Rethink, Refresh: How to Make a Remote Team Work Better for Your Business
Most of us have been managing a work-from-home team for over two years now. How’s it going? Now may be a good time to take a fresh look and recalibrate!
As managers, it is part of our responsibility to check in with our team and understand the challenges they face while working at home. Are they able to work productively without a lot of surrounding distractions? I know I have had to change things up over the past two years, and I feel like it is always evolving. What used to work for me a year ago is not necessarily a good thing to help me remain focused today.
Think about how you can change things up for yourself — and your team. Give it a refresh. What can you introduce that would be new and engaging?
Format better meetings
First thing’s first: Mix up the format of your team meetings. Instead of a long agenda with an hour of nonstop talking, try short, one-topic meetings. Alternating presenters and asking experts to be guests keep things interesting. Use visual aids, fun media and other tools! Try the whiteboard feature in Zoom to liven things up — you can even play Pictionary as a teambuilding exercise. Have video fatigue? There’s an easy fix: The camera doesn’t always need to be on for internal meetings. Let people take a picture break. You can also try an old school conference call to close out the week to recap task lists and project updates. Try encouraging people to take the call outside of the office, perhaps while taking a walk for a bit of health and wellness.
Set up “core work hours”
If you haven’t already set up core work hours, for your team, I highly recommend it. Core working hours are important to make sure the team is available during the same timeframe for collaborative work. I have been building core work hours into our client handbooks for many years, and I like to add enough flexibility to make sense for the whole team.
Consider how many time zones your business spans, then set your basic core work hours based on one of those time zones. I typically use Pacific time, 10 am to 3 pm. No, this doesn’t mean a five-hour workday. It means that during those five core work hours each day, everyone is available to you and each other. This is just to allow flexibility and ensure everyone is fully accessible during the same span of time — at their desk working, available online, on the phone, in a chat, on a Teams call or in a Zoom room.
Make time to redefine
Regularly redefining roles and responsibilities is key to success for any position, remote or onsite, and a clearly written job description is essential. Should some of your job descriptions be updated? If so, what revisions are needed? When having your 1:1s, please don’t assume you set clear expectations. Take the time to outline them in a follow-up email: “Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. Here’s a quick recap of our conversation blah blah blah, bullet point 1, 2, 3. If you have questions or would like clarification, please ping me any time.” This will be especially helpful to come back to if you ever need to have a difficult conversation.
Tech & space
Next, think about technology. If someone’s sound quality isn’t good, or they always seem to have bandwidth issues on video meetings, it may be time to address their equipment issues. Get IT involved. Does their technology or equipment need some help — hardware or software updates, headsets or earbuds, VoIP vs. cell phone, a second monitor, or a new keyboard? Help them figure out what they may need, and provide it. Little things can make a big difference.
What about their actual workspace? Are they still working at their dining room table or in their bedroom? Is there any way to make their space more ergo or comfortable? How about a good chair or a stand-up desk? There are lots of desktop options online, and good chairs can be ordered at Costco. Think about it as an investment in your people, which is an investment in your business. Set a dollar limit, so employees and managers know how to work within the budget.
It’s been a few years since hybrid workplaces became the norm. Many of us did a lot of pivoting and piecemeal fixes along the way just to get through. Now’s the time to take a new look and make sure this work arrangement is working for both employees and your business.
If you need a fresh eye, or you have any questions on what you can/should do, please contact me.