My name is Mikel Bruce with Tiny Frog Technologies. We’re a web design and development agency and this is slightly off topic, but I want to talk a little bit about remote working. I know that a lot of companies are doing this right now and may be offering remote work more in the future. We’ve had a remote team for many, many years.
We’ve been in business for 17 years and probably the last 10 years, the majority of our team has been remote. So, we have a lot of experience with it. I want to just give a couple tips that we’ve come to realize that have been very helpful.
Managing a Remote Team
1. Invest in Great Technology & Software
First thing is you probably already know technology is very, very important. It’s really good, important you have really good technology that supports remote working, both project management systems and communication systems and client management systems and things like that.
And we probably have a couple of different types of software that we use that we’re working with that engage, that allow us to engage effectively. So that’s really important.
2. Arrange In-Person Meetings Occasionally
Another and these are just common sense things, but having a place that your team can meet with occasionally whether you’re doing a work day together or you know long-term meetings.
Having a good space not only to meet with but also potentially to work where your team could work together, if you do not have a office that’s large enough to hold your entire staff.
3. Hire Employees Ready for Remote Work
One thing that I found to be very important is when you’re hiring or bringing on new people, finding people who are not only want to work remotely, but have the skills to work remotely.
Some people are definitely better at it than others and some personalities are more suited to it. So it’s really important that you’re screening for that and also training.
4. Spend More Time on Employee Training
If you’re going to bring someone on to work remotely, it’s a whole different level of training because they have to be trained to work remotely in addition to be trained on everything else.
Anytime we bring a new person on there’s a additional layer of training that we have to go through to help bring them up to speed as quickly as possible. Sometimes that means face-to-face involvement, but there’s certain tools that are designed for remote training.
There’s definitely some significant advantages to having a work a remote team. One of which being most people really love and appreciate having that flexibility, so it can really help to retain team members and can help to keep them engaged if you’re giving them that nice benefit.
