With the ongoing pandemic, working from home is a trend that is increasing among companies. Moreover, many companies are allowing employees to work virtually owing to the huge cost benefits involved. Such companies don’t need to pay for the rent of a physical space or provide workstations to employees. This model is quite successful. However, some disadvantages are also involved. The biggest concern being the effectiveness of management. If you’re a manager this blog has tips that will allow you to manage your virtual team more effectively and efficiently.
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Check If All Team Members Can Conveniently Work from Home
Talk to your employees if they are comfortable working from home or not. While some of them may be able to adjust, others may find this quite difficult. Talk to them and understand the constraints that they may have. Only through proper dialogue can you seek a better understanding of the challenges that they might have to deal with.
The most essential thing is internet connection at home. I remember I had to upgrade my Spectrum cable connection to a triply play to get fast internet as well. This happened during the pandemic when my company asked me to work from home. Even though I got a cut-off price for the upgrade due to the pandemic, companies should ideally take care of such costs.
Keep Your Teams’ Activities in Check
You as the team’s manager should not be clueless about what they are working on. Instead, create a routine of daily reporting. Every morning, your team members must inform you what they’re working on. Moreover, at day end they should send a report of their daily accomplishments. And you, on the other hand, should make sure to delegate them tasks before shift time is over.
You should also make sure that your team’s coordination does not suffer. Therefore, make sure to let them know about the end goals of their efforts. Team members should be aware of what their colleagues are working on so that the coordination does not suffer.
Evaluate Your Team’s Performance
It is important for you, as a manager, to keep a track of your team’s performance even when they’re working online. You can do this by defining their objectives clearly to them. Set clear benchmarks for them and inform them regarding their accomplishments and goals regularly. In this way, you will be able to actually generate results!
Have Face Time More Often
If you are working remotely then the face-to-face contact will be quite less. This is not good for the team. Try arranging video calls with your team members. You can also hold a special live session to motivate them in getting a certain certification. Make sure to call your team members on their birthdays. You can send a team photo with a cake! It will definitely brighten up their day.
Help Team Members Manage Themselves
Know that you are the manager and that your team looks up to you. It is your responsibility to guide them on how to work virtually. Guide them on how to minimize distractions while working from home. From experience, teach them how to divide the team between loved ones and work. Furthermore, ask your team members to allocate proper space for work. Doing office work in the living room isn’t a particularly good idea.
Keep an Eye of Working Hours and Tasks Completed
There are two types of payment methods in organizations generally. One is the per hour payment method whereas the other one is performance-based. Which method are you following? It may be that you are in the outsourcing industry where it’s common to pay employees at an hourly rate. On the other hand, you may be a product-based company paying employees on the basis of their performance. If that is the case then make sure to devise a way to keep things in check for both. Obviously, you don’t want your work ethic to suffer due to a virtual working environment. Therefore, keep attendance and work timings in check.
Make Communication Easy
Communication may suffer since your team will not be physically present in the office. However, it’s the 21st century and you don’t even need to be too smart to have effective communication. Who are we kidding! There’s Skype, there’s Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, and the list goes on. And then you have blazing fast internet speeds. I mean, you can literally just pick up your phone right now and get a speedier internet package from your ISP as I did by dialing the Spectrum phone number. There are many options for you to communicate with your team. So, engage in a conversation with them from time to time.
