Businesses who have made a recent and ongoing shift from face-to-face work to working remotely may be putting productivity and quality at risk if they don’t adapt and maintain effective communication.
Just because you no longer see your staff face to face doesn’t mean that your communication has to suffer. Here are some ways you can keep your remote team on track.
Have a communication plan
Whether it’s having a set schedule for work calls and virtual meetings, or requiring employees to provide reports or updates at certain times, having a clear communication plan can help keep your staff on track with their work and with each other. It’s a good idea to keep a record of this in writing by using tools such as shared calendars or reminders.
Define goals and roles
Outline project goals and objectives to ensure that everyone is working towards the same result. Delegate roles and obligations to each team member to avoid confusion and overlap. This will keep the team on track despite not physically seeing what each other is up to.
Utilise messaging tools
Messages are a great way to communicate with your staff and keep a written account of tasks and ideas. If your business relies on teamwork, then having group messaging chats are essential to keeping everyone on the same page, otherwise, miscommunication and confusion are huge risks.
This will also give employees the opportunity to chat amongst each other in a group setting as they would normally do in the workplace, and can help them retain a positive work attitude through providing a sense of collegiality and normalcy.
Provide performance feedback
With everyone working remotely, it can be hard to monitor the performance and quality of your employees. Providing performance feedback fortnightly or monthly can help your employees continue to learn and improve, as well as keeping them productive knowing that their work will be reviewed.
Recognition
Providing positive and encouraging comments in the office seems very natural and easy to do, but when it comes to remote workers, it is easy for employers and managers to forget about taking the time to show recognition for the work employees are doing. Just like anyone else, remote employees should receive adequate praise and recognition for the high-quality work they do; without it, they are likely to become disengaged
Given the current circumstances where many businesses have had to return to working from home, it’s important to have a plan in place to keep your team on track.
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