11 methods of managing a remote team

If you start hiring people from all over the world, it can change your startup beyond recognition - if only you treat your employees well.

Excellent employees working remotely are now the secret weapon of many successful startups. Instead of relying on people living near the office (and often in the most expensive market), they hire the best talents from around the world to help them move ahead with their mission.

Some companies prefer that the entire headquarters of employees work remotely, which also has its difficulties. In others, along with team members who are in the office, there are also employees working remotely. Managing remote and “sedentary” teams can be a daunting task.
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And so I interviewed 11 entrepreneurs from our council to share my own ideas for managing remote employees — from basic communication strategies to specific workflows.

Online chat

“The biggest challenge in managing remotely working people is reducing communication channels. The reason for this is the fact that they do not work in the same office, and most likely, their working hours do not match. In order to somehow deal with this, our team arranges 15-minutes in Slack every morning to discuss what we were working on yesterday, what plans we have for today, as well as all those things that may complicate our tasks. Communication is the most important thing, and such meetings help us all to keep one pace. ”

Jessica Oralkan, Collecteurs

Daily calls

“At the very beginning, we used all the unusual software for communication between employees and relied on digital methods of communication with team members working“ in remote ”. This did not produce the expected results for several reasons. First, people easily stop feeling cohesive if they do not communicate in real life. Therefore, the “we versus them” relationship may develop. Secondly, in digital communication there is no place for nuances, assumptions and uncertainty. Thirdly, having phoned you can find out more and make, than if you corresponded.

In order to fix everything, we began to practice daily calls, but this was not enough. Now we call each other every day, and all calls are made up of reports and sent to the team. This helps us to avoid wasting time and money due to misunderstandings, and also thanks to this communication, a camaraderie is maintained that strengthens teamwork and a common goal. This is an old school method, but it works great. ”

Andrew Thomas, SkyBell Video Doorbell

Daily meetings

“I manage the staff headquarters, which are mainly located in neighboring states, some working from more distant places. Yes, and I work in the remote. To manage the teams of our office workers and people working remotely, we use one of the Rockefeller methods: we hold daily board meetings, and then teams. As a rule, it takes place in the videoconference mode. In the beginning, all our employees hated it and complained. However, I believe that this approach has provided us with a threefold growth. Now, when we are all accustomed to such meetings, the team is looking forward to them to get feedback and questions about projects. I highly recommend holding such daily meetings. ”

Kim Walsh-Phillips, Elite Digital Group

Do not overdo it with control

“Remember that your employees working remotely can sometimes provide your firm with unique sets of knowledge and skills that internal employees do not have. Instead of being extremely strict and daily trying to control their time and efficiency, just give them the freedom that employees need in a remote location. Evaluate the results of their work, and while they get in touch and work as effectively as others, consider them to be your secret weapon. Constant checks and monitoring of their every step will only become a source of unwanted stress and reduce their productivity. ”

Blair Thomas, EMerchantBroker

One chat for everyone

“Now there are many messengers on the market. Just make sure that your entire team always uses one chat at all times, and use a single management software. Thus, everyone is aware of who does what and who work remotely can solve issues as effectively as if they are in the office. ”

Matt Doyle, Excel Builders

About time zones everyone should know

“We have two offices in different parts of the world and many employees working remotely. When we take on the work of new people, we are very scrupulous about the fact that the team is aware of where they are and what time zone they will work. Also, these data can be seen in the profile of each employee, so that everyone can check them. When a team knows where everyone is working from, it helps to streamline tasks and set up a schedule. ”

Micah Johnson, GoFanbase

Let employees in the remote have fun with everyone

“One of the key members of our team works remotely, and we spent a lot of time drawing up a strategy for communicating with her regarding work issues. However, in the end we paid attention to the fact that she misses those moments that are intended to rally the team - simple communication and fun in the office. Then we decided during informal communication of the team to call her on Skype, and also became more attentive to the fact that she could participate in unexpected celebrations that signify something good. And this greatly influenced her communication with the team and made our teamwork even more enjoyable. ”

Martina Welke, Zealyst

Use one platform

“We recently started using continuous feedback and a information sharing platform called WeVue. This allows team members to work effectively with each other and with the company to solve business problems. This helps us minimize the need to hold meetings and gives people the opportunity to vote on company decisions affecting them. ”

Chris Cancialosi, GothamCulture

Create an internal blog

“Use a blogging tool like BlogIn to create a blog for internal use, and then try to draw the attention of your employees to it, so that they actively use it: make posts with updates and notes about meetings. At each meeting, we had one person who took notes and then published them along with slides and other material. Thus, people who were not at the meeting (including teams from other offices) can take part in the discussion. This decision was winning in terms of communication. When there are too many content available on the blog to link to something specific, you can create a wiki entry or an updated document with links to the most important posts. We like Blogin because it is integrated with Slack, and also provides the ability to manage groups and create wiki pages. ”

Mattan Griffel, One Month

Keep employees informed

“We are trying to make our employees working in a remote area feel united with the team and be aware of the life of Allocadia. We use Slack to inform employees about news, events and events, as well as to keep them informed of all the things that occur in the daily life of our company. We also record video of corporate meetings and presentations so that employees outside the office do not miss anything. ”

Katherine Berry, Allocadia

Invest in travel

“Our company arranges field visits twice a year. Despite the fact that it is expensive, such investments have become one of the best investments in our corporate culture that we have made. As a rule, such meetings last two days, it also happens that employees who usually work remotely, come to the office for a couple of days before and after the trip, and we discuss the company's strategy, finances and important steps. But the work takes no more than 25% of the time, the rest of the time is given to entertainment and games both in small teams and for all company employees, walks and good food. The only problem here is the occasional feeling of inconsistency with our lean culture. But as a result, we get an intangible connection that is incredibly valuable and that is not easy to create through digital communication. ”

Fan Bi (Fan Bi), Blank Label.

About the author : Scott Gerber (Scott Gerber) is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council.