Remote working is something that is now becoming quite common among many industries. And for the foreseeable future, it is safe to say that it will play a crucial role in business success.
For many businesses adopting this change can be a bit difficult. Not just companies, but the transition would be difficult for many people as well. Many individuals familiar with face-to-face interaction communication and have been working from the office for quite some time will find this a completely new and novel experience.
Nevertheless, companies can make agile methods function well with remote teams. However, it might need extra effort, time, and experimenting.
To maintain team efficiency, cooperation, and consistency, team members must find the best way of using new technologies. They would need to adapt to new and different collaboration strategies.
To make it easy for you, we would be focusing on how you can adapt to the new agile working model. Many successful remote teams have used these steps to ensure the success of their team.
1. Make Sure Your Employees Have The Right Tools
This is a crucial aspect when it comes to working remotely. If your team members don’t have the right tools, technologies, or gadgets, it will take most of their time to sort it out. Moreover, it would lead to distractions that would ultimately lead to a decline in productivity and motivation.
Though there would still a few be things that you would face when you start working remotely, they can be dealt with time. But few things can be checked before you begin. This would help your team to transit to the remote working model smoothly.
Furthermore, having the right tools will make it easy for them to communicate with each other. Mainly if your business has been operating from an office for a long time, it is vital to have the right tools to ensure that no problems arise for your remote team.
Using tools such as Skype, Slack, etc., can help you bring down communication barriers. It would provide a medium through which your employees can instantly and effectively communicate with each other and you. While using effective remote work productivity software may boost your team performance, as well as their time and project management.
Also, try to refrain from using email for any communication. Gone are those days were email use as a communication method. It can slow down the entire communication process and lead to many problems.
2. Accountability
Agile teams transitioning from face-to-face interaction to remote working must adjust their pace. They would need to assess the degree and difficulty of the work they can effectively adhere to and finish.
Project managers and agile leaders should follow strategies close to those used by recently created agile teams and give employees time to adapt to new working ways.
Moreover, it is vital to have complete transparency and accountability for the work. Therefore, teams and individuals should be assigned tasks on which they would have to update to reduce any delays and disruptions.
It is vital to keep track of the progress of your employees. It is pretty easy to supervise them through physical supervision. However, you don’t have that privilege in a remote setting. But using software like Jira can help you monitor the performance of each member of your team.
You can easily then keep track of all the tasks of your remote team.
Furthermore, the best way to judge the team and individual’s performance is through their work in a remote setting. You can give out rewards and increments as per the quality of your remote employees’ work. It would ensure that your workers produce the best quality work and be more productive.
3. Schedule Periodic Get-Togethers
One thing is for sure that there is no replacement for human-to-human interaction. Though video conference is a good alternative, it can never have the same feeling as an in-person conversation. To combat this issue, it is highly recommended that you get together from time to time.
This would help foster a strong relationship among the team members. It would create much more harmony and cohesion between you and your employees. So, don’t consider this sort of activity futile as you get a good return on this small investment.
Bringing your team together would also help you in employee retention. When your employees form a bond with the people they are working with, it can help you retain your employees.
4. Be Available And Engage In Conversation With Teammates.
When it comes to remote working, you don’t have the privilege to go up to a coworker’s desk and have a chat. This leads to demotivation as well among the employees. A small conversation can be refreshing and can reduce the stress of the employees.
Therefore, you must encourage your employees to communicate with each other. Also, it would help if you tried to check in on them from time to time. Keep the door open for them so they can discuss things with you. If you cannot do that, simply set aside a few minutes to listen to your employees. This would help build a solid and trusting relationship, ultimately leading to a decrease in employee turnover.
Moreover, project managers should be checking up and contacting each other regularly. Their views and challenges in monitoring and controlling remote teams are likely not unusual. Exchanging some insights into how they enable their agile teams to interact remotely could help the entire organization.
Furthermore, teams should also need to set their availability to communicate with other teams and members effectively. It is vital that the teams that are available while they are working remotely. Slack, and Skype offer you the option to set your availability via the status button. Properly utilizing that button is extremely important in a remote setting.
Final Takeaway
Remote working is now the new norm and is going to stay. So, if you can make the most out of it, you can leverage it for your benefit. By using these few tips mentioned above, you can quickly build an agile remote working time.
Everything has its pros and cons, and so does remote working. But there is no doubt that the pros of remote working have overweighed the cons. That is why many businesses are now increasingly adopting it.
It’s time to get ahead of the competition by incorporating it before them. But if you think you lack the skills and expertise, you can always use the help of a top remote agency.
Aspired is a remote working agency that can help you make a robust remote working team. With years of experience, they can help you elevate your business, taking it to the next level. So, what are you waiting for you?
Collaborate with them for a significant enhancement of your business, and rest assured, you would not be disappointed. More info to visit: http://trandingbusiness.com/