Did you know that many famous corporations like Mozilla, Automattic, and GitHub give their workers the possibility to work remotely? In the last few years, this strategy has gained momentum, especially among cash-strapped startups and small businesses.
Namely, recent research shows that work from home programs help companies save roughly $11,000 per year.
Apart from cutting costs, you will also be able to hire the most experienced candidates, regardless of where they are.
Here is how you could make the most of this strategy.
1. Hire the Right People
When hiring, keep in mind that remote work is not for everyone. You need to set strict recruiting criteria and stick to it.
Apart from focusing on their experience in the industry, you should also pay close attention to your candidate’s personality traits to determine whether they are the right fit for your team.
For instance, always look for candidates that are adaptable, reliable, organized, independent, collaborative, and results-oriented.
Most importantly, as advanced IT solutions will become a part of their daily routine, they also need to be tech-savvy.
2. Automate Your Communication
You need to provide your remote employees with uninterrupted, fast, and safe communication. Of course, this all starts with the implementation of collaboration and communication software.
In order to choose a set of tools that meet your needs effectively, you need to do thorough research.
Here are some platforms you can take into consideration.
- Productivity software such as Basecamp, Asana, Trello, and Freedcamp help you move both your projects and employees online. They offer numerous amazing features, such as calendars, notes, timers, and user-friendly interfaces.
- Business chat and video conferencing apps like Skype for Business, Slack, Hangouts, and Chatter allow your workers to communicate in real time through various devices.
- File-sharing tools, including Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, and Google Drive, make it easier for your employees to store, synchronize, and share massive work-related data.
3. Invest in Team Building
It is paramount that every manager inspires the creation of a pleasant workplace atmosphere, boosts teamwork, and builds strong relationships between employees.
Even though they manage their workforce in a slightly different way, managers of remote teams are no exception to this rule.
It’s true that your employees may be living in different places, that they cannot grab a few drinks after work, or that they don’t have a lunchroom where they can talk to each other. However, this doesn’t mean that they cannot stay in touch or establish close friendships.
With the communication tools mentioned above, keeping people feel connected to their team has never been simpler. To strengthen the relationships between your remote employees, you should:
- Spark everyday communication by creating channels where they would post random off-topic things like videos and articles.
- Celebrate your company’s milestones. Maybe you cannot have a cake or throw a party, but you can have a channel where you would thank your workers for their hard work and congratulate them on their accomplishments.
- If it’s possible, send them incentives such as gift cards for their birthdays or holidays.
- Prove that you care about the individuals behind your projects, even though you have never met them in person. Ask them about their hobbies, interests, career goals, families, and health issues, and determine what their strengths and weaknesses are. If an individual has a personal or professional problem, be accessible to them and do your best to help them solve it and work around it.
4. Make Your Virtual Workplace Safer
There is a myriad of challenges online businesses face, including communication problems, the lack of spontaneity between employees, cultural differences, and the lack of rules in the virtual workplace.
However, the greatest problem they all come across is security. Once cybercriminals hack your passwords, they will be just a click away from all your sensitive data, such as bank accounts, other passwords, employee information, and conversations.
To prevent this from happening, you need to invest in strong cybersecurity software.
On the other hand, if your business has already been caught in consumer fraud, identity theft or cyber security breach, you should act fast.
You can file a police report, put a security freeze on your bank accounts, hire a lawyer, and tell your employees not to log in to either their personal or business accounts until everything’s safe.
According to consumer fraud lawyers, you should be careful when looking for legal help online. Namely, there are many scammers who represent themselves as lawyers.
If anyone contacts you and offers you legal services, particularly in exchange for an advance, you should keep in mind that these people are probably working with the criminals that hacked you in the first place.
Responsibility
It takes responsibility, dedication, and experience to manage a remote team. Even though there are numerous steps you need to take, you need to know that you don’t have to do all this at once.
You just need to build a step-by-step plan and start implementing it gradually.
Hopefully, with these techniques, you will manage to do so successfully.
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