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Teleworking has become significantly more widespread within organizations in recent months, largely as a result of the health crisis. This new way of working in many organizations is forcing managers to change their methods to ensure effective management.
The health crisis, linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, has highlighted the technological backwardness of many companies. With the explosion of remote working and the lack of resources, thousands of people have been forced to work with the tools made available. Today, however, the uncertainties linked to the health situation and the lack of solutions mean that no one is able to predict how long this situation will last. Something to think about!
In fact, companies and especially SMB, which have limited resources and staff, must adapt. If there is no lack of digital tools and solutions to facilitate the company management, the question of which ones to use comes up quickly. What about management? The good functioning of a company is based on efficient management. With the new rules of work, new methods are expected to emerge. In this article, we are going to study in detail the uses and procedures to follow, in order to ensure good management even from a distance.
01. Manage your teams remotely by improving your internal communication
Optimize communication within the company, in real time and recorded
In person, internal communication happens spontaneously. In a few seconds, a word, a mail can be exchanges, while a meeting can be organized unexpectedly. The discussions go smoothly, and the progress of the files is often significant. In remote working, there is no such proximity, sometimes making it difficult for employees to communicate with each other. So, it’s essential to define a clear and effective strategy. By targeting the right uses, the manager limits downtime and optimizes working time.
This involves in particular:
Scheduling daily or weekly meetings: these meetings at regular intervals, organized on the same video platform, allow exchanges on issues related to tasks, but also to teleworking. Feedbacks are important and the most relevant ones help to optimize the methodology to follow.
Communication methods: In order of encourage an efficient transmission of information, manager can choose one or two internal communication channels. E-mails, phone calls, shared files, applications like Messenger, there are many ways to communicate.
Centralize information: in order to guarantee a quick access to information et avoid time consuming reminders, team manager can choose to create a cloud type space, allowing everyone to save the necessary and important data, helping a project to progress.
Provide training: Many online tools allow you to continue to train your teams either to the work itself or to new technologies and other tools. Training videos can be offered while webinars are developing as an interesting and credible alternative.
Create a real team cohesion (team building, meeting)
Whether a company choose to be in remote working or on site, its main goal is to ensure its profitability. Management, which has to evolve according to the chosen strategy, must ensure the sustainability of the activity.
If this is not the most important factor of success, good team cohesion has a significant influence on the result. However, if it’s simple to build a human link on site, the situation becomes a little bite complicated in teleworking. The link with the other is distorted and the only true perception of his colleague is the image returned by the cameras and microphones.
So, in order to move on the right direction, it’s essential to maintain this team spirit, by ensuring that the team is brought together in a non-professional context. Team building are currently very popular and allows employees to get together for a few hours. For companies whose employees are spread throughout France, it can be interesting to use Skype meetings. Concerning, SMEs, teams can be small, making it easier for employees to get to know each other better.
Helping yourself with tools and applications
The example with Jamespot corporate social network
The COVID-19 health crisis has highlighted the technological backwardness of many companies: lack of material, paper format, shaky organization… Today, in order to ensure the continuity of an activity and a collaboration at all times, a company must turn to already established products that meet a very specific demand.
The Jamespot corporate social network centralize a set of tools in the form of applications, helping a team and this manager to manage their project in the best way possible. Meetings organizations and other events, configurable system, communication’s management, and schedules, the platform brings together a set of devicesthat facilitate day-to-day management. You can find out more about this kind of issues by freely download our webinar by clicking here.
The example of Jamespot chatops
One of the aspects of the Jamespot solution aims to make communication within teams more fluid: chatops. Based on a conversational flow system, the Jamespot chatops allows team members to exchange and share messages, documents and polls in real time for easier communication and project management. A solid tool that managers can use to communicate with their team as a whole (one to many) or with each member individually, depending on the situation (one to one).
02. Manage in remote working, just like in the office
Understanding et adapting to the remote working challenges
According to a study conducted by Buffer in 2019, 40% of the teleworkers believe that the main advantage of this way of working is flexibility. This observation shows that the old management methods, which are a little too rigid, will have to be replaced. Management teams must assimilate this idea perfectly.
In fact, remote working offers some freedom that the old methods didn’t offer. Thus, it is essential to study, understand and assimilate the challenges of teleworking and the expectations behind this way of working in order to better manage teams remotely, while reminding that the final objective remains to ensure the sustainability of the activity. A more flexible setting provided by the Jamespot corporate social network, which offers all employees a simple working environment that is perfectly suited to the challenges of working at home.
Another point, more personal, the issues of work-life balance. When working at home, there are no real boundaries between work and personal life. We recommend creating a working environment suitable and calm, while making sure to leave the folders aside when the computer turns off.
Promote the work and efforts of the team: don’t forget the classic management rules etc.
As seen above, remote working requires a certain rigor as well as an efficient and optimized internal communication. However, if this management rules are intended to be less restrictive and oriented toward news technologies, this is unnecessary to turn everything upside down. Employees effort must be always valorized. Teleworking is a new way of working and many employees feel lost. If the manager role is to guide his team, this is also to highlight the progress made and define the objectives to be met, so that everyone can pull up.
However, if it is simple to build a human link on site, the situation becomes a little bite complicated in teleworking
To conclude
Teleworking requires, from the management team, adaptability, flexibility and understanding, while looking at the future and news technologies. Good internal communication defines in advance by the manager and this team, as well as un attentive listening, make it possible to build a solid project. Many tools support the development of these strategies, beginning with the Jamespot corporate social network, which centralizes data and management tools. By managing trough, a single platform, contacts, projects or training sessions and the life of his company, teams have real comfort and a tool adapted to teleworking.
For more information about remote management, you can download our specially edited webinar.