Remote work is a new norm for many teams and companies. But for many employees, transition to working from home can be hard. That means, it is a leader’s job to make sure people can handle working from home, things get done, and the team is still running smoothly towards the same goal. That is why, we wrote this free remote work ebook: “Leader’s Guide to Remote Success”.
Download “Leader’s Guide to Remote Success” for free.
What is a remote team?
Remote or virtual teams are teams, or whole companies, that don’t work in the same physical location. Often these teams work using digital tools that allow them to work entirely from home or other places. And let’s face it, you can do everything online.. From signing documents with DottedSign to running having team meetings over Zoom.
Having some or all of your staff work from home has many advantages. Most notably, you’ll have access to a much bigger pool of people to choose from when hiring. Why settle for the best local employees when you can employee the best workers from around the entire country or world?
Challenges of Remote Work
There are of course, like with everything, some drawbacks and challenges to overcome.
The biggest one is, in my opinion, the fact that it’s a lot harder to establish trust and integrate new employees into your teams. And it is clear that this sort of working environment doesn’t suit companies or people. Still, the benefits of working remotely usually outweigh the challenges. And most difficulties, organisational or technical, can easily be solved by a smart leader. The trick is to set your team up well and think about all the potential problems in advance.
Goal Setting and Weekly Planning in a Remote Team
Handling the day to day operations is one of the biggest adjustments one must make, when working from home. Having daily meetings and chats works in the office, but it doesn’t fit well, when everyone is at home.
Luckily, you can use tools like Weekdone Team Compass that work well both in the office and for remote employees.
You need to think about your employees. How do they stay engaged? How do they keep their discipline? It starts with weekly planning.
Weekly planning is a status reporting method for tracking the weekly activities of your company. The aim for every status report is to answer three key questions:
- “What plans did you achieve this week?”
- “Which challenges have you encountered with your plans?
- “What do you plan to do next week?”
It is often used as a replacement for weekly stand-up meetings in offices as it helps to provide quick updates with simple online check-ins.
As for quarterly goal setting on a team and company level, Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are very effective for a remote team.
OKRs are a goal-setting system that helps everyone focus on what needs to be improved at the company and team levels. The O stands for Objectives. These are your committed or aspirational goals. From there you have to set your Key Results which are the measurable outcomes that define what the success of the Objective looks like.
Using OKRs and Weekly Planning together lets your team focus on daily tasks while keeping big Objectives in mind. So, that gives a sense of purpose and team work even when you haven’t seen your coworkers for a while.
Download “Leader’s Guide to Remote Success” for free.
Using Weekdone with Remote Work ebook
With Weekdone Team Compass you’ll gain a remote worker reporting software, which allows you to set, track, and achieve goals on individual, team, and company levels! With simplified OKRs and weekly planning and engagement features – leaders and employees will be more connected than ever!
Once you’ve mastered virtual teams with our “Guide to Remote Work” ebook , you’ll be ready to use Team Compass with your team as well. So sign up now and test it with your virtual team for free.