startups

Keeping The Team Together: Six Tips For Managing A Blend Of Remote And In-House Employees – Forbes


With rapid advancements in technology and connectivity, more professionals are transitioning into part-time and full-time remote work. Offering the option to work remotely is a great perk for  attracting and keeping top professionals in a competitive economy. However, there are unique challenges that come with managing both inhouse and remote staff, from project tracking and time management to effectively engaging employees in company culture.

Fortunately, there are plenty of tools and tips to help make the lives of remote and inhouse workers, as well as their managers, much easier, as well as experienced executives who have blazed the trail of managing a blended workforce. We asked six members of Young Entrepreneur Council for their advice for bringing inhouse and remote workers together as an effective team.

Members of Young Entrepreneur Council share tips for managing a mix of in-house and remote staff.Photos courtesy of the individual members.

1. Humanize The Remote Experience

Working with remote workers can be challenging, especially if you have an inhouse team that’s centrally located where you are. The remote workers can’t be in the room with you in meetings, they don’t have the opportunity to walk by a coworker’s desk to say hello, and even Slack doesn’t provide enough to make up for not being in person. Do at least one weekly video call with the team (if not one-on-ones). Have photo sharing days where remote workers post photos of their work area and vice versa. Send them the same swag that inhouse members get. The objective is to do whatever it takes to keep the remote workers emotionally engaged with the company, the culture and mission. Recognize their local holidays as well to help them feel acknowledged. It makes all the difference. – Arry Yu, Stealth Mode, WTIA

2. Have Everyone Join Meetings From Their Computers Instead Of In Person

I learned this from the Remote Year team. The best way to make sure remote workers don’t feel left out or like they are missing out by not being in the office is to have people join meetings via their own webcam, even if they’re all in the same room. This also helps make sure that the inhouse employees’ ideas don’t overpower the remote employees’ ideas by those in house talking with each other and forgetting, or not hearing, the person on the call. – Adelaida Sofia Diaz-Roa, Nomo FOMO

3. Focus On Results, Not Perceived Effort

When you have remote workers, you can easily get swayed into focusing on the “effort” someone is putting into getting the job done. After several failures with this, I found the best way to manage workers was to focus on the results that a person is bringing in, versus the effort part. When you focus on the effort, you may end up being disappointed with their work. Even before hiring, I let them know what I am trying to achieve and see if they can understand and comprehend my vision. Beyond that, I want to see how they can add value to my vision. If they can’t because they have so many other clients, then they may not be the right fit for your business. Be mindful of the people you hire remotely. Sometimes they are really looking out for your company — and these are the golden finds. – Sweta Patel, Silicon Valley Startup Marketing

4. Communicate Daily Through Multiple Channels

We adapted Scrum. We sprint plan Mondays to know what everyone is doing and review calendars to see where everyone is. We do standup daily to hear about roadblocks that need unblocking and retrospective on Fridays to talk about the week. We do all of this on Zoom, with video. We also have an open Zoomline for people to meet ad hoc to brainstorm or discuss. We use Slack, with different rooms for each client as well as company rooms for high-level discussion. We also have a team email address to keep everyone in the loop on everything. Finally, we use Asana to project manage and keep everyone accountable. The theme here is multiple avenues of communication. People communicate on their terms on their preferred channel and are required at least once a day to come together as a team/company. – Kerry Guard, MKG Marketing

5. Make Sure Everyone Stays In The Loop

With both inhouse and remote team members, the remote team is often neglected when it comes to knowing what’s going on. Regardless of whether our team members are in house or remote, it’s immensely helpful to have an easy way for everyone to see what everyone else is working on. Weekly recorded meetings have also been valuable. With worldwide time zones, it’s often difficult to find a time when everyone can meet. When the meetings are recorded, everyone can stay in the loop and offer suggestions and feedback about the topics covered in the meeting. – Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

6. Utilize Tech, Tighten Processes And Include Face Time

Three things make our fast-growing team effective. First, tech: For organization and team accountability, we use Slack for real-time communications, Google Apps/G Suite for all docs/decks/spreadsheet tasks, Freshdesk for customer service, Trello for our business roadmap, and Jira for tech. Second, process: We are blessed with a talented COO (with a master’s and Ph.D. in organizational psych). He ensures daily standups, checkouts and a strong processes for everything in between. Tech tools are useless if there isn’t a tight process. The key is to have systems and stick to them, no matter what. Third: face time: Face time — real-life, not the app — is crucial. Nothing can take the place of the synergy and mind share of an office full of busy, motivated, enthusiastic people. – Cooper Harris, Klickly





READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.