According to Fast Company, 25-30% of the workforce will be working from home multiple days a week by the end of 2021. If you’re new to building a remote team, there are certain things that you need to focus on, like the skills of your team members.
What should you look for to build an effective remote team?
The skills that you should look for are: ability to work independently, ability to multitask, strong written and verbal communication skills, and confidence in learning and using digital tools. These skills are the most helpful for a remote team. Focusing and enhancing these skills will help you and your team to work efficiently. I’ve listed some tips below to help you build an effective remote team.
1. Hire people who can work independently
The people that you should look into hiring for your remote team should be able to work independently. This is a no-brainer: you’ll be communicating with them online and you won’t be able to do much live coaching. You’ll need people who can work independently or with minimal supervision.
2. Get everyone on the same apps
This refers to messaging apps, storage apps, and task management apps. This would boost their productivity and can help you and your team communicate more efficiently. This will avoid any miscommunication or misread messages. Some of the most popular apps for a remote team are Slack for communication, Trello for task management and Google Drive for document storage and collaboration.
3. Pick one time zone and stick with it
Your team members might be working in different time zones. Pick one time zone to use to sync everyone’s schedule around. How should you pick which time zone to use? An easy way to decide is to pick the time zone the majority of your customers are in. Having your team working during your customers’ time zone will make it easier to host meetings and make it easier to communicate with your customers.
4. Always set clear deadlines
Always make sure that you’ve informed your team about the date and time that you need a certain output. Be specific about the time zone to avoid any confusion and make sure that all members of the team have acknowledged the set deadline.
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