Building a Successful Team When You All Work Remotely
Having staff work remotely has a huge number of benefits for employers and employees alike. From cutting costs to increasing productivity, it’s no surprise people are embracing working from home in record numbers, and many businesses won’t be asking their employees to come back to the office post-COVID. But remote working does have challenges, and some employees find it difficult to build a close-knit team in this situation, which is important for small businesses, especially in the early days. So, how can you build a successful team when you have workers around the world?
Try team building exercises online
Team building doesn’t have to involve away days and outdoor activities. Using a online team building company in Singapore, your employees can take part in team building exercises from the comfort of their home offices. As with all team building activities, it’s best to leave the details up to the professionals, who can put together activities and events that suit your industry and will get everyone involved.
Keep everyone in the loop
While endless e-mails with everyone copied in are annoying, it doesn’t hurt to keep people in the loop about what’s going on. Consider having a daily digest of relevant news and information, sent across all departments, so everyone can feel part of the team.
Plan around timezones
The main issue with a fully remote team is that you may find you all end up in different time zones. Of course, there are ways to run an international business without leaving people out, but it can take more planning. Try to set some core hours when everyone will be working, so enquiries can be dealt with quickly. You might want to set these core hours into peoples’ contracts, so that they know they need to be available in these times.
Have fun on Zoom
One of the ways small business teams become closer is by socialising, whether it’s business lunches together or Friday drinks. This is harder to do when you’re working remotely, but many businesses now have Zoom socials such as:
- Quizzes
- Online bingo
- Pictionary
- Fancy dress
It’s up to you to decide what your team will like. Some companies like to do low key socials, while others go all out.
Know the customs and laws in different countries
Another problem that can occur when building a remote team is that you have people working in different countries. Employees working abroadhttps://www.gov.uk/guidance/paying-employees-working-abroad can be a bit of a headache with regards to tax and paperwork, and you also have to consider that there are different cultures and ways of working. Do some research when you hire a new employee and invite them to a video meeting with their team so they can discuss their ways of working and you can avoid culture clashes down the line.
Working with remote teams is likely to be a challenge everyone will need to deal with in their career, especially now it’s becoming so common to work from home. But this doesn’t mean people have to work alone, it is possible to build a successful team while working remotely simply by following the above tips.
