7 Practical Ways to Increase Remote Team's Efficiency

Well-managed and equipped remote teams have a higher productivity potential than teams working in traditional office workspaces.

Introduction

As more organizations embrace remote working, many employees struggle to remain efficient and productive when working from home. Major factors such as distractions, a lack of a collaborative work environment, and poor communication easily affect remote team productivity.

Instead of trying to micro-manage tasks, there are more effective approaches you can use. Let's discuss seven practical ways to ensure and enhance efficiency in your remote team.

7 Practical Ways to Increase Remote Team's Efficiency

Working remotely has many outstanding benefits, including cost savings, autonomy, and flexibility.

However, it also comes with challenges revolving around collaboration and team cohesion. You can overcome most of these challenges by taking proactive steps to:

1. Establish clear communication channels

Effective communication and teamwork are key pillars of a productive and effective remote team. Having clear channels is particularly important for remote workers who need to communicate to work more efficiently.

Establishing clear communication is the best way to ensure efficiency and accuracy. However, it can be challenging to have everyone attend an update meeting in a remote setting. That's why you need streamlined channels to avoid miscommunication.

Although chat platforms are reliable tools for streamlining information, communication styles are different for remote teams. For instance, a lack of vocal inflection and body language makes it easy to misinterpret the content and tone of written information. This can create a disconnect, which affects the flow of organic communication and makes your team feel under-supported.

It's, therefore, crucial to adopt effective communication practices and go the extra mile to keep up individual connections. Personalizing nurtures workplace relationships, which ultimately leads to higher efficiency. Incorporating virtual meetings and video calls is also a great way to add a personal touch to official communication.

Open communication is another effective practice that reduces misunderstandings while building collaboration and trust. It boosts morale, ensures remote teams remain aligned, and brings a sense of belonging despite the physical distance.

2. Set clear goals and expectations

Outlining clear goals and expectations guides remote team members constructively while enhancing efficiency. When everyone is clear on what you expect from them, it's easier to focus energy on attaining those goals.

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You can start by setting realistic personal goals, reasonable deadlines, and clear roles and responsibilities. Such clarity enables team members to collaborate, giving everyone a sense of accomplishment while encouraging healthy dependency.

When outlining goals for your remote team, the best move is to use tangible and measurable ways of tracking them, like the OKR framework. It helps you prioritize goals with deadlines and those you can measure using metrics. You can break down overall goals into smaller, achievable, and actionable tasks for every project while setting deadlines for each. Doing so will ensure that every team member has a clear execution plan for each goal.

Your goals should also be SMART, that is:

● Specific – Be clear about what you aim to achieve using action words

● Measurable – Make sure you can use data to assess whether your team accomplished a goal

● Attainable – Every goal should be within your team's scope to avoid the frustrations of failure

● Relevant – Your goals should have a positive impact on your business

● Time-bound – Each goal should have a particular deadline that you must adhere to

SMART goals promote transparency within your organization, allowing remote teams to work towards the same goals.

3. Foster collaboration and team bonding

Remote work can often bring a sense of isolation. Remote team members feel separated, especially if communication is primarily via video interaction with minimal written communication.

Promoting teamwork and collaboration can foster remote team building. It also ensures positive communication to fill in the gap left by isolation.

Collaboration begins with integrating your team and bringing everyone together when pursuing common goals. Video conferencing technology is an effective tool in this aspect. You can nurture a collaborative environment by introducing collaborative projects and virtual team bonding activities. Pair different team members working on a project to give them a chance to achieve the set goals together.

You should also provide regular team collaboration opportunities by mixing relationship-focused and work-focused activities. For instance, you can organize collaborative, fun games like virtual trivia and casual chit-chat before official meetings to keep relationships alive.

‍4. Provide the right tools and resources

Having inadequate or insufficient physical resources is a major efficiency barrier in remote teams. It's up to you to ensure your remote team has the necessary resources and tools to become highly efficient. You need to make them feel independent, informed, and supported as often as possible.

Since there's no physical space to keep tools and resources, you can avail them through a centralized online hub via an intranet. Ensure you have resources such as training guides, HR information, and blogs that your team can easily access at any time. You can also include educational videos, open forum chats, and newsletters so that your team can understand the company vision that drives the common goals.

You can also use these internal networks to keep different teams, locations, and departments connected.

Equipping your remote team with proper project management tools is vital to maintaining a productive work environment. With the right tools, your team can work efficiently, cultivating a productive and robust remote culture.

For instance, collaborating via project management platforms can help your team prioritize and organize tasks. Providing remote team communication tools ensures your team feels connected, even from different locations.

5. Encourage time management and accountability

Knowing what effective time management entails can motivate your remote team, pushing everyone to handle their day in the most productive way possible.

It's a good idea to establish a work-from-home policy that includes hybrid schedules and expected working hours.

Encourage your team to adopt time management techniques such as:

• Designing a work schedule that resembles a regular working office. The idea is to mimic a normal work day with regular breaks and fixed work hours.
• Creating a to-do list with an overview of daily tasks will encourage you to finish them on time.
• Adopting time-tracking tools for better self-discipline. Such tools can help monitor task duration to enhance productivity and gain insights into everyone's working habits.

You can also get your team excited to manage time by offering incentives when one achieves certain goals within the stipulated timeline. Incentives can be anything from extra time off to virtual team bonding events.

Reduce meetings that add little value to the workflow and schedule them when you have key agenda items to discuss.

6. Promote work-life balance

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A healthy work-life balance is crucial to a remote team to lower stress levels and maintain productivity. One way to ensure this balance is to have realistic expectations of your team. Ensure you clearly communicate priorities, deadlines, and goals, and avoid micromanaging your team. Be mindful not to overwork your team with redundant tasks, and respect their availability and working hours.

Another way to ensure a balanced work life is to observe a flexible and consistent routine. Encourage your team to have an ergonomic workspace and outline a regular schedule that promotes peak productivity.

Remote work can also impact your team's emotional, mental, and physical well-being. You can support them by providing resources to handle challenges, anxiety, and stress. For instance, consider offering access to meditation apps and online wellness programs or counseling.

7. Offer ongoing feedback and support

Generally, informal and formal feedback is vital to growth. What this means when working with a remote team is actively providing and seeking feedback while offering opportunities to improve.

Regular feedback and performance evaluations can help you keep everyone updated on their efficiency and productivity. It's easier to identify your team's weaknesses and strengths, fostering continuous growth. It also builds a culture of improvement and learning to fortify the team dynamics.

Ensure you dedicate specific times for you and your team to receive and share feedback. You must also be willing to take action based on the feedback you receive.

Conclusion

Team efficiency, productivity, and remote work go hand in hand. Effectively managing a remote team is often challenging for most people. With the right strategies and resources, you can build a highly efficient team that collaborates to deliver.

With a robust management tool, you can empower your team with clear communication and collaboration. You can remove the guesswork from productivity by measuring your team's progress toward your goals and objectives. The result will be a productive and highly efficient team with enough motivation to exceed expectations.

Author Bio:

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Nisha Joseph, Content Manager, Profit.co

In her current role, she leads the content marketing team with experience in various fields, such as science, education, law, and management. She is a well-rounded individual with diverse interests and skills.  

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