Due to the circumstances of the recent year, remote work has become incredibly popular all over the world. Remote work is any job done outside the office. It includes both isolated cases of working from home, and working from home throughout the week days or in another office. There are already entire companies using the distributed model.
With a reliable WiFi connection, you can work remotely from anywhere – from home or a trendy coworking space during your vacation abroad. There are a lot of benefits of working remotely. Flexible workplace choices are quickly becoming the most desirable bait for employees. Remote work is a well-deserved reward for close-knit and hardworking teams. Plus, when you work remotely, you can spend less time on the road and stay more focused.
Some of the benefits of working remotely:
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staying in a comfortable home environment
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eliminating office distractions
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save travel time
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scheduling tasks to relieve unnecessary stress.
Nevertheless, many companies evaluate the effectiveness of remote work in different ways, since it is not so easy to establish cooperation in a team. A successful remote worker must be a full-fledged team player, motivated to maintain strong business relationships.
Whatever the opportunities for remote work, all remote employees face similar challenges: feelings of loneliness, feeling like they have no one to rely on, and being unable to fully understand team goals. But there are ways to strengthen the collaboration of remote workers. Give them this opportunity, and you can increase the level of collaboration and team productivity.
Here are some important recommendations to strengthen collaboration and improve self-efficacy for professionals who work remotely so that their contribution to teamwork becomes even greater.
Tip 1: Remote workers need feedback. It’s very simple: if you work outside the office, it is difficult for you to understand how well done your task is, how important your contribution to the common cause is, and what kind of relationships are developing in the team. Feedback is recognized as an excellent source of intrinsic motivation and has already proven its ability to evoke the desire for knowledge in people, foster trust and increase employee satisfaction. So when it comes to remote specialists, remember that there is never too much feedback. Choose one of the popular voice messengers to send audio messages and make this whole process easier for your team members.
Tip 2: Build Trust and Empathy. To show trust, it is enough to give employees a reasonable degree of freedom and independence in carrying out day-to-day tasks. The manager should have reasonable confidence that remote employees will do their job efficiently and on time. And those, in turn, must understand all the problems of such cooperation and, if possible, stay in touch.
Tip 3: Implement clear workflows. Many companies are starting to neglect the workflow. What should be done in such a situation? Try to start by making a list of specific expectations for remote work in your team and use the best tools to work remotely to communicate faster and more clearly. This will help allay doubts, and your employees will have a place to turn if they have questions.
Tip #4, Based on Luis Magalhaes, Marketing Director of ThinkRemote,
Make it part of your job as a remote team leader to check in with your people regularly.
If you use the Agile development methodology (and if not, why not?), then you’ll have your daily stand-up meeting. If you don’t, then make a point of touching base with your team, so you stay up to date on the issues. You can also use a goal-tracking tool part of your workflow. It can give a great sense of satisfaction and team spirit, to tick off goals in real-time. A visual way that your team can see what they are achieving together.
