Tools for leaders to support remote teams will help managers to support their teams working from home and anywhere. Right now, working from home is now a necessity for companies all across the globe. As a result, there are leaders and managers who find themselves suddenly managing a completely remote team.
Employees turn to their trusted leaders during uncertain times. Many workers have been transitioned to remote work, which is uncharted territory for most; it takes solid leadership and support to keep your team confident and thriving. Are you prepared to provide your team with adequate guidance and resources needed for success? Check out the following tools that can make the difference for those under your leadership.
Fostering employee engagement is fundamental for your distributed team. Remote workers can quickly begin to feel a disconnect from the rest of the team and question the importance of their role altogether. Therefore, it is important as a leader that you take responsibility for promoting employee engagement. One way to see wide-reaching impacts is by creating an employee recognition plan or modifying your existing one to better fit the remote environment. There are many employee recognition activities and tools that can be baked into your program. For instance, a virtual compliment board, or even gift cards for an extra special achievement can keep employees engaged and motivated.
Workers want the freedom to be able to work from different locations to prevent feelings of isolation. Many workers choose to work from their home private networks or even public networks at coffee shops, for example. With that in mind, however, they need peace of mind that they can securely access company resources regardless of where they choose to work. It is essential to ensure that sensitive data remains secure. Solutions like identity and access management (IAM) help to keep employment passwords and credentials from being compromised when working remotely. IAM helps to verify the identity of the team member when accessing data so only the appropriate individuals can obtain certain information, and also prevents malicious activity and hackers from interfering with business operations and exploiting data.
Having the ability to connect with a co-worker in real-time is essential to prevent communication silos and misunderstandings. Therefore, the days of communicating via email are over. Prevent fragmented conversation and help keep your team available and together by using corporate chat software. You can also encourage interaction by utilizing team building activities available in chat.
Your team may have been very connected while at the office. However, morning chats, team building activities, career conversations and meetings can still all happen while remote. All team members can still get face time with each other and collaborate by utilizing telecommuting software. Schedule sessions for brainstorms, department meetings, or just a meeting to unwind with each other. Even being able to see and interact virtually with co-workers can boost productivity immensely.
The transition to remote work can be stressful. Employees may be juggling work-related stress and personal matters as well. Leaders must strive to help team members with emotional intelligence and stress management. Encourage them to download a mindfulness app and take time out of their work schedule to weave in short breaks to decompress. There are many mindfulness activities that can be practised to greatly boost an employee’s mood and productivity.
See How to Keep Sane Working from Home for An Extended Period – 7 Tips
Don’t wait for your teams’ productivity to drop off before having a solid plan. Being proactive is better than being reactionary. Sometimes all it takes is knowing the tools available and minor adjustments to positively impact your teams’ dynamic. Take a look at your team’s performance and see what is working well and how you can propel your team forward.
