6 Essential Tips to Increase Productivity Levels of Remote Teams

Everyone was forced to stay at home—that is essentially what occurred for millions of workers in thousands of organizations across the country and around the world. As individuals stayed at home to attempt to stop the growth of COVID-19 while keeping productive, remote work became quite widespread.

Businesses with centralized office buildings had to find a way to have everyone linked when they were all operating in separate locations quickly and without warning. That meant no more unplanned meetings, no more brief conversations with the boss or manager, and no more asking a colleague a quick question and going on with your day.

Companies had to figure out not just the logistics, but also how to make it all function once everyone was linked. When it comes to working remotely, productivity is a major worry. Will everyone remain engaged if a manager had absolutely no possibility of catching them? Do you have too many interruptions at home, such as pets and children? Working in a location other than the workplace may be tough for some people.

To prevent problems, businesses had to find a way to keep their employees productive even when everyone was apart. Whether they’re old and loyal workers, in a training program for better management, or newbies learning full stack development online, employers had to take good measures to increase their workers’ productivity.

These were some of the top recommendations discovered by professionals during the last year. If you’re still having trouble with your remote team’s productivity, here’s what you can do.

Outline Expectations and Communicate Clearly

Make sure everyone on the team understands their roles and responsibilities. This may seem obvious, but it’s easy to overlook when you’re not able to interact with people face-to-face every day. It’s important to outline what is expected of each employee, so they know what they need to do in order to achieve their goals. Clear communication will help keep your team motivated, engaged and productive.

Utilize the Right Tools

In order to increase the productivity levels of your remote team, you need to know what they’re doing and how they’re performing. You can do this by using an effective freelancer management system, as after all when your employees start to work from home instead of from within the office premises, they essentially become fully-employed freelancers.

Using such a system will allow you to see what tasks each member has completed and what’s left for them to do. It will also enable you to set deadlines for each task so that everyone knows what needs to be done by when.

In addition, if you do consider hiring freelancers in the future, a tool of this kind can help you locate the ideal candidate and onboard them successfully.

Provide Regular Training

One of the biggest issues with remote workers is that they often don’t get enough training or support during their first few weeks on the job. This means that they’ll have questions about how things work but won’t know who to ask. The result is that they either do nothing at all or try to figure things out themselves (which usually leads to mistakes).

The solution is simple: provide regular training sessions with new employees as well as ongoing coaching throughout their tenure with your company. You might even consider hiring an external coach if necessary so that they have access to someone who can help them when things go wrong.

Develop Video Conferencing Sessions

Video conferencing can be a great way to connect with staff members who are working remotely. If you have remote employees, it’s important to have regular video meetings so that they feel like they’re part of the team. This will also allow them to see their coworkers in person, which can help build relationships between people who may not otherwise interact with each other on a regular basis.

Allow Flexible Working Hours

Remote workers can be productive at any time of the day. If you’re an early bird and prefer to work early in the morning, you can start your day with a fresh mind and energy. If you’re a night owl and like to work late into the evening, then that’s fine too. You can get your tasks done just as efficiently as any other remote employee. The key is to find a time when you are most productive and stick with it.

Encourage Collaboration between Employees

Remote workers should be encouraged to collaborate as much as possible–especially if they’re working on projects together. If a team is working on a project together but has different schedules, make sure everyone knows what tasks need to be completed by certain deadlines so that work can continue seamlessly no matter what time zone they’re in.

Final Thoughts

There will always be some problems with remote teams, but you can make them work with strong communication and a little planning. And if yours doesn’t work out, try out our list above again. Remote work is becoming more prevalent than ever before; it’s just a matter of finding the right methods to make it work.

Photo by Christina Morillo