For those of you who have worked fully remote before -Kudos! You’re doing great...The rest of us, well, we’re adjusting for sure! Working fully remote definitely has its benefits but it certainly has its cons as well - especially if you’re in charge of a team. It can be tough to coach, direct, or check in when everyone’s spread out and only reachable my email. If you find yourself in this predicament - don’t fret! We have 5 awesome tips for you moving forward as you manage your remote team...Let us just say - These certainly apply all the time (coronavirus or not!)

Maintain an Open Line of Communication- Now that you’re not in office, your communication has to improve. Have your email open, your notification bells on, and be prepared for questions, ideas, and concerns to come to your inbox now instead of your office. People are reliant on you, more so than you know and you have to be available for your team in transitional times such as these. So, whether you have your notifications on, email pulled up, or you’re the one doing the communicating, make sure it’s consistent and regular so that your team is all on the same page and can reach you or each other if need be!

Allow for Independence- One major bonus to remote work is independence. You have to be able to trust your employees - you don’t really have a choice in situations such as these so give them their tasks and trust them to get the job done. Odds are, if you hired them and you saw something in them originally then they’ll get the job done! Check out this quote on employee trust from a recent Forbes blog: “Sometimes, companies are not willing to embrace a remote workforce because there's an uncertainty about whether or not the work will get completed at the same level as if they were in the office. To combat this belief, set up work-from-home guidelines, such as emails must be responded to within 24 hours, use text for urgent matters, and no calls between certain hours to make sure teammates are not working around the clock. - LaKiesha Tomlin, Thriving Ambition, Inc”. It’s crucial as your team is aware when trust is not reciprocated and that could affect their work more severely than just allowing them to get stuff done on an honor/trust basis.

Schedule Weekly Check-Ins- To ensure everyone’s on the same page, everyone’s getting work done, and any new tasks are divided out - schedule weekly calls! Obviously you’re going to communicate more than once a week, but having that allotted time at the start of the week can really kick things into gear, motivate your team, and most importantly get everyone on the same page moving into a new week! It’s so important to just take the time to ask everyone how they’re doing, what’s new, where they’re struggling, etc. It helps with unification and transparency now and in the long run too.

Collaborate When Needed- Remote collaboration can be tricky, especially if it’s not deemed a necessity moving forward. However, it’s so important for team unification that you’re working collaboratively at least to some extent. Check out this helpful quote for a better perspective and understanding: “First, consider that there are three kinds of distance in remote collaboration: physical (place and time), operational (team size, bandwidth and skill levels) and affinity (values, trust, and interdependency). The best way for managers to drive team performance is by focusing on reducing affinity distance. Try switching most remote communication to regular video calls, which are a much better vehicle for establishing rapport and creating empathy than either e-mails or voice calls. And design virtual team-building rituals that give people the opportunity to interact regularly and experience their collaboration skills in action.” Basically it’s simple. Take the time, create a plan, find the best ways to collaborate, and go from there!

Establish Clear Goals/Expectations- This certainly applies to more than just the remote workers but establish a clear goal and expectation! Your remote team is working solely off of your direction so lay the parameters on the table, make sure everyone understands and is on board, and boom! You’re destined for success. Feeling a low confidence or lack of full understanding as to how to set clear expectations? Check out this great resource with 6 helpful steps!

What has been your biggest takeaway? Struggle? Success? Let us know - we want to hear about your WFH experience.