Currently, 1 in 5 French people have already teleworked.
The office is no longer the only place to work; employees can work in a café, at home, or in co-working spaces. Teams are dispersed.
This brings about a change and real developments in managerial practices.
It is therefore important to understand how to adapt to this working environment.
Regular teleworking will soon become the norm
More than a year ago, allowing employees to work from home one day a week was a competitive advantage for companies when hiring. This has now become almost essential. If their company offers full-time teleworking, this is a great opportunity for employees to avoid public transport or even to work from wherever they want. And this is also a great opportunity for companies!
This is because there are fewer offices to rent and employees can be more productive when they are at home. As for the managers, they can better distribute their working hours and therefore be in touch with their teams more regularly.
However, poorly organised remote management can mean a real loss of productivity for employees.
It is therefore important to implement a number of techniques to ensure optimal remote management of teams.
Techniques to manage teams remotely
Be available
It is essential to be available for your teams, especially via instant messaging.
Managers will be able to communicate in real time with their teams using specific channels for each company department. You will also be able to send instant messages to your employees. This will greatly facilitate your communication, which can be difficult when employees are not in the same office.
It is important for managers to respect downtime (breaks, teleworking time limits) for themselves and their teams.
If you are able to make yourself available, you have a duty to set an example with regard to proper teleworking practices. This requires regular and collaborative use of communication tools.
Educate yourself and continue to educate your teams
There is also a need to adapt to the new tools required to make the transition to teleworking.
Furthermore, training has been largely neglected by managers working remotely in an emergency situation.
However, it is a real challenge to boost the commitment and productivity of employees.
There are several ways of training teams, for example microlearning courses, remote coaching or a balanced combination of training-coaching-consulting that allow training and teleworking to be combined.
Keep in touch with your teams
It is important to keep in touch with your teams and to give regular feedback.
You can, for example, organise video sessions with each of your employees at least once a week, and as a team several times a week on set dates, to find out about the progress of current projects and to provide a constructive appraisal of their work.
Use the right tools
It is important to use the right tools to ensure effective remote management. Those that allow you:
To organise your tasks and those of your teams, monitor the progress of projects and add tasks in real time (Trello, etc.);
To have one-on-one or team sessions with your employees. You can give feedback in real time, as if you were in the office (Meet, Zoom, etc.);
To send instant messages to your teams and be available remotely (Slack, etc.);
To store and share your files with your employees. You will be able to create shared files and work in teams on a project (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.);
To make the best decisions at the best time through regular monitoring of your project management or regularly assess your team management and the integration of soft skills (Ask’n Get by ARANSI) ;
To make videos in less than 15 minutes in order to provide feedback and onboarding remotely, using a simple smartphone (solution vidéo Kannelle).
Remote management was regarded as complicated a year ago. But now managers have been able to adapt, teams are more productive and the relationship has been maintained, even at a distance.