By Pramod Sharda, CEO, IceWarp India and Middle East
An efficient workforce is important for any organization to achieve its goals and objectives and organizations who understand the need of employees are the one who succeed and reap benefits. But after the Covid-19 Pandemic, many organizations and companies decided to opt for remote working setup for their workforce allowing them to work from their residence. As of 2023, 12.7% of full-time employees work from home, while another 28.2% work a hybrid model. And even with many companies trying to force people back into the office, the remote working trend is going nowhere but up. This novel landscape comes with advantages as well as new hurdles to overcome. One of the greatest issues many businesses are facing today is how to actually manage their teams abroad.
The key to remote team management is organization. When everyone’s working within the same system, it’s easy to track every task, stay connected, and keep up-to-date on everyone’s projects. So, what system should you use? Or, even better, what tools will benefit you the most in remote team management?
Here are 3 Easy Steps to achieve best outcome in remote team management setup.
1. Business Email + Chat + Calling
With half your team living abroad and the other half scattered all over the country, the first step is to establish quality communication. The more remote workers can interact with one another, discuss their needs and current obstacles, and ask for help, the better the result. The best tool for providing excellent remote communication is a business email that allows everyone to create, share, and edit documents as a team. This tool should also include some sort of TeamChat for quicker discussions and a Conference Calls option. Here, you can hold virtual face-to-face meetings for issues better discussed “in person”. Also, the ideal business email tool for remote workers requires zero downloads, meaning all these features come in a browser-only format. All anybody needs is an internet connection, and they’re free to draft notes, issue tasks, check their calendar, and monitor any chat conversations in real-time – all from the same dashboard. The business email tool that offers all of the above is perfect for remote team management.
2. Collaboration tools
The next best item in any remote team’s arsenal is collaboration tools. Having one team member work on a project before sending it via email and then waiting for someone else to add their input is simply a waste of time. Quality collaboration tools allow multiple people to work on the same document, presentation, or project simultaneously, updating it in real time. We’re all used to collaboration tools like Word or Google Docs, but the preferred method is to have these tools interconnected with all the features mentioned in step #1. The fewer apps and web pages you have to flip through, the more efficient the workflow. A better option is the comprehensive Office Suite, which includes editable Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations. Now throw in collaborative editing, history overviews, track changes, and even include the in-document TeamChat stream, and you’ve got yourself a fully connected remote workspace for a seamlessly organized team.
3. Secure storage
The third and final step to basic remote team management is also the most important of all: security. Remote employees often travel abroad, connecting to whatever free Wi-Fi they can find. And Steve isn’t exactly thinking about connection security as he signs up for the beach hotel’s all-inclusive internet package. Any business tool software worth its salt comes with extensive security measures already in place. A tool that offers both on-prem and Cloud storage options is a great place to start. Any remote team lead will want their members to store important or even sensitive information in a system with features like automatic backup, server monitoring and Watchdog, logging, anti-spam and anti-virus protection, and more.
