As “work from home” status continues for many organizations due to COVID-19, team leaders are challenged with having to manage and motivate staffers remotely.

For more than 25 years, we’ve successfully placed some of our associates in remote assignments for our clients so we’d like to share what we’ve discovered works best when managing employees who work from home.

PRofessional Solutions’ Top Five Tips for Managing Your Team Remotely

1. Set goals, expectations and deadlines and review them regularly. Emphasize outcomes over processes, trying not to micromanage but instead allowing employees to complete their work in their own way as long as goals are met.
2. Establish regularly scheduled communication, both team meetings and one-on-one conversations. Use video chat when possible since email and text do not provide the nonverbal communication cues which may be necessary for employees to feel heard.
3. Be available to your team. Our associates tell us the greatest challenge they face on remote assignments is waiting for an answer from their project supervisor before they can move forward with their work. Enabling employees to see your daily calendar and establishing guidelines for the best way to reach you when it’s urgent will help them to be more productive.
4. Track employees’ progress. Ask team members to provide you with weekly written updates as to their progress towards achieving goals and finishing deliverables. Our clients find this type of reporting structure invaluable when managing remote assignments.
5. Provide feedback and offer encouragement. Making time for regular one-on-ones with employees to give constructive criticism and praise is always worthwhile. Setting a course correction early in a project is better than asking an employee to completely revise something after completion. Take advantage of video team meetings to acknowledge successes and celebrate both individual and team achievements.

Have a question about managing remotely or how to fill a gap in your staff? PRofessional Solutions is a resource to metro DC’s communications community, available for consultations and advice at no charge.

This article appeared in the July 2020 issue of “Smart Solutions”, PRofessional Solutions, LLC’s newsletter.