The remote mode of working will rule the corporate world, and it will soon be a part of the new normal. Creating efficient remote work policies and ensuring that the employees get adapted to the remote working style can ensure better productivity levels. Managing a remote team involves an effective combination of policies and proper tools to ensure their synchronization with the tasks. The common issues the remote teams face can be listed as follows:
1. Communication
An efficient communication network helps the team members to ace forward along with the team. One of the biggest issues with remote teams is the difficulty of holding a good communication network. There can arise confusions and interpretations during communication that can impact the quality of their work. Communication gaps can become a serious issue and can even make the team re-do the same project again, and the team members will feel discouraged, especially when they are working remotely.
2. Time zones
The remote team comprises members working from different time zones with different schedules, and unless there is proper coordination, it can impact the working of the entire team. When people work in different time zones, it can be challenging for the members to support effectively since it can affect their sleeping and eating patterns as well and effect their mental working as well. To solve this problem, efficient strategies with proper deadlines can be chalked out by the manager to ensure that the team members can manage to meet their deadlines and can solve the problem of co-ordination
3. Monitoring progress
It becomes very important to track the employees’ progress, especially when they work in the remote mode of operation. When the team is connected virtually, it is necessary to monitor the progress of their work and their personal growth and provide the needed rooms for correction and improvement. Project management software can come in handy in this regard which helps the managers and the team leaders to track the progress of their team members and guide them effectively
4. Effective interactions
The remote mode of working has attracted many issues, among them being the absence of healthy discussions. Working continuously can impact their way of working and can affect their work quality as well. So hosting effective interactions can go a long way in boosting the morale of the employees, and ensuring direct communication with the team members helps them keep track of their work. Organizing seminars and online discussions can solve this problem of interaction gaps.
5. Differences in culture
A team can comprise people raised in different cultures, and they can feel indifferent to contribute to working for the team without getting the needed support. However, the team members can be made aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses and work accordingly. Team culture has to be adopted to ensure that despite the differences, they can work together.
6. Role of team spirit
Working remotely can be quite difficult if the team members are unwilling to work and support each other. Team building activities can be useful to improve team spirit. Unless the team can co-ordinate effectively, the entire progress of the work is still at stake. The organization can ensure that the team members are involved in work and fun activities that can promote their nature of working together. Such activities can help bring the teammates’ true nature, and hence they can work effectively.
7. Productivity
Remote work can create productivity issues among the members, which arise due to the increasing distractions and lack of office setup or the absence of effective monitoring networks. There are many productivity software that offers cloud-based and on-premise solutions to create a sense of awareness among them. Productivity software helps monitor the active and idle time of their working and the websites they engage in.
8. Conflicts
Despite the team working well in most situations, there can arise conflicts in the remote mode of working. For example, conflicts can arise when no proper follow-ups are being done and if someone is not happy about the working of the other. So, it must be solved via efficient practices like allowing the team members to share the problems they face while working remotely and the freedom to open up about the internal conflicts within the team so that they can be solved with a modern solution.
9. Trust
Employees can be apprehensive about their payments for their work, whereas the managers can be worried about their employees on their work. So, the managers must take the initiative to inform the employees to make them aware of the project expectations and their pay scale that would be allotted to work and also the working hours.
10. Follow-ups
It is necessary to ensure that the meetings are scheduled regularly so that the employees can make out where they stand when compared to other employees’ progress, which can also help ensure that the employees are not left out and can impact their working culture as well.
