The number of remote employees is exponentially growing as more millennial and Generation Z workers are opting out of traditional, linear career paths and more companies are realizing that what an employee can do is more important than where they are located. Hiring remote employees allows you to build a dream team of skilled professionals without being limited to a specific geographical area. To get the best results out of working with a virtual team, you need to know how to collaborate efficiently remote teams.
Take Time Zone Differences into Account
When you work with a globally distributed team, it’s important to consider the time differences between you and your distant teammates. This means planning in advance when delegating tasks and understanding that your messages won’t always get responded to instantly.
If you’re responsible for hiring remote team members, then ideally you should aim to hire employees based in time zones that share some overlap with yours so you can collaborate with your remote teammates more easily. However, you don’t want to limit yourself to this either, which could cause you to miss out on a highly talented collaborator who happens to be located across the world.
If possible, try to plan at least one hour of overlap in the schedule you and remote team members work so you can touch base in real time when needed. Keep in mind that the default time zone for your company should be wherever the management staff is located or wherever you primarily do business.
Use Slack to Collaborate with Remote Teams in Real Time
Slack has become the go-to instant messaging app for both remote and co-located teams collaborating on projects across industries. It allows you to create channels to share relevant information with the team members it pertains to, as well as instantly start one-on-one chats with anyone else in the organization, which makes it an indispensable tool for collaborating with remote teams.
Another advantage of using Slack for remote collaboration is the ability to integrate it with other useful collaboration tools. For instance, you can integrate it with common project management software platforms, as well as other popular tools including Zendesk, GitHub, and Google Drive.
Use G Suite for File Sharing
Centralized file sharing is essential for collaborating with remote teams efficiently, and G Suite is the best way to do it. Everyone needs to be able to access files when they need them, without having to ask a team member who might be located in a different time zone to send the files over by email or share them via another method.
With G Suite, it’s easy to create project folders that contain all the relevant documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and other files that remote team members might need access to in order to get their tasks done. Not only that, but remote teammates can collaborate on documents in real time by leaving comments and assigning edits to other team members.
Centralize Collaboration with Project Management Software
When you’re using multiple tools and apps to collaborate effectively with remote teams, there’s nothing better to tie it all together than project management software. PM software allows you to centralize all your project data in one place, including tasks, subtasks, files, and everything else you need to successfully plan, monitor, execute, and complete projects.
Project management software aids greatly in the delegation of tasks and lets you see the progress of the whole project at a glance. This creates more transparency, holds everyone accountable, and helps remote workers prioritize tasks more efficiently.
Provide Clearly Written Instructions for Tasks
Once you’ve set up Slack for your instant messaging, are using G Suite for file sharing, and have centralized collaboration with PM software, it’s important to be very clear in all your communication with remote workers. Because of time differences, remote team members will often be reading instructions after you write them and when you might not be available to answer any questions.
This means that whether it’s a Slack message, a comment on a shared Google Doc, or a task description in your project management software, you need to make it crystal clear what they need to do and provide all the necessary information for them to get it done. The last thing you want is for your instructions to be misunderstood, wasting everyone’s time and duplicating work. Make sure to be clear about deadlines as well!
Don’t Micromanage Remote Workers
The point of hiring remote workers is that you are assembling the best team that you can, regardless of location. Many remote workers choose to work independently because they are more productive that way, so let them self-manage as much as possible.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t check in with remote employees regularly. It’s important to offer them support and guidance so that they can efficiently get their tasks done but let them be self-directed and let their work speak for itself. If you’ve put together a strong remote team and are following the aforementioned guidelines for communicating and collaborating with your remote team, then you will be well on your way to getting your projects done successfully.