Effective Ways to Manage and Engage a Dispersed Team
LeSoft
Managing a distributed team can be challenging. Feeling disconnected from the team, having communication gaps, miscommunications due to cultural differences, etc., can often happen in remote teams. Things can get complicated easily in remote teams.
Thus, it can be challenging for leaders to manage a dispersed team effectively. It can take a lot of time, patience, and practice, even for the most seasoned leaders. But, with the right tools and processes in place, building a productive, engaged, fully remote team is possible.
This article will help you understand the challenges of managing remote teams and various ways to improve engagement among remote teams.
Benefits And Struggles of Managing a Dispersed Team
A distributed team consists of employees from different parts of the globe. They work from their comfort zones and will be physically away from the office spaces.
The major benefits of having a dispersed team are:
- Lower overhead costs
- Access a larger and diverse pool of candidates
- Cost-effectiveness
- Ability to fill critical vacancies faster
Remote employees can have lower commute costs, more flexibility, and higher salaries. But apart from these, there can be many challenges to remote employees.
It is quite often that remote employees can have a feeling of loneliness, communication issues, and the inability to unplug.
Effective ways to engage and connect the distributed teams together
Foster Open Communication
To keep a remote team connected, it is important for all the team members to feel heard. In a remote team, employees are not able to meet in person, reducing communication.
To mitigate these issues, it is essential to have open communication so that your remote team doesn't feel left out or overlooked. Maintaining a positive touch with your remote employees as often as possible shows that you value their opinion and care for them. Taking proactive steps to maintain open and transparent communication, include employees in the decision-making process can enrich remote employees.
Use The Right Communication Tools
While managing a remote team, it is essential to clearly integrate a unified communication and collaboration experience to have enriched team communication. These tools can enable to keep remote teams to be productive.
Integrating Unified Communication platforms like AutoMax makes it easy for dispersed teams to constantly communicate with the team members.
Ensure Everyone Is Heard
Employees need to know if their work brings meaningful results to the organization. Thus, giving actionable feedback that is useful for the employees to stay more productive is essential to maintaining an engaged team.
Research says that remote employees are three times more likely to stay productive if they receive feedback at least a few times a month.
Similarly, ask for your team's feedback on organizational culture, projects, overall experience with the team, etc. Ensure their concerns are addressed properly. Team leaders can arrange to set up recurring one-on-one calls with each employee and collect their feedback through survey forms.
Stay Flexible
Remote employees can be given the freedom to schedule their working hours. Remote employees tend to be more engaged while working from home. Remote employees also report making more progress while working from home.
Final Thoughts
Getting remote teams involved and connected is a significant challenge for many businesses. However, with the right tools and right strategies, you can make your employees welcomed and appreciated.
The major concerns remote workers encounter are isolation, inadequate communication, and the inability to unplug. You may improve remote problem-solving and promote diversity and understanding by engaging in team-building exercises emphasizing communication skills development.