Thriving in the Remote Work Era: Strategies for Building High-Performing Teams

If you are responsible for developing and managing a professional team for a particular project, you’ve learned quickly how hard it is to find good help at a good rate.

You can require all employees to attend work in-person or hire remote workers. If you haven't already embraced the benefits of virtual collaboration, you should learn more about how the growing trend can benefit your company and offer solutions to your personnel needs.

Remote Work: A Growing Trend

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a survey revealing that 27% of full-time and part-time employees work remotely or according to a hybrid schedule as of September 2022. This study does not include independent contractors, which can increase the number of remote workers to 50%.

Corporations were already gradually embracing online resources and how to utilize them to improve professional operations when the global pandemic happened. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated remote work in 2020, and many companies continue to allow employees to work from home, at least part of the time.

The trend doesn't show any signs of stopping, especially considering the benefits employees and employers get from the transition to virtual teams.

Benefits of Working Virtually

Working from home has several benefits for both employees and the employer. When you know the possibilities, you can best take advantage of them.

Convenience

Working from home is much more convenient for employees. Employees don't need to drive to the office daily, saving them time in the morning to better prepare for the work day. Employees can perform chores during breaks, such as walking the dog or doing the dishes.

It's also more convenient to keep communications online. Most colleagues communicate via email or messenger throughout the day already. People can still communicate effectively from the comfort of their homes.

Less Overhead

With fewer employees in the office, you won't need as much space. You can downsize to a smaller office to save on rent and utilities. You won't have to buy as many desks and chairs since most employees work from their home desks. 

There are also fewer people using up company office supplies and break room coffee. You may be surprised at how much you can save just by switching to a hybrid schedule.

Health-Conscious

We recently learned how many germs we share in public places, including the office. Airborne illnesses exist in the air we breathe or rest on joint surfaces, such as doorknobs, where others can become infected.

Companies have increased safety measures by providing more hand sanitizer and allowing employees to work from home when they aren't feeling well. Employees won't feel compelled to come to the office even though they aren't feeling well, potentially getting other employees sick, too.

Improved Monitoring

Some executives argue that remote work reduces productivity since employees won't have a supervisor watching them work. However, working online allows you to monitor employee activity in real-time. You can also examine their activity throughout the day if you suspect an employee may be slacking on a particular day.

Collaborate From Afar

Finding the perfect candidate for a particular role can be challenging when you solely interview local candidates. When you permit employees to work from home, you can hire people from anywhere in the country (or the world). You will have many more applicants with more skills and experience.

Remote teams are highly flexible. You don't need to hire a full-time employee if that's different from what's financially best for the company. Since you can hire employees from anywhere, you don't have to worry about a gig worker entering the office. You don't need to create a workspace for them; they can do their work from home. You can continue to work with them on a gig basis or hire them as a part-time or full-time team member.

Considerations When Creating Remote Teams

Working remotely requires everyone to be online at all times. However, what happens in the case of a technical issue? 

The problem will inevitably occur when a team member's computer screen cracks or the internet goes out on their block. Encourage employees to have a backup plan in these moments. You should also create some leeway in your expectations for these problems.

Communication will become crucial during these moments, so be clear with your team about what they need to do if they have a technical issue that is more than five minutes. Even if their internet goes out at home, they should still contact the team to let them know what's happening.

There may be situations when you wish you and your team were in the same physical location. For example, if you need to send them a signed document via fax, it would be easier to just hand it to them if they were in the office. 

Do your best to plan to minimize the hassle when possible. However, there will always be minor inconveniences with any professional team system.

Distance can impact scheduling, too. When working with a remote team, make time zones extremely clear when scheduling meetings.

Creating Effective and Efficient Systems for Virtual Workers

Learn how best to manage your online team with these convenient tips!

Establish Reliable Systems

Virtual collaboration depends on reliable connectivity among the team. All employees must have access to a quality computer with a strong internet connection.

All team members must be able to connect and share information easily. Therefore, you should pick a team management platform to keep tasks organized. Ideally, you will find one system for all your needs to keep things as simple and user-friendly for the employees as possible.

There is a lot of team management software out there. Some of the most popular options you may want to consider include:

• Microsoft Teams

• Monday

• Slack

• Trello

• Podio

• Asana

Once you have the technical infrastructure in place, you need to establish detailed processes and expectations for each team member. Just like a traditional place of work, you should onboard all new employees on company policies.

As part of your operations, encourage constant communication among team members. Team members should greet each other in the morning and freely ask questions throughout the day. Remind all team members to be diligent about their status on Messenger and to keep their Messenger open at all times.

Hire Remote Developers

Your team is only as good as its members, so you must hire the best remote developers. Start your employee search on a trustworthy remote work platform, such as Toptal.

Toptal specializes in connecting employers with remote developers, engineers, programmers, coders, architects, and consultants. Toptal makes it easy to structure the pay for whatever is most appropriate for the situation, whether that's a full-time salary, hourly wage, or freelance work.

Job seekers on Toptal create profiles that include their skills, so it's easy to find candidates with the skillsets you need. You can trust employees based on their experience with other clients, and the employees can trust you since you reached out to them through Toptal.

Collect Feedback and Adjust

It will behoove you and your company to take advantage of remote employees. However, you may experience some hiccups when launching an online team at work. Do your best to plan on handling problems in advance and manage each issue as it occurs.

Every quarter, you should take the time to assess the program. Check productivity and sales metrics to determine if there has been a significant change for better or worse since the program started. If there is a change, identify the cause of the change and adjust accordingly.

Remember to request feedback from your team. Their input can provide valuable insight into improving the current processes to make them more effective and efficient.

Perform Team-Building Exercises

Employees may not develop as strong of a personal relationship with each other when working remotely. You should make an effort to create bonding among the team by performing the occasional team-building exercise.

Start by finding a fun way for new team members to introduce themselves to the team. You should also encourage team members to express themselves throughout the workday. Finally, provide a safe place for employees to communicate with each other freely without fear of monitoring.

Continue regular fun activities with the team at least once a month. You should also make a point to have regular meetings for both professional and bonding opportunities once a week. A great way to perform a remote Daily Standup for team alignment is to use a collaboration platform and meeting facilitator like Team O’clock. 

When group members feel comfortable with each other and trust each other, they work better together and get more done together. Work friends don't have to be in the same office. In fact, they can be in different time zones.