Working remotely has become crucial for business operations resources over the past few years. The rise of the internet and the need for better productivity measures have inclined businesses to consider working remotely. However, staying connected when working with remote teams has become a significant challenge over the past few years. Fortunately, here are a few ways you can use to connect more with your remote team:
1. Invest in a Data Plan for All Your Employees
Some of your employees are probably living on a budget, and the extra costs involved in buying data plans can be challenging. You have to consider investing in a suitable data plan for all your employees. Doing this helps improve their ability to connect to the internet and enhances their overall motivation to work productively.
While it seems like an unnecessary cost for your business, you have to ensure your team is always accountable for failing to be available for work functions. You can easily find local mobile data service providers who can create custom data plans for your company. However, you also have to ensure that your employees realize the value of using the data plan for the appropriate work purposes.
2. Use Awareness Measures
Awareness is one of the crucial resources you have to consider in using any new business resource or initiative. It also applies when you want to use these measures to connect more with your remote team. One of the best ways to improve the awareness of your team is to use a training program focusing on remote working.
The training should also be relevant to the nature of your operations and the productivity expectations you will expect from each staff member. The goal of these awareness programs is to help improve the ability of your employees to make informed decisions. You can focus on remote work productivity, use of data plans, cloud storage resources, and more.
3. Use Team Buildings Games
While your team might be working remotely, it’s good to realize that there might be monotony in working for long periods without fun. You have to find interactive ways you can use to ensure your team can interact and have fun simultaneously.
One of the best ways to achieve this goal is to engage in virtual team building activities, which can include games and specialized tasks for your team. The reason is that these games give you the perfect avenue to engage with the team and ensure everyone is included.
4. Encourage Regular Communications
Even though your team will be working remotely, you must ensure they regularly communicate with you. The reason is that it encourages openness and improves accountability on your employees’ side. One of the best ways to guarantee regular communication is to ensure that readily available platforms such as Skype occur.
Doing this makes it easy to contact your team quickly and makes them feel more comfortable communicating about sensitive topics. You should also be keen to make your conversations fun and interesting. You can also set aside a member of your team who helps manage the communications with your team.
5. Use Collaboration Tools
There are various collaboration tools that you can use to improve the connection you share with your remote team. A good example would be the tools you need to communicate with your team effectively. The use of team collaboration software will make it easy to share task details and updates. While it may take time for your team to get accustomed to using such tools, they still provide a wealth of connectivity benefits to your team.
Various options are available for your business, including project management, communication, and operations management. These tools have increased significantly over the years and positively impact business functions. You can use common collaboration tools like Trello, Asana, and Flowdock.
6. Optimize Any Communication Loop Holes
While your team might be working remotely, it’s good to realize that there might be loopholes in your organization’s communication strategies. Common issues can include poor Internet Service Providers, who experience issues such as downtime.
You have to find practical ways of optimizing such communications loopholes to help improve transparency. A good example would be to hire someone in your team who can speak several languages. Regardless of the communications issues, you want to address, remember that optimizing it is a continual process.
Closing Thoughts
You have to consider using various resources to help you connect with your remote team much more efficiently. The reason is that connecting with your team better requires a thorough approach for the best results.
