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January/February
2006
 Managing
Remote Teams: Keeping Everyone in the
Loop Is a Big Challenge
One of the biggest challenges managers face is managing
a team of employees who are located in separate geographic areas. Time
zones, travel schedules, and lack of face-to-face time can wreak havoc
on the employee-manager relationship. But this situation does not need
to be difficult if good management techniques are followed.
Managing remote team members requires diligence in communication.
Managers cannot just pull remote workers into a meeting. Often other
team members might wonder what remote workers are doing, especially
when they fail to respond to calls or emails every Friday afternoon.
Trust is an essential element of a successful relationship between remote
employees and their managers. Managers need to trust that employees
can be self-directed and manage their time and resources effectively
to get the job done.
By learning to communicate well, set goals, monitor
results, and give feedback, managers and remote team members can all
be more successful.
Communicate
Regularly
Communication is key for keeping remote team members in the loop. Many
remote teams rely entirely on email or instant messaging. This medium
is instant and easily accessible, but some verbal management (“voice
time”) might be appropriate to mix it up, so try teleconferencing,
videoconferencing, or Web conferencing some meetings. Face-to-face meetings
are expensive, particularly when you’re flying people all over
the world, but if you tack on a team meeting to a convention or client
meeting, that can kill two birds with one stone.
To facilitate scheduling, managers should schedule group
meetings well in advance so that everyone on the team knows when a meeting
is going to occur and can plan their schedule around the date.
Meetings are a necessary evil, and they are often not
as productive as they should be. If meetings are called to share information
or keep up to date on what’s going on, email might be a more appropriate
forum. Effective functions of meeting are to brainstorm ideas, consider
options, and develop plans and alternatives.
Managers should communicate expectations for hours of
work. They should set regular office hours and weekly teleconferences
that are convenient based on time zones.
Team members should be instructed to use a calendaring
system so that everyone knows where each employee is each day.
Remote team members should be provided with a list of
internal resources, for example, whom to call for various questions
(HR, payroll, benefits).
HR should reach out to remote employees regularly. There
are many concerns for remote employees since they may be out of the
loop, so it should be well communicated who the HR representative is,
and that person should develop a relationship with the remote employee
immediately and check in regularly. Also, other communication methods
on corporate news and developments are essential for making everyone
feel part of the big team. Newsletters, all employee emails, employee
intranet, and direct mailings should all be part of the overall employee
communications function.
Set Goals
With remote employees it is even more important to provide SMART goals:
goals that are Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic (and within
the employee’s realm of control), and Time-bound.
Managers should set annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals in
this manner. They should make specific task assignments and assign due
dates. Managers should make certain that the due dates are realistic
and that the employee is committed to completing those tasks.
Monitor
Results
Managers and remote employees should set up a schedule for checking
in. It’s easy to plan to check voice and email at regular times
during the day. Managers should have employees check email and voice
mail at a specific interval and/or specify which medium should be checked
more frequently. By having this schedule, everyone on the team will
have peace of mind that their messages will be received and responded
to in a timely fashion as scheduled.
Managers should develop a weekly reporting format. Independent
employees do not want to be “micromanaged,” but a regular
report allows every team member to know what tasks have been accomplished.
The format should be quick and simple to avoid wasted time. Reports
could include sales calls made, client support issues, outstanding issues,
or any other appropriate measure of job productivity.
Provide
Feedback and Coaching
Managers should schedule and conduct regular one-on-one phone meetings
to update, give feedback, and discuss problems. In group meetings, the
manager should be certain to facilitate the team members by sharing
success stories, providing a pat on the back, and assigning tasks.
Good management requires a good communicator that trusts
employees to get the work done. This is the same for in-house and remote
employees. Setting goals, monitoring performance, and providing feedback
are all essential behaviors of a good manager, and these become even
more important in keeping remote employees in the loop and as productive
and committed as possible.
Submitted by
Marcia Hakanson, MBA, SPHR.
Reprinted from
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