Working within a remote workgroup means that you will have to manage your workload while also working collaboratively. Most meetings will be done with your team virtually, but you can still see and talk to one another, even from behind your home computer.
Technology is changing to make it more convenient to work remotely than commuting to a central office. As such, all sorts of businesses are testing out remote workgroups and seeing if it can lead to more productivity. Results have shown that this business model has led to great results, provided that a few principles are followed.
To boost success within your remote teams, look at your workers individually, as a group, and keep the lines of communication open.
Keep regular communications
Unlike working at a physical office, remote workers depend on different forms of digital communication to stay on target. From the standard email message to text messaging, web chat, and even bulletin board based workgroups, your team can send and receive messages instantly.
Calendars, collaborative work platforms, and other tools can also help your team to keep up with all forms of communication. Exporting Outlook gives you more functionality, which is an important factor that can save your team time. There will likely be multiple email strings going, so try to come up with plans to keep your communication methods well organized.
Celebrate individual successes
When you work in a digital team setting, it can be hard for your individual successes to stand out. As much as it is great for companies and their employees to have the ability to connect virtually, the recognition of personal successes is still important for job satisfaction and healthy workplace environments.
After all, why else would businesses be so invested in awarding the employee of the month, and so on? Whenever one individual worker particularly shines, management, as well as fellow team members, should give them a pat on the back. Making sure that you recognize individual contributions will absolutely aide in boosting overall success.
Encourage collaboration and cooperation
Regardless of whether all your team members are specialized or working on the same tasks, they should be encouraged to work together as a team. During the workday, there will likely not be a whole lot of conversation.
In fact, working remotely almost totally ensures that chit chat and off-topic conversations will not be happening regularly. You want team members to get to know one another, to build comradery, and know that they can each get assistance from their co-workers. Team people up on projects and encourage them to communicate.
Switch up regular workgroups
After your team has become accustomed to working from home, you should start putting together different people in new teams. Working remotely can get a little monotonous, with workers totally forgetting who they work with. Switch up the regular workgroups and foster an environment where everyone knows how to get along.
There should be group emails sent out to the entire work staff, letting them know about future projects and collaborations. Team members will always have something to look forward to, with new and exciting workgroups being forced and bonds being strengthened as time goes on.
Working from home has gone from being a perk reserved for a handful of employees at best, to the standard for a lot of companies. With a home office setup, people can work together from thousands of miles a day, regardless of time zones, skill level, or even language barriers.
Boost success within your remote teams of employees by keeping up morale and making them feel like they are working right next to you when they log in each day.
