How to Manage Your Remote Team Effectively During COVID-19

Social distancing is something that we are all being asked to do right now. The world is slowly coming to terms with the widespread outbreak of coronavirus, and we need to maintain a safe distance from one another so that the virus spread is minimized. This social distancing, which has led to temporary shutdowns, has disrupted daily lives around the world and businesses are no exception. Fear and uncertainty caused by this pandemic has forced countless organizations in the corporate world to send their employees home. To maintain the workflow while practicing social distancing as per the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, some organizations have opted for remote working for their employees. However, managers might be having a challenging time leading their teams remotely, especially if employees have little to no preparation to work remotely, with many experiencing this for the first time. In such cases, it’s very important to prepare beforehand on how to manage the remote team effectively during this social distancing period. Experienced businesses that are working virtually such as business process outsourcing companies ensure that they are prepared to deal with the impact of the coronavirus in the workplace.

Without warning – and in many cases, without preparation of any kind – managers have been thrust into the position of leading virtual teams. This situation is difficult for managers because it’s hard to manage themselves in quarantine without face-to-face human interaction and organizing a typical workday is quite intimidating. Additionally, pressurized conditions, heightened uncertainty, and an overall sense of dislocation make it even tougher. Every aspect of the manager’s role is magnified and complicated during this time and it would be needed to reset expectations for how work gets done and adapt management style to a new context (hbr.org/).

So here are some recommendations for managers – who are new to remote working or even experienced managers who need additional guidance in these trying times- to support continued learning and the emotional well-being of their employees during social distancing.

• Equipping people for remote working: If your workplace has decided to go remote, then make sure that your employees perform their day-to-day responsibilities. For that, check in and make sure they have the resources they need to do their jobs. For instance,
  • Assess carefully which roles are suited to remote working.
  • Make sure their tech setup at home is similar to what they have in the office (additional monitors, docking stations, noise-canceling headsets, and so on)
  • Provide access to remote working tools such as Zoom, Google Jamboard, Microsoft Teams, FaceTime, Miro, or other collaborative programs they can use to continue to connect with each other.
• Communicate Regularly: It is very important for managers to always stay in touch with their remote team members because lack of communication is one of the main issues that employees face when working from home which can affect workflow efficiency. According to a Forbes article, to avoid this situation and keep everyone updated, certain recommendations are provided, which include:
  • Weekly one-on-ones with each employee, which are essential in the beginning. They can become less frequent once everyone is settled in, depending on their preferences.
  • Weekly action reviews, which provide an opportunity for everyone to receive updates on current projects and find out who to contact in case they need extra information.
  • An end-of-day short list of the tasks accomplished from each employee, which holds them accountable and keeps you up to date on everyone’s progress.

Harvard Business Review points out that a sociometric research proves that shorter communication cycle times are more effective in building and sustaining morale and engagement. Other tips for communicating frequently include:

• Use instant messaging to stay in touch constantly
• Don’t let an employee go half a day without checking in
• Organize a meeting or a team huddle by using video conferencing tools
• Make it mandatory for all team members to be present and encourage them to give their inputs during the virtual meeting
• Hold a quick conference each week and allow a different individual to take charge of this conference
• Set Clear Expectations: In offices, most teams are socialized and habituated to synchronous work and standardization, where all the employees work together under the same working conditions, with the same work schedule. Similarly, in a quarantined environment, managers must make sure to help their teams shift immediately to asynchronous work and provide the opportunity for personalization. Also, managers may need to change their expectations depending on the situation regarding how work gets done, which means you will have to reduce your expectations and give your team members some time to adjust and adapt. Focus more on results and offer more flexibility to avoid uncomfortable misunderstandings in the long run.
• Interpret Tone and Voice: It’s very important to know the emotional state of your employee who is working from home. While working remotely, judging the emotional cues of your employees is not possible. So, rather than depending on the non-verbal data and body language, rely on proxy indicators such as text, voice, and infrequent video communications. Pay close attention and identify patterns in written communications, volume, rate, pitch and inflection in verbal communication and physical gestures in visual communication. If you notice any changes in these behavioral patterns then it will help you recognize early that a team member may need some additional support.
• Constantly Observe Stress and Engagement Levels: Make it clear to your team members that your primary concern is their well-being. Put some extra effort to keep a tab on your employees’ overall engagement level and ask them whether they are feeling stressed out. By doing so, you can create favorable conditions for employees, by allowing them to continue to perform, contribute and most importantly you bring in the human element by checking in on them.
• Encourage Video Calls: Rather than using just phone calls or email, relying on video calls benefits a lot. It will help you to observe everyone’s non-verbal cues – giving you a better picture of what they’re feeling or how well they’re handling the situation. Moreover, it will also encourage everyone to call from a quiet, professional space by wearing neat dress – which helps them get into the right mindset – to focus on their work.
• Ask for reports frequently and update even if there’s nothing to update: One of the most significant concerns of having a remote workforce in times of crisis is not knowing the status of projects and deliverables. However, with a little planning, you and your team members can focus on getting the most important tasks completed even when working remotely.

  Ask yourself the following questions, such as:

  • What updates should they submit and how frequently?
  • What “key performance indicators” (KPIs) should they report on and how often?

However, even if you don’t have new information to share, communicate regularly, because maintaining transparency through a crisis with frequent updates is the ultimate expression of good faith, empathy, and genuine concern for your team.

• Appreciate Employees’ efforts: Managers should emphasize the importance of positive reinforcement, because even though working from home allows for a certain degree of freedom, it can also promote negativity and loneliness. Employee recognition is an effective tool that managers may find very useful for positive reinforcement. Appreciate their efforts even if they work from home and offer small rewards when your team successfully crosses a milestone. It helps the employees to feel valued and more likely to have high levels of energy to carry out their responsibilities happily.

As it’s a challenging circumstance for numerous managers to manage a team during lockdown without any face-to-face communication and structuring out a normal workday, these tips could keep everyone connected and productive. The remote team members should feel included, safe to learn, safe to contribute, and safe to challenge the existing state of affairs, all without the fear of being embarrassed, marginalized, or punished during this social distancing and lockdown period. Experienced providers of business processing outsourcing services will do all the needful to ensure that their remote team is productive and supported, because an efficient remote team requires the right technology and most importantly the right leadership.