Top business leaders and staffing agencies often note that effectively managing a remote team requires setting clear expectations, facilitating open communication, building trust, embracing flexibility and using available technology for seamless connection and collaboration.

This post will discuss five tips for leading a remote team that you can put into action.

1. Build a Solid Foundation for Remote Communication

Effective communication has always been the foundation for successful teams. However, it is even more crucial for remote teams. Without the benefit of face-to-face interactions, leaders need to prioritize regular, clear and transparent communication. Fortunately, technology provides many highly effective communication tools, including email, messaging platforms, project management software and video conferencing platforms.

Use these tools and set clear expectations, establishing communication protocols and encouraging active participation in virtual meetings to minimize misunderstandings and maximize collaboration and productivity.

2. Develop a Remote Culture Based on Trust and Autonomy

A healthy remote work arrangement relies and thrives on trust and autonomy. As a leader, you need to commit to trusting your team members to accomplish their tasks without built-in on-site supervision. This may feel like a leap of faith, but putting your faith in remote workers boosts their confidence and productivity.

Foster a culture of trust by encouraging open conversations, recognizing achievements, providing constructive feedback and welcoming questions and feedback from team members. Focus on balancing employee autonomy with accountability to ensure that team members take ownership of their responsibilities, meet deadlines and comply with company standards.

3. Be Available and Approachable

While employees might seek, appreciate and relish working remotely, they also need human interaction from time to time. Let them know that you and their coworkers are there with and for them, no matter where everyone is physically located. Keep an open virtual door policy that welcomes them to reach out via phone calls, emails, text messages and video conferences.

4. Foster a Strong Team Culture

A cohesive team culture in a remote setting is critical to your mission to boost employee engagement and retention. Here are some things you can do to encourage a positive team culture:

• Play online games
• Take virtual coffee breaks
• Join team challenges
• Set up in-person meetups

Schedule brief daily video team meetings to give everyone a chance to engage in positive social interaction together and show each other support.

5. Focus on Humanity

With so much work to do and so much technology that allows us to do it on a somewhat impersonal level, it is easy to let awareness of our humanity fade into the background. Bring humanity into your interactions, providing an opportunity for everyone to connect on a deeper level.

Ask everyone to share their stories, struggles and emotions related to work or their personal lives. These insights can help you understand work performance and productivity issues and how you might be able to support your employees to ensure that they and your organization flourish.

Conclusion

Leading a remote team isn’t all that different from managing on-site employees. It requires trust, increased engagement, creative new communication strategies and robust use of technology. With these, you can all overcome challenges and enjoy great success.

Sara Riggs is Senior Vice President and Head of Swoon Staffing, where she works to create even more collaboration between Swoon’s recruiting and sales teams to build a true synergy. She has 15 years of experience in the staffing industry, Riggs’ expertise has advanced through the recruitment ranks with her determination, passion, strategic vision and unwavering commitment to organizational growth, her team and Swoon’s customers.

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By reducing redundant work and streamlining tedious office tasks, you can focus on the ways to help your business flourish. Commonly referred to as process automation, this approach entails using technology to carry out tasks and eliminate manual work that could otherwise be done through automated computer systems. Examples of this in finance are utilizing expenses modules to remove manual entry of transactions as well as employing automated prepayments and accruals. Another way to help financial businesses or departments is through programmed recurring invoicing designed to automate the process of scheduling invoices.

With more than $120 billion spent annually in the U.S. on paper forms, it’s easy to see an area that could be reduced, if not completely transformed. By switching to digital documentation systems, you can decrease office and business expenses. Start by scanning your business documents. Transforming them into digital copies allows you to store and secure them in the cloud or storage drives. When this data has been digitized, you’ll be able to easily search, sort and analyze. 

With the right data entry software, you can seamlessly manage hard-copy invoices, emails, receipts and more in just a few clicks. This digitized management reduces human error while boosting efficiency and clarity. After indexing and filing these digital documents, you’ll spend less time searching through paper copies and more time focusing on the essential aspects of your business. There’s a bustling market for data management software and services. 

From intuitive workflow programs that are cloud-based to centralized document repositories designed to be user-friendly, you can find the right technological solutions for any area. Technology is a driving force for change that cannot be stopped. As machine learning advances, so will office efficiency. 

Help ensure your financial company’s success by implementing modernization tools and adopting automated systems. If this seems daunting, consider consulting a solution provider. These professional organizations can help with installation and can get you started on a trailblazing path into the future.

Please see the accompanying resource for statistics on automation and more tactics to help move your business forward.

Infographic created by Donnelley Financial Solutions, a compliance filing software company

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