Managing a team from home

Managing your own work schedule from home on top of the usual household chores and children on top of feeling as if you are on house arrest can be challenging enough - it gets even more complicated when you add managing a team of remote workers to the mix. “Out of sight, out of mind” does not only apply to unhealthy food you don't want to be tempted by - it also applies to the work setting. Team members can feel isolated and working from home makes it more difficult to communicate which makes people more likely to forget that they need to work within the team.

This is why the most important advice for managing a team working remotely is maximise your communication. This means, not only investing in and setting up the necessary tools like Skype or Zoom, but also setting regular virtual meetings with your team. It keeps up morale and reminds employees that they are not alone. The meeting allows you to catch up with the team and check in on their work timelines as well as managing expectations and prioritising certain tasks.

Its important to ensure all members of your team have access to the required technology - a laptop with a camera, a good internet connection, would the company need to assist some team members by temporarily providing equipment? A stable wifi connection is essential for production video conferences therefore, its important to provide team members with wifi boosters where necessary. Technology is the key to building communication, and in turn, creating an open, transparent culture with strong relationships between team members. Your team’s productivity will also be highly impacted without having the necessary tools available - “making do” is fine for a couple of days but when the isolation phase stretches into weeks, it becomes difficult to maintain.

Maintaining a sense of work community during remote work is essential to keep things running smoothly Scheduling a weekly “happy hour” meeting where team members can catch up over some coffee and talk about their week - related or unrelated to work, their experiences while remaining in isolation and connect.

While work productivity will naturally be affected during this time, its important to try to keep skills sharp and updated by learning remotely.This is the perfect time to start increasing your team’s skill set and cross functionality. Another important element of remote working is trust. Trust your team to get the job done and trust that they will stick to the guidelines and expectations that have been communicated.

In line with keeping knowledge up to date, the International Fraud Prevention Conference 2020 videos are available for download allowing you to earn your CPD accreditation and learn about the latest trends in cyber crime from the comfort of your home. View the videos HERE