Home office: how to manage remote teams

If managing remote teams was something that was about to happen, with the Covid-19 pandemic the change arrived once and for all.  Currently, companies that do not accept home office or hybrid work are prone to losing great professionals.

There are many challenges to managing a team remotely, whether with teams working part of the week at home and another part at the company, or spread across different cities and even countries.

In this post, you will find everything you need to manage remote teams and develop good practices with your team, as well as find out which skills can help you on this journey.

What is remote team management?

In the same way as in-person, remote team management is a set of practices carried out by leadership to motivate, engage and increase the productivity of a group of employees.

Therefore, this aspect includes controlling and monitoring demands and helping the team so that the functions of all the people involved are used in the best way possible.

Therefore, a remote team manager or coordinator has the following responsibilities:

• Guide and motivate the team to help them achieve the company’s objectives;
• Align employees’ vision with the company’s objectives and vice versa;
• Balancing productivity and quality in deliveries
• Encourage the professional development of the team;
• Encourage collaboration between members;
• Build and maintain a healthy climate in the work environment, whether remote or in person;
• Help the team overcome difficulties, correct errors and improve negative points.

Check out 4 benefits of working from home

Working from home has brought several benefits not only to employees, but also to companies. The biggest one was the reduction of costs, whether in travel expenses or in the maintenance of a structure involving rent, energy, internet, telephone, etc. Therefore, we list 4 benefits of working from home:

1 – Quality of life

One of the main points of working from home was quality of life. The change meant that the time lost in traffic could be better utilized by the employee and could even be combined with some activities at home.

2 – More flexible scales

The great advantage of working from home was the possibility of making more flexible schedules, so that it is possible to create work schedules that better meet the needs of the company and the employee.

3 – Work from anywhere in the world

Another advantage of working from home is being able to work from anywhere in the world. All you need is a computer and internet access. For many people, especially IT professionals, it is common for employees to live in one place and work in another, even outside Brazil.

4 – Proximity to family

Working from home can intensify contact with the family, whether it’s being part of the routine more closely or having meals together.

Productivity increases in the home office

In addition to everything we have presented so far, what we saw with the home office was the overcoming of some professional barriers, such as people being less productive working outside the company.

Several surveys have shown that the level of productivity of employees when working remotely has increased when compared to working in person.

On the other hand, research carried out by Fundação Dom Cabral in partnership with Grant Thornton e a Em Lyon Business School revealed that the positive sense of productivity is not always aligned with the employee’s perception of balance and well-being. The research identified three major obstacles to working from home.

• Greater volume of hours worked
• Difficulty in relationships
• Difficulty communicating

Have you noticed that many of the obstacles in managing remote teams involve knowing the team’s activities inside out?  If you want to know about how a management tool helps to engage teams and monitor demands, check out the post about how to improve your team’s performance.

Fundamental skills for managing remote teams

If you manage remote teams, you need to be aware of whether people have the skills and discipline to work from home.

1 – Self-discipline

Those who work remotely must be disciplined in relation to schedules, respecting the beginning and end of activities. It is with self-discipline that employees will be able to create an organized work routine.

2 – Self-confidence

It is important that employees trust their own decisions, without depending on the approval of a supervisor to take any action.

3 – Assertive communication

When working remotely, much of the information is provided through written messages.  Knowing the right way to communicate and make good use of available technologies makes all the difference.

Avoid sending messages without objectivity, such as “hey how’s it going?” and not pursue the matter later.

4 – Collaboration

Teamwork, even when working from home, involves partnership, empathy, transparency and respect.

5 – Self-management

The professional must be able to manage their own work routine.

6 – Adaptable

This is a skill that helps you achieve success in both your personal and professional life. Help your team adapt to new scenarios or transformations.

Discover the 3 C’s of remote team management

Now that you know the skills needed to manage remote teams, it’s time to learn what the 3Cs are that help manage them. The model presented below was developed by professor and president of Temple University (USA), Jason Wingard,

1 – Clarity

Successful remote team management depends on clear boundaries and guidelines. The main points are:

• Hours when employees must be available;
• Times when they should not be called;
• Communication channels;
• Goals that must be achieved.

Clarity is a way of guaranteeing the mental health and well-being of employees, thus avoiding very long and exhausting working hours.

2 – Communication

When working remotely, communication becomes even more important.  Wingard suggests that remote team managers hold a weekly meeting with the entire team and ask each team member three questions:

1. What did you do last week?
2. What are you working on now?
3. Do you need help with something?

3 – Connection

Here we are talking about human relationships. The manager must make all team members feel connected to each other and to the company. It is worth starting weekly meetings with questions that are outside of work-related topics, such as: “did you watch the latest series on Netflix?” or “how did you spend your weekend?”

Encourage your team’s interactions in the virtual environment.