Luckily, the world today is way more flexible and allows employees to work from home. This means that employees aren’t required to get up extremely early in the morning, prepare for the day, brave the heavy traffic, get to work on time, and do this cycle five times a week for the rest of the year. In the current times, everyone can fulfill their job roles in the comforts of their own homes.
As people choose to work from home, project managers must handle their team well and more tightly, as they can’t physically see the progress of every team member. There are a lot of ways to run and manage a team remotely. Especially if the employees are working on a project, efficiently managing them would be beneficial for speedy and precise results.
Project Management for Remote Teams: 8 Tips and Tricks
Here are some effective tips and tricks on project management if you’re dealing with a remote team:
1. Set Expectations
Managing teams effectively starts with setting up rules and boundaries that your employees should follow as they work from home. Managing a project while working from home isn’t much different. Employees expect leaders to keep them up to date on the project’s status even though the team isn’t working in a traditional workspace. The employees should know what and what not to do once they start working on the project. Also, you should let your employees know what you’re expecting from them so they can meet your demands.
2. Invest In Project Management Tools
Having a designated place to manage all the things project-related would be helpful for you and the employees working on the project. Ideally, you might want to consider using the best project management software to help you out. This tool gives you an overview of how the project is doing and who is doing well, and even checks who’s behind schedule. These types of tools make it easier for the employees to complete their tasks, and the project manager to keep track of everyone.
Project management tools also allow you to create a hierarchy of tasks so projects are completed quickly. The employees would also have access to such tools so that they could update themselves with recent changes. They can also see what to do next and what to expect for the project.
3. Create Communication Channels
Remote teams could work more efficiently if they had a suitable and effective means of communication. It’d be best if you made time to build a functional communication channel for your employees since everyone is working remotely.
Using communication channels would help relay important information or changes about the project, such as deadlines, challenges, or any problem any team member encounters. These allow the employees and leaders to reach out to each other as soon as they have a concern regarding the project’s status. Communication is essential, mainly since everyone works remotely and doesn’t have the usual visibility that a traditional workspace provides.
4. Schedule Daily Check-Ins
Remotely managing a project would be challenging, especially if you can’t physically see your employees daily. Scheduling a daily check-in with every one of them would be a good practice to keep track of your employees' progress. Keep in mind that it’s still a must for employees who work from home to feel that their work has value by communicating and updating them daily.
Daily check-ins are an effective way of keeping you updated on what’s happening with your employees who are currently working on the project. If there are issues or concerns, these can be escalated as soon as possible since they have the time to communicate everything.
5. Schedule Weekly Team Meetings
Keeping everyone in the loop would help complete the project ahead of the deadline. Weekly team meetings allow everyone to be part of the discussion on how the project is progressing, and the necessary steps needed to complete it. Weekly meetings would also help raise the team’s morale since they know what’s happening with everyone.
Make sure to always schedule weekly team meetings as this will be one of the platforms on which they’d hear from their leaders regarding the project’s status. Once they’re aware of the progress of the project, they’ll know how far they’ll still have to go.
6. Allocate Resources
Providing resources for the employees would be beneficial since these will help them complete the tasks assigned to them. Ensuring that all of them have access to these resources can help them improve and handle more complex tasks on their hands.
There are a lot of essential resources that you can offer to the employees. Resources such as online courses, e-books, articles, and even the necessary tools and software can help them effectively fulfill their roles. These resources allow the employees to improve their skills, helping increase the team’s productivity. You can even help them look for the best Internet service provider so they won't encounter any network problem since they need to rely on the Internet to fulfill their tasks.
7. Take Breaks
Finishing a project could be daunting. That’s why it’s always important to let your employees take their breaks. Working on a project for a long period does increase productivity, but can also be stressful for the whole team. Encouraging your employees to take breaks allows them to breathe, freshen up, and relax their minds. These can help your employees recharge and be back on their feet.
A well-rested team member would be able to complete their assigned tasks. Ensure that your employees aren’t overworked since this isn’t good practice, especially when they’re all working remotely. Breaks not only help the employees, but they can also create a much better working environment for the whole team.
8. Celebrate Successes
Since everyone is working remotely, it’s essential to let all your employees know that their work and productivity matter. Celebrating successes or even small wins can help raise the employees’ morale, making them more confident to continue working on the project.
Completing a project takes a long time, so it doesn’t hurt to take a break and celebrate your team’s successes once in a while. You can either make an announcement of their exemplary performance for a given week, month, or quarter, or even provide small complimentary gifts that they can use at home.
Takeaway:
Managing teams remotely isn’t as easy as it looks. With the number of teams that you need to handle, it might just keep you off track as you find the best way to manage them. However, if you follow the tips and tricks above, you should be able to provide the best working environment while ensuring productivity.
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