3 Awesome Habits To Help Your Remote Team Stay Productive

The post-pandemic era has been an eye-opener for most of us. We now know which type of workplace is most attuned to our lifestyle and preferences. While some would still choose to return back to offices or fall back on the flexibility of hybrid work culture, most of us would rather stay home permanently.

Like me, many remote workers are still getting used to these new ways of work and life even after the initial impact of this dramatic transition. While working alone, keeping track of a work schedule seems to be trickier at the initial stage; but gradually, employees have comfortably adapted to this new culture. Working remotely with at least one team member is commonplace today. Companies are relying on remote teams more and more to provide flexible working practices. It’s not just me, it’s the data.

As per McKinsey's study, 61 % of the workforce chose to work entirely from home. Yes, you heard that right. More than half of the workers polled indicated that they preferred working entirely remotely. While some workers will still require access to an office, others might not, which implies that the entire function of a physical office space in the future of work needs to be revisited. While evaluating best practices that are beneficial for their specific business, successful remote teams are aware of the need to build the core abilities required to work successfully and productively in a distributed setting.

Not just that, while companies are ready to securely reopen after COVID-19, only 3% of employees and business owners stated they wish to work full time at a physical office. The majority 97% would like a certain amount of freedom to choose between remote work and office.

Although working remotely can be quite beneficial, there are a few things to watch out for and execute correctly. If the remote employees aren't productive or competent, it can be because they lack the necessary equipment, are not inspired enough, or their communication methods are inadequate for the job.

Even if a team may operate remotely, close supervision is still necessary. You might be aware of the various strategies for transforming your remote teams into productive and effective workforces, even though they don't constantly operate in just the same office space.

This information led us to compile a list of the top 3 habits that have enabled us to transform our remote teams into a highly effective workforce that takes pleasure in their work. These suggestions will help you improve your communication with your colleagues so you can establish stronger bonds with the people you rely on every day to get tasks completed. Here’s a list of 3 habits that help our remote team stay productive:

#1 Make Communication Fun

One of the most crucial techniques to organize a remote workforce is to develop fun and healthy communication. Your team may feel alienated if you are not actively involved with them. Our remote team exercises real, constructive conversations with all members of our organization a few times every week. It keeps them interested and gives them a sense of belonging.

Tools like Range, Google Workspace, Trello, MyOperator, Delesign, Slack, Trello, etc. help you strengthen team communication in a remote set-up more than ever.

Another approach that our remote team practices is to encourage feedback during conference calls so they are aware of how well they are performing.

Each team has a particular communication style, so it's crucial to experiment with various tools and procedures to see which ones will work best for your group. Our teammates enter meetings prepared to deal with the necessary subjects quickly and fully to make them effective. That entails planning the agenda for the meeting beforehand.

Plus, it’s important to keep the ‘team building’ momentum going by arranging regular meet-ups and fun sessions where everyone in your team gets to see each other and interact at a deeper level. For example, at our remote company MyOperator, we do offer virtual phone numbers for our clients as well as for internal communications over phone calls, but we do make sure to connect with our teammates as well as with our clients face-to-face using a combo of Friday fun meetings and monthly feedback calls. Face-to-face meetings do help us in fostering better connections

It is also important to prepare the schedule for everyone so they are aware of the timeline of the meeting before it even starts. This facilitates effective communication and guarantees that everyone is aware of when to share their opinions and how to approach each discussion.
In short, having top-notch remote working tools in place, a well-defined communication approach, and open feedback system are must for building a work from anywhere movement that actually works for your team and business.

#2 Outcome-oriented goal-setting

Setting up quantified goals collectively with a team that is geographically apart is essential. Everybody in a virtual meeting room must work together to determine what has to be done and when rather than conducting themselves as two different enterprises.

It's simple to slip into routines, but if you work from a position of specific knowledge of who does what, why, and by when, you are more likely to create alignment in your working methods and maintain focus on the results.

Our goal-setting includes establishing deadlines and making sure that the task is distributed evenly. A remote staff won't be committed to completing a task if there is no deadline for it.

Making our remote staff aware of the expectations is a key component of goal-setting. Our remote staff understands how to organize their workload and output by their requirements. Remote staff will only benefit from knowing how their job fits into the wider picture if you set clear expectations. Thus, in the process, the remote members will be able to determine what needs to be done.
Tech is an important enabler in any remote communication. We combine our people processes with the right tools to help the team stay connected. For example, when we were relaunching toll-free number plans for small businesses and startups, we used a combination of Adobe XD, Trello, Google Docs Chat and Meet to keep everything connected, from planning to creating content, design, taking feedback, and going live. This also helps everyone in the team to keep a track of progress and see what’s happening in real-time.

#3 Maintain a Culture of Transparency

The challenge of credibility may arise frequently when persons from various backgrounds work together remotely. It may interfere with the team's and managers' ability to work together, which may further affect output and project performance.

Therefore, our managers take care to foster a culture of transparency by setting clear tasks and functions, offering genuine criticism, and even sharing setbacks with the team.

As a result, the team and management become more trustworthy. It in turn enables more open communication among the remote staff, which facilitates productive collaboration. Additionally, the managers demonstrate dependability by making staff members accountable for particular duties, encouraging a sense of independence and accountability.

Employee engagement is crucial for any company that employs remote workers to maintain these workers' motivation and help them achieve excellence in what they do.

Our team gets to explore and set up hobby clubs, and virtual engagement activities. There are many free and freemium tools like Brightful games for remote teams to keep everyone motivated.

In this manner, employees feel more alive and closer to one another as a result, which will improve collaboration, productivity, and outcomes.

Technological improvements and easy access to a wide range of tools have greatly facilitated the shift and helped foster cohesion by allowing remote team cooperation. In reality, a lot of businesses successfully use remote work settings by implementing tactics and tools that can transform any remote team into a highly effective and efficient unit. A good personal connection can also encourage employees to work together more enthusiastically on tasks linked to your line of work.

Generally, there is no one way to increase staff productivity; rather, you may create a productive workplace by putting tiny, enduring habits into place. You will observe a considerable improvement in the production indicator by consistently offering assistance, inspiration, and feedback to staff.