According to an Owl Labs survey, 23% of respondents said they’ll sacrifice 10% of their wages to maintain their work-from-home status on a permanent basis. 81% of those surveyed also believed that their employers would continue to support some form of telecommuting when lockdown restrictions are lifted.
Benefits like these, alongside cost-saving, health, and productivity perks are among the reasons many small businesses continue to adopt remote work.
Employees also love remote work because it saves them the hassle of commuting to the office and gives them more time flexibility.
That said, employers and employees still have to face some remote work challenges that threaten productivity.
Years after the pandemic and lockdowns, some small teams are still struggling to get remote work right.
Specific aspects of the traditional office missing from the remote work environment can cause productivity lapses if not addressed.
That’s why we’ll be covering effective tips on boosting productivity for small remote teams in 2022.
- Use Team Building Activities to Bolster Collaboration
Look at any thriving small business, and you’ll notice how their employees work well together. That’s because you’re always half-way to achieving your goals if your staff can work as a unit.
If your team still lacks the natural capacity to work in harmony, team building activities can help. These activities are designed to strengthen the bond between team members and motivate them to work more with each other.
It’s important that you organize these activities, especially with your remote team. That’s because it can be challenging to encourage workers to reach out to colleagues when they’re not physically present in a shared office.
A report by the International Data Corporation looked into the state of team collaboration. It found that organizations with better collaborative and intelligent teamwork will enjoy, for each employee, 30% higher productivity, 30% lower employee turnover, and 30% higher revenue than their counterparts.
There are different types of team building activities that you can host for your remote team. While they can be complex due to setting, they can be effective.
You can start with workshops and brainstorming sessions where workers figure out new ideas. You can also create time to involve them in policy-making sessions to shape how they work.
Meditation and virtual workout sessions help them see each other outside the office environment and as social entities. You can also organize video gaming sessions to create a friendly competitive environment.
- Encourage Communication
Teamwork and collaboration can’t work without communication.
Communication is also one of the critical areas you must address in a remote workforce if you want to boost productivity.
Since you can’t achieve face-to-face interactions in virtual workplaces, employees can easily start working in silos.
They’ll keep brushing aside the need to talk to another team member to deal with what they consider minor issues. This behavior of independence continues to erode teamwork.
So, ensure you encourage your remote workers to never suppress the need to communicate. Organize weekly meetings and always emphasize on communication.
You should also provide the right tools to ensure team members have access to each other at all times.
It’s also important that you don’t discourage access to you or managers. Keep the lines of communication open so workers can speak to the higher-ups whenever there’s a need.
- Use the Right Tools to Track Productivity
When it comes to productivity, numbers are your friends.
Thanks to the diverse tools designed to help remote teams, you can track and measure your workers’ productivity.
You can quantify an employee’s performance based on how much time they spend on tasks, their work completion rate, and their consistency.
You could also use metrics such as KPIs to measure a worker’s output.
The good thing about tracking productivity is that it helps you understand a worker’s strengths and weaknesses, showing you where they need to improve.
Productivity data also helps you know how best to use each worker’s talents. For example, you can use a time tracker to monitor a remote worker’s progress for a particular type of task. If they always excel at executing said types of tasks in time, you can continue to assign them those tasks.
The tool can also monitor how workers spend time on other applications and websites. Whether they’re on a social media site or using a resume builder to spruce their CVs, you’ll be able to identify time-wasters and tell them what to avoid.
Project Management programs can also help you track an individual’s and the team’s productivity.
In the same vein, you can find out where workers are having a hard time using the data from the productivity tracker.
Using Productivity Numbers to Shape Workload Strategies
Make sure you consult your productivity metrics to know what types of tasks to assign to each employee. You should also use the data to organize the required training for workers who are struggling.
- Avoid Micromanagement
Micromanagement destroys team spirit, reduces morale, and kills productivity.
Managers handling remote teams are often tempted to always check up on workers to confirm that they’re working. Some take things a step too far to dictate the fine details of an employee’s work process.
Always hounding your workers will make them question their every move and stifle the creative process.
A Trinity Solutions study published in Harry E Chambers’ book, My Way or the Highway, reported that about 71% of respondents said their job performance was affected by micromanagement. It also found that 69% considered quitting their jobs and 36% actually switched jobs because of micromanagement. Additionally, 85% said it negatively impacted their morale.
You must afford your remote employees a level of autonomy if they’re going to be productive. Allow them to create and follow their work process. You should focus more on results instead.
Your role should be creating effective workflows and work schedules and assigning tasks effectively. This way, you’re telling your workers you have faith in them and boosting their confidence.
To avoid micromanagement, schedule check-ins and design a policy for project progress reports. For example, team members must send a report about a task’s progress if they can’t meet up with a deadline.
- Avoid Burnout
Burnout can suck the fun out of work and leave remote workers miserable and unproductive. Since they work from home, remote employees tend to forget when to stop working.
Couple that with the fact they have to juggle work and domestic activities, and the level of stress increases.
You can prevent burnout by advising workers to stick to their work schedule and shutting down their computer once time’s up.
You should use your time tracker and project management tool to assign tasks appropriately and find out which worker is being overworked.
- Use Project Management Solutions
Project management tools allow you to streamline workflow, boost collaboration, organize tasks, break projects into smaller tasks, create milestones, and monitor project progress.
There are different project management platforms designed with small remote teams in mind. They will help you do all the above and other things such as:
- Visualize project overview,
- Set reminders,
- Assign hierarchy to tasks,
- Provide feedback and comments on tasks,
- Communicate project progress,
- Perform budget reviews,
- Assign shifts
Most project management tools integrate with accounting, communication, and file-sharing solutions to allow you to do more from one dashboard.
The project management tool you’ll choose depends on the nature of your business, your budget, and your team’s needs. For instance, you can forego a project management tool that tracks expenses and for one with basic functions instead.
Using the right tool for your business means you’ll be viewing project progress reports in time and enhancing productivity.
- Avoid Multiple Projects
Big teams are able to handle 5 to 6 projects as long as they have efficient tools and proper management. However, it’s advisable for a small team to not punch above their weight.
You should start by evaluating your team and how they can cope with particular tasks. This way, you’re determining how many projects the team can handle at once.
That said, we recommend that smaller teams stick to one project at a time to maintain focus and efficiency.
Resist the urge to take on more than one project no matter how light you feel they are. If you must, then consider expanding your team by outsourcing jobs to remote freelancers.
You can also notify your clients about your due dates so you can reschedule other project requests accordingly.
- Recognize and Reward Your Remote Team Members
A pat on the back or a form of reward can do a lot to boost employee morale and improve the workplace mood.
Rewards and recognition validate your team members’ sense of hard work, and make them feel valued.
According to a 2018 Achievers survey, 69% of respondents will choose to stay in a job that rewards and recognizes their work. Also, 44% of respondents said they’d leave their jobs due to the lack of recognition from their employers.
Another report by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 91% of HR professionals see reward and recognition as the main reasons employees stay in a company longer.
How to Recognize Your Remote Workers
Meetings are a great place to start. Whenever you’re talking about an important milestone, mention everyone who played vital roles in getting the team there. You should also recognize the team’s effort.
You should also appreciate any worker’s efforts whenever they exhibit stellar performances. Doing that will ensure they memorize and repeat those feats.
Continue to Boost Productivity
Don’t treat the tips here as one-time exercises. Rewarding your employees, measuring their productivity, avoiding burnout and micromanagement, and organizing team building activities must be continual efforts. You should also consult your workers to fashion out better work policies that will boost productivity.
