How to Manage Teams Remotely: 5 Tips for Remote Management

While working from home can be a dream scenario for some employees, managing remote employees has its challenges, especially when it comes to making separate work environments operate seamlessly. These problems can impact both the employee and manager themselves, creating an uneasy or untrusting environment, and impact productivity as well as morale.

• Communication. The way verbal language is received is directly influenced by nonverbal communication like eye contact, facial expressions, tone, and hand gestures. Verbal cues need to be supplemented by the appropriate nonverbal cues in order to make your meaning known and avoid miscommunication. When managing employees remotely, the lack of face-to-face contact makes it difficult to convey intent or tone, and increases the chances messages, emails, or texts may be misconstrued.
• Scheduling. Some of your remote workforce may be out of state or out of the country. Different time zones can make it hard to get everyone on the same schedule, which can hinder communication and in turn, create a distance between team members.
• Employees feeling left out. Employees who do not work on-site may feel as though there is no one advocating for their rights or opinions, or that their hard work goes unnoticed more often than their fellow on-site employees. Remote workers can miss out on opportunities, office activities, or get-togethers, which can contribute to a sense of disconnect or isolation from their company.
• Tracking productivity. Project management can become tricky when employees are able to work without direct supervision. It can be hard for managers to track how much work is getting done and at what rate, so establish a way to track employee progress, or set up clear expectations for how much work should be accomplished.

Every company will encounter its own job-specific issues when handling remote employees, but there are a few basic problems all remote employees may endure that many managers can solve with a few handy tips:

1. 1. Check-in with your remote team. Building rapport is an important element of management that every leader must learn. Put in the extra effort of getting to know your remote employees on a personal level, not just through work. Building rapport is how humans connect, identify shared feelings, and establish two-way communication. Rapport develops out of a meaningful conversation and a willingness to embrace different points of view, which in turn can build trust. Checking in on how remote team members are doing personally let them know you care about them as human beings. Provide tips for staying healthy and well during their remote working hours, and show that you care about their emotional and mental wellbeing.
2. 2. Use video calls. While your physical interaction may be limited, virtual meetings can help. Video chat can be useful for connecting during team meetings, and even though digital communication tools like email and work chat software can help stay in touch, with a video conference, you can discern nonverbal cues and tone more accurately, cutting down on misunderstandings and providing a deeper level of connection.
3. 3. Be responsive. Remote employees can experience lag between themselves and their managers. It’s a lot easier to communicate with someone when you can walk right into their office or workspace and ask questions. Providing that same level of response for remote employees can help reduce that lag. Regular communication strengthens your relationships, and when the rest of the team feels like they’re being heard and considered, they feel more like a cohesive unit, and like they’re not missing a beat.
4. 4. Provide in-person face time. If possible, create opportunities to meet with your employees face-to-face. Schedule in-person meetings to help build relationships with them offsite in order to strengthen your remote relationships with them as well.
5. 5. Set up screen sharing. If you have collaboration tools that make it possible to utilize screen sharing, use it. Remote employees feel more included when they can see what everyone else is seeing. This also eliminates any confusion as to what people are seeing or understanding and makes the meeting feel like everyone is in the same room.

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