving employees Flexi hours. With the onslaught of COVID-19, we never expected to work from home for so long, and in some cases permanently. That took Flexi hours to a whole new level and employees are happier because of it.

Working remotely has however also had a slight downside with some employees expressing their desire to just be back in an office environment and having the opportunity to talk to co-workers in person. Some employees may feel left out of projects, despite being part of them, as they are not communicating in a natural way.

Let’s look at ways to keep your employees “together” while apart.

Be Kind

Encourage employees to start an appreciation drive. This could be in the form of a virtual charity event or it could be a campaign you do in-house where employees take the time to show appreciation of their peers with fun virtual thank you notes! Telling your employees that you are thankful for their contributions can go a long way.

Informal Interactions

Check in with your employees or teammates by scheduling a quick meeting about nothing. Talk about the weather if you must, but keep it casual as you would in an office environment. Virtual coffee meetings are also great to keep the office comms going. With limited lockdown restrictions, teams can also meet once every two or three months for a lunch meeting somewhere central – given your entire team is in one province.

Check-In

Make time to check in with your employees on a one-on-one basis. This can be a quick phone call to say, you hear them and you see them. In an office environment, it is easy to pop into someone’s office and just give a quick pat on the back for an excellent job done.

If you have a top-class team you can rest assured that you would not have to micro-manage anyone. Successful employees know how to manage their time and know what is expected of them and will always bring their A-game. There will be times where you will HAVE to manage and in a remote setup, you will have to do so from a distance.

Time Doctor shares a few ways to help you manage your remote teams: