Last Updated on March 22, 2019 by Jessica Adams
According to MIT Sloan, 69% of employees are more productive when they are part of a remote team. 75% cite the ability to perform tasks quicker as a reason for their increased productivity. If you take into account that remote teams are a startup’s best friend, it can seem counterproductive to refuse remote working options to your team. The best remote team will also ensure that you keep your costs down by reducing your overall expenses, including all on-site overhead. You can also meet more business goals like keeping your employee turnover rate low.
People are more likely to stay with a company that values their work-life balance. However, the deployment of remote teams can come at a cost for your business. By empowering employees to work away from the office, you also expose your business to some risks you wouldn’t otherwise need to manage. For a successful remote business strategy, you must take advanced measures to prevent anything dangerous, unpleasant or even inconvenient from happening. The following is the three-ingredient recipe for the best remote team.
The Three-Ingredient Recipe For
The Best Remote Team
Keeping Your Team’s Laptops Safe
When your team works together in an office, you, the boss, are responsible for the security of the entire network. However, remote teams often forget that because they’re working from home, their private networks are more easily affected. A data breach or accidental exposure of confidential information can become the norm on an insecure network. That’s precisely why it’s essential to develop and implement custom-built systems. This is suggested for you to tackle your specific IT situation.
You may need to rely on a professional partner for IT support to tailor the best solution for your business. Using a privately managed cloud can make sure that your team works in a secure environment. Additionally, you should look into regular data backup and recovery plans for each team member. You could even ask that each team member upload their backups to an FTP site that only you monitor. Ultimately, any cloud solution will help you avoid any unexpected loss of data.
Health & Safety Guidelines
As a rule, every office has their own Health and Safety regulations. Most remote employees are left in the dark in terms of keeping their home office and themselves ‘at work’, safe. In reality, an unhealthy work environment — even at home – can lead to health issues and slow down your productivity. There are a few things you could do to help, as their leader. Offering to pay for ergonomic equipment will help them maintain their physical health while sitting at a desk all day. You could also look around the Internet (or this website!) to find home-based, health & safety guidelines for your team. Educating your employees and supporting their health financially is one of the best investments you can make in your business. Because in the long term, their good health will save you a lot of money in sick days!
Camaraderie Among Remote Team Members
Remote workers can suffer from loneliness as a result of their position. While the office might not promote the best work-life balance, at least provides personal interactions. When you work remotely, the opportunity for any face-time is slim. However, since you’re on a remote team, you get to speak and facetime with the same people each day. Of course, bringing your team together is a necessary strategy for your businesses productivity. Developing a trusting relationship with each employee and them, with each other, will also help cure those loneliness blues. When you give your team the freedom to complete tasks in pairs or small groups, it also creates an opportunity for camaraderie. It’s important to keep up with your communication goals beyond the project assignment. Just sharing a small success with a teammate or daily jokes with each other, can help establish togetherness.
Remote workers can be a strong asset to any business. If only you could make sure that the risks of their out-of-office position wouldn’t taint their input. From an insecure network to lack of togetherness, your remote employees need support to be part of the most productive and best remote team.
Jessica Rose Adams
No Comments