Whether your team is mainly collaborating uncontrollably with email or through a synchronous video conference, long-distance work is now a norm for many companies. What starts as a necessity is now hope.
However, remote work is always difficult to manage even for the most experienced leaders. Collaboration and teamwork are a challenge for teams in person; With a physical distance, it is even more difficult than the distant teams are on the same wavelength.
Equip Your Team With Good Tools
Your team cannot collaborate without the appropriate tools, so be sure to define your technological battery for remote work. This should include tools for:
- Project management
- Video conferencing
- Chat
- Real-time collaboration
You not only have to give employees the right tool, but you have to educate your team about how to use this tool.
Set The Norm Beforehand
Each long-distance team will have a unique way to achieve its goal. Managers must work with long -distance teams to define these norms before they start working. This must include norms to:
Basic Working Hours:
It is not always possible for a remote team to be online from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, especially if you are an international organization. You should work with your remote team to define when they are online and available for meetings for a time defined each day.
Communication:
How will your team communicate? Clarifying the communication channels that the remote teams will use and when it is appropriate to use each channel will be necessary.
They may also need to define rules for each channel, such as timely responses, to mutate if you do not talk about a video call, using cameras as a standard or avoiding the BCC on emails
Create Opportunities For Social Connection
Work cannot just be a matter of labor. But as distant teams cannot socialize in the company’s whiteboard nor have lunch together, managers must intentionally design social interactions.
Set Individual And Group Objectives
The responsibility of the remote team is a question of KPI and measures, no time that employees spend a screen. Create individual and team objectives to encourage collaboration and individual success.
It is also a good idea to create short and longer-term goals, so your team always knows what they are working on. You can even use WizIQ Meet software to create task dependencies according to these objectives so that each member of the team knows what to do and when.
Optimize The Meeting
The meeting is an effective way to collaborate, but they can quickly waste time if you don’t manage it carefully. Make sure that the recurring team meeting is only 15-30 minutes so that your team has time to do their true work.
Wrapping Up
Collaboration is a necessity for each team, but this is a big challenge for remote teams separated by time, language, and location.
With a remote team, communication and simplicity are very essential. Follow these 5 best practices to enjoy the comfort of long distance work and increase the collaboration of long -distance teams in your organization.