Teams at home
Working with teams

7 ways to keep your team together while working remotely

 

As working from home becomes the new normal for a lot of us, we look at what you can do to ensure your team stays connected and motivated from their home offices. Here’s what you need to know when it comes to building – and bonding – a team of remote workers.

 

Be responsive and available 

Be responsive

Be responsive and available 

Your employees should know that, just because they are out of sight, they're not out of mind. Demonstrate a commitment to their wellbeing by inviting them to one-on-one calls at regular intervals and conduct appraisals and reviews just as you would if you were sitting in the same office. Listen to any requests and try to support them where possible, that might mean offering flexible working hours to fit around childcare commitments or calls with team members and customers in different time zones. 
 

Add a social element

Add a social element

Add a social element

The last thing you want is for your teams to feel like they are stranded on a desert island, so think about how you can create a few positive connections. Instead of going to the pub after work, invite people to a Friday ‘happy hour’. Face-to-face social networks like Houseparty are a great way to bring people together. Encourage your team to meet on the app, or a Zoom call, and get ready to raise a glass to each other from wherever you all might be. Wearing your best outfit is entirely optional. A WhatsApp group or Slack channel dedicated to not-work will give your teams a chance to chat in a less formal environment. 
 

Tech can support collaboration

Tech can support collaboration

Tech can support collaboration

Asana, Trello and Yammer are great project management tools that can lend a hand when it comes to sharing knowledge and reports. They break down work into bite-sized chunks and allocate responsibilities to specific people or departments, so they're a great way of boosting productivity and streamlining projects. They'll help you all be able to focus on what needs to be prioritised, while you’ll get a sense of how everyone is managing their time and be in a position to step in before a small hitch turns into a big delay. 
 

Share, share, share

Share, share, share

Share, share, share

A quiet space, a decent internet connection, an endless supply of biscuits. There are many things people need to do their job effectively, and it’s your responsibility to ensure they have access to the information they need. This means saving documents, images, presentations – basically anything they might need to refer to – on a file-hosting service like Google Drive or Dropbox. Provide links to the folders and destinations that are most relevant to each person or team, and encourage everyone to save items in the cloud rather their desktops. 
 

Use tools that support communication

Tools

Use tools that support communication

Just as we use What’sApp to share information (and pictures of cats) with friends and family, there’s a huge range of digital tools and services that can support professional communications. Use an instant messaging platform like Slack to keep everyone up-to-date on specific projects and clients, and Zoom for ‘face-to-face’ phone calls and video conferencing ¬– this is especially useful as it lets you share your screen with others, as well as record conversations that can later be shared with people who weren't able to there. 
 

Shout about your success

Shout out

Shout about your success

Team and department catch-ups are the perfect opportunity to make ‘good news’ announcements – like a business win that will have a positive impact on motivation, information about a recent hire or general updates that are relevant to your industry. Anything that will make remote workers feel closer to the business is worth sharing. 

Host virtual catch-ups

Host virtual catch-ups

Host virtual catch-ups

It doesn’t matter if your company has two or 20 employees, regular calls or online catch-ups can quickly and easily ensure that everyone knows what’s going on – while you will have the chance to get a snapshot of where everything’s at. Set these for the same time every day or every week so that people can prepare in advance and use these conversations to get a mini progress report from people, check everyone is happy and not feeling overwhelmed and answer any questions or concerns that have come up since you last spoke.
 

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