Successfully Managing Remote Teams

This growing trend has been accelerated dramatically by the once in a century phenomenon of the COVID-19 pandemic and the incredible impact that it has had on workforces across the globe. Teams that had always worked together at the office were suddenly separated, with employees told to work from home. Teams that had some remote workers or a blended schedule of working from both the office and home were suddenly isolated in lockdown scenarios with no face-to-face contact for weeks and months on end.

Although the COVID-19 crisis did not create the emergence of remote teams, it has certainly magnified the issue as a major challenge and priority for most managers and leaders within organisations. As a manager of remote team members, it’s your role to ensure that the individual members, and the team as a whole, achieve the desired results, KPIs and the team goals set by the organisation.

At the same time, you must nurture, guide and support team members through the difficulties associated with working remotely. So you are not only responsible to ensure they achieve their expected productivity levels, but to also ensure they maintain their mental wellbeing. This is not an easy task.

THE OUTCOMES

Since the turn of the millennium, the trend to have employees working remotely has grown in popularity among many Australian organisations.

Some teams operate entirely remotely, with members working in different locations or states and even in other countries. In many cases, remote workers form part of blended teams within organisations. In today’s business environment, many organisations are also allowing staff to spend part of their time working remotely, i.e. 3 days in the office, 2 days
from home.