Companies nationwide are expanding their remote teams. Like most companies over the last few years, you may have realized the benefits of virtual work environments. You can still conduct meetings via video conferencing, even without meeting the Zoom background requirements, and send out and receive work from your team. However, you may be wondering about ways you can increase your remote team’s efficiency. Consider these strategies.
Adopt Time-Tracking Tools
Because you are working in different locations, it is difficult to truly track the time your employees are spending at work or on specific projects. However, you can now find digital time-tracking tools that allow you to view your team’s activity during their work hours.
With this technology, you can identify where time is lost, see where bottlenecks exist and learn why delays exist. You can then help your team address issues that reduce their productivity, including reworking or automating processes so that tasks can be completed quicker.
Establish Weekly Team Meetings
Open communication is vital, especially in remote teams. Therefore, you should schedule at least one weekly team meeting. Use Zoom backgrounds office to create a work atmosphere, and discuss the issues of the week. You can review team goals and get updates on each employee’s progress.
Your employees may feel anxious or unsettled in a virtual work environment, but you can improve this through regular communication. Therefore, investigate the online communication tools that are available to you. Test these tools and see which one works best for your team.
Encourage Brainstorming and Trust
Your employees want to feel as though they are contributing to the company’s overall goals. Therefore, including them in on brainstorming sessions and showing them that you value their opinions can increase their trust in your organization.
Be sure to fully explain any challenges or problems you are trying to solve. Avoid criticizing any idea that is given because this can damage trust and discourage participation.
Streamline Your Processes
Because your team members aren’t working together in one location, they should follow the same process for each task. This ensures that the actions are done quickly and efficiently while preventing mistakes. However, you should also be open to process adjustments if one of your team members has found a better way to do something.
Promote the Corporate Culture
Your team members may need to be reminded of your corporate culture. It is easy to get distracted and change your focus when you aren’t in the office. However, you need commitment, loyalty and focus in your remote employees.
Therefore, go over the key core values of your company, and make sure you abide by them. For example, don’t try to contact your staff during off-work hours if your company values a work-life balance.
Don’t forget to reward your employees when they demonstrate and spread your company’s core values. Recognize those who go above and beyond by sharing their accomplishments with the rest of the team, the company and your social media followers.
If you have a remote workforce, consider implementing some of these strategies. Something as small as a custom Zoom background in your virtual meetings can have an impact on your employee’s productivity and trust.
