Overcoming the biggest challenges
While managing a remote team can be incredibly rewarding and do great things for your business - it's not without its difficulties. Aside from communication issues, which we’ve already addressed, handling differences in time zones and ensuring your team doesn’t suffer from burnout are also issues to think about.
If you’re based in San Francisco and have colleagues in Berlin, their day is ending as yours is just beginning. How do you manage a team when there’s a good chance they’re not online at the same time as you?
Start by setting up regular check-ins at a time least inconvenient to you both. For example, if you’re in SF consider starting one day a week a little earlier, while your colleagues in Europe start a little later. A tool like Doodle can help you make a poll that manages time zones automatically, so finding a time that works best for everyone is easy.
Next, look at doing a comprehensive audit of tools that can help ensure you’re team is staying on track and issues can quickly be identified. For example, a ticketing system where a project is broken into chunks and assigned to the appropriate team members. When one ticket isn’t going to plan it’s easy for you to identify and leave notes for your team to correct as soon as they are next online. Finding the right tools will enable you to maximize productivity and ensure projects are delivered on time.
When your team is remote it’s not always going to be obvious when someone is struggling. Managing employee burnout when you’re not always there to see the signs is hard. Remote workers can often find it difficult to maintain a work/life balance due to a lack of separation between where they work and where they live.
Be sure to encourage your team to take regular breaks (the Pomodoro model is a good start for this), establish clear boundaries between work and personal time and support their overall well-being. This can be done by offering flexible working hours, providing mental health support and creating opportunities for team members to connect and socialize. Have regular check-ins with your team as a group and 1:1 and provide them with feedback and recognition for their hard work.