In the age of digital business, it’s easier than ever to give staff a greater degree of freedom.

Thanks to faster and more reliable internet, a bevvy of capable mobile devices, and powerful communications software, staff are able to work from nearly any location. As a result of removing staff from the office environment, companies can then take out smaller office spaces and reduce operating costs. What’s more, any training can be scheduled remotely.

In this new age of remote working, however, it’s important that you understand the best ways to manage staff working from home or on the road. Here are five tips.

1) Keep the lines of communication open

Having staff work remotely means you’ll be unable to walk over and ask them a question or pass along a comment, so it pays to put strong communication practices in place. A voice over internet and instant messaging tool, such as Skype, Zoom or Slack, should be required for all members of the team to allow quick and easy conversations.

2) Include remote staff in impromptu meetings

Remote workers can often feel isolated from the rest of the organisation. Do not exclude staff from conversations. If there is a discussion and you think ‘Simon’ should be involved, bring them into the meeting by contacting them through your video chat client. 

3) Take advantage of the cloud

Ignoring the buzzword status, cloud technologies offer real benefits over more traditional alternatives. How so? Well, you’re able to set up a central location online for all business files, so staff can log in and access documents without needing to use email.

4) Adopt a digital culture

Culture is a pain point for many companies – and it needs to be even more of a focus when remote workers are involved. It can be hard to maintain a culture even when all staff are in the same building, so extra work is required to keep everyone engaged.

Try weekly video conferences to get everyone on the same page, or perhaps company outings after work to get staff interacting in person. Find ways to bring your remote team face-to-face every 6 or 12 months for team meetings, this helps build stronger relationships between remote and in-office staff.  

5) Make time for one-on-one meetings  

There are many benefits to virtual meetings with your remote staff. Weekly one-on-one or group video meetings are a great opportunity to discuss issues and brainstorm ideas.

Whichever channel you use to communicate with your staff  remotely, keep one of those channels open so you are always accessible to your team.

Collaboration tools for remote staff

• Slack is a group-messaging platform that enables real-time communications between local and remote employees.
• Trello is a project management tool that keeps the project team updated on each assigned task. Trello helps track tasks and overall project progress using movable cards.
• Zoom is a screen-sharing/video-conferencing tool that promotes face-to-face meetings with remote teams.
• DropBox is a file share management system, which makes resources easily available to remote teams.

To learn more about taking your business into the 21st Century, with a variety of proven frameworks for staff, it pays to speak to the experts. Get in touch with ALC Training today.

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