A lot of things have changed in the last decade for the business world. Technology has evolved digitally and online to create a suite of tools and tactics that you can use to get better results from your team when you ditch the office. So don’t ignore these five tech tricks, or your competitors could gain an edge over you down the line:
Results Only Work Environment
It can be tempting to look at the clock in and clock out times of your employees or what they report spending on certain tasks. However, the only thing that should matter is results. Clarify outcomes and make sure you are rewarding performance, not appearances.
Project Management and Reporting
Use centralized communication platforms like Slack or Skype to keep tabs on your team. Letting them chat instantly with each other means not having to worry about important information getting lost in the shuffle. It’s also fun to use beautifully designed software! Make sure you define your expectations of them and their role in the company.
Meetings and Check-Ins
Long gone are the days of traditional meetings. Now that you’ve ditched the office, you can embrace everything that working remotely has to offer. One of the key things to keep in mind is that you still need meetings of some kind. But today cameras can live-feed to your smartphone or laptop so you still get all the value of face to face meetings without the cost or hassle. And if you’re feeling the need, you can even develop your own company app for employees to use to either communicate, send important messages, work on keeping track of tasks and duties, etc.
BYOD
When you don’t have an office, that means there is no overhead for lighting and electricity, among other things. It also means you don’t have to provide office tech, such as phones and laptops. Most of your workers will already have these anyway, so make it a “Bring Your Own Device” kind of policy and save some cash flow there.
Yearly Meetings
One of the things that successful remote companies do is meet up occasionally. Just because you don’t work in an office doesn’t mean you shouldn’t meet your coworkers. So foster teamwork by having a yearly meeting somewhere that everyone would enjoy traveling to so they can meet and greet every once in a while for a change.
Running a company today from anywhere has never been easier. However, that doesn’t mean it is without its challenges. If you want to manage a team that is all over the world, you need to use the right strategies. Leverage the info above to make sure your remote office management skills can position your company to grow well into the future and maintain profits.
References:
- The Ultimate Guide to Remote Standups | I Done This Blog
- Office Automation is Going Mobile | ADT
- 7 Essential Project Management Skills for 2018 | dpm
- Creating a Virtual Office Policy For Your Small Business | Davinci Virtual Office Solutions
- Virtual Project Teams: 8 Keys to Success | EPMA
- What is Workflow Automation and What Can It Do for You? | TigerPaw