The COVID-19 pandemic practically pushed the world into unprecedented times that were beyond any organization’s plan for 2020. We are already nearing the end of Q2 and the pandemic doesn’t seem to go away. Remote working is the only way enterprises can move forward and thankfully there are a bunch of great remote working tools that make remote working a smooth journey.
When remote working started full-fledged initially, it was most welcomed. People were spending less time commuting, could spend more time with family and who doesn’t like working in pajamas? But the real concern, however, as remote working becomes the new normal is to engage and keep together teams working remotely, 24*7. Disengagement, boredom, and lack of social interaction can cause employees to lose productivity and in these tough times, it is critical to keep the team together.
Here’s how you can keep remote teams together:
Have a consistent stream of communication
When teams work remotely, they need to be accessible and at the same time have access to everyone in the team via a trusted communication channel. Conventional communication tools used for personal communication such as WhatsApp or calls or latent ones like email cannot be trusted. Invest in a remote team communication tool that enables exclusive business communication, ensuring that you have a trusted platform to hold all our virtual meetings and daily standups.
When teams communicate with each other via one-to-one and group chats they can quickly resolve their queries, be more informed, and can work productively.
Keep them in the loop
When employees work in a traditional office space, they are constantly updated with the ongoing processes in the company. But when the teams work remotely, they often feel left out and have no clarity in the organizational development. To ensure this doesn’t happen, be consistent in sharing company updates, celebrate successes and milestones and help the teams feel valued.
Offer constructive feedback and appreciation
When teams work remotely, they rely on textual communication to pass feedback, which can be tricky. Feedbacks can often be misinterpreted and hence it is important for the team managers to choose the right time and way to convey feedback- both good and bad. While bigger milestones such as work anniversaries can be celebrated on a company-level, managers need to be more appreciative of small contributions or when employees step out of their comfort zone and help a team member out.
This can increase the self-esteem of the employees and strengthen the manager-employee relationship overall.
Provide a secure tool for collaboration
Modern employees are tech-savvy. They need access to the best technology, which is why device leasing is a popular model for modern enterprises to ensure that employees always have access to the latest tech. The same goes for resources- business documentation and apps. When teams work remotely, one of the major challenges that they face is access to business resources. Not having the right business resources and documents can be frustrating and also negatively impacting productivity. Sharing sensitive business information over email can be latent whereas sharing it over any off-the-shelf communication tool can prove as a gateway to breach and hackers.
Ensure your employees have steady access to business resources over a secure tool that enables encryption of corporate data at the same time.
Host virtual fun time and parties
Remember those coffee breaks that you enjoyed once a week with your team? Or a Friday pizza lunch. Well, while working from home you can’t have that! But the socially difficult and times of uncertainty demand moral support and remote working makes it difficult. Bring your teams together virtually, set frequent fun times where your team can simply talk over conference calls or video chat about anything but work over a cup of homemade tea.
You can also conduct monthly fun competitions virtually and give your remote teams a slice of working out of an office.
Closing lines…
The times are difficult, but teams that sail through these are going to help businesses kick back and achieve more even in the difficult times.
Author Bio – Renuka Shahane is a Sr. Content Writer at Scalefusion MDM solution. An engineering graduate, an Apple junkie and an avid reader, she has 5+ years of experience in content creation, content strategy and PR for technology and web-based startups.
