Team management is increasingly important to run remote teams effectively. Effective team management is more than just motivational speeches, coordination and meetings. The idea of managing different virtual team or employees from different time zones and locations across the globe without worrying about much of the infrastructure cost is genuinely appealing. However, not everything is a cakewalk.
Team management refers to a variety of team activities which bring the team together to carry them out. By predicting problems, finding two-way workflows, and being attentive to remote team members needs can help you manage and run remote teams effectively. There are tools and software you can use to manage your remote teams without much effort.
You need to make sure that each team members will have specific needs to be met in a team's growth. Keeping in mind the needs of team members is crucial for the effective team management plan. You can use team management software to enhance collaboration and helps to coordinate everyone's work.
Advantages of team management
The full advantage of remote work can't help teams who don't cultivate the opportunity to work together and maintain their social ties. As a business owner or employer, you always want to achieve the highest results from your employees and ensure that your staff is satisfied with their job. Team management maximizes task management and improves team collaboration in remote employees.
Some of the advantages of team management:1. Boosts productivity
When each team member has clear responsibilities and deliverable, they will be able to focus on their tasks and give their best.
2. Promotes learning
When different team members with different talents collaborate, they get the chance to exchange ideas and learn skills that they didn't have beforehand.
3. Increases performance
Teamwork makes the team perform optimally, and as they have higher fulfilment and performance levels.
4. Promotes team building
When team members complement each other, the gaps in team members' skill sets and communication is less.
Social teams planning events and projects that encourage people to take their break off work tend to accomplish specific goals in this regard: to help people improve work, to make them have more fun, and to help people understand their potential. The advantages of team management are extensive and helpful for you to run remote teams.
Effectiveness required to run remote teams
If you are searching for a niche skillset or want to draw a flexible hobbyist, remote work may be a choice for small business owners. However, as a boss, you must ensure that the remote team is as successful and productive as possible. They will not be magically practical, comfortable, or willing, mainly if they have never previously worked in their home office. To maximize the productivity and run remote teams, you must have an effective team management plan in place for your employees working remotely.
Here are five ways to successfully run remote teams:1. Explain issues thoroughly when seeking answers:
Make sure to explain a problem or a task thoroughly at the beginning itself. Some of the managers too often just inform their remote staff about the issues instead of telling their expectations. Due to the lack of complete information or instructions about a task, the solution they come to may not work exactly as per your expectation.
1. Set small expectations for significant projects:
You can improve communication within the remote team by setting smaller targets. Instead of implementing a big assignment and being left out, you should verify the success of your workers for each minor milestone. That also helps you to recognize possible issues during the entire cycle so that the outcome will not have to be duplicated and corrected.
2. Use clear communications:
In terms of teamwork, connectivity is the secret to progress, not just for remote staff but also for any working partnership. For dealing with remote workers, multiple contact networks are better used-but the default "best fit" setup must be implemented. Video chats, tweets, telephone calls, Slack: they will all help open (and retain open) communication lines and build a productive working partnership.
3. Plan to de-escalate problems:
Develop a simple way to identify and track issues with the remote teams. Be sure that they can articulate the nature of the problem, how much time it takes to solve it, how much money it takes to overcome it, and how important it is to finish the project. In case existing resources cannot solve the problem, make sure you have a plan B in place.
4. Hire the best:
What can you do most to make your remote team as useful as possible? Before your employees even start a project, it happens: hire the best. Whether your company builds websites or provides financial advice, it is critical. It influences not only the competence of the staff but also the productivity you pointed to earlier: 800% more efficient app engineers are among the most skilled than full-time employees.
Tools required for effective remote team management
To run remote team s, you might face a problem right from the accessibility of jobs and contact in the trans-time zone to a sense of belonging. However, despite the continued growth in the adoption of the remote working paradigm, organizations must be prepared for the reality of remote jobs.
What's the trick, then? How do you treat someone you never see in-person to work and participate? Aside from cultural changes, a very different tool set is essential to run remote team and make the team members feel like a successful, fair team member. Only the correct technical configuration is necessary for the remote operating layout.
Here you can find five critical remote team management resources to support remote workers and promote cross-site collaboration.
1. Virtual meeting tools
Rich face-to-face video calls are the backbone of remote teams and help bridge the physical distance. Although people enjoy meeting others, don't underestimate the value of daily visual talks with your team. Tools like Zoom, Google Meet has become a household name, after the COVID-19 lockdown. These tools offer a lively space for one-on-one talks, team talks, and business meetings that demand room for break-outs.
2. Timely - for managing resources, KPI tracking and invoicing accurately
Time management is a vital resource for any remote company, rendering evident all team tasks, resources, and project activity. In terms of the payroll, it is also very critical, without which you cannot reliably log overtime or charge customers. Timely is one of the few time management tools that optimize the whole work. It gathers all remote team members and uses AI to document their schedules. Managers will also use optimized real-time dashboards to monitor the workloads, efficiency, operation, and project budget expenditures of workers. Strong staff approval is central to the entire system, and remote workers are confident using it.
3. Trello -for task prioritization and workload
Trello allows people to manage projects and assignments quickly and works well for remote teams. The members of the teams can test their tasks for agile boards using the various boards and workflows - as essential as the traditional "To-Do," "Working" and "Done."
4. iDoneThis - for managing, leading and checking in
Managers will not be able to guess how their remote team is going. iDoneThis is a lightweight and flexible activity management tool, with staff reviewing every day and then storing them indigestible files.
5. Engagedly - for guidance, performance, and building trust.
Continuous monitoring, target selection, and research benchmarks are incorporated in Engagedly to help you run remote teams effectively. The 360-degree tool for reviews helps supervisors, co-workers, and all others to receive input and remote employees to report about their performance for some time.
Coda's primary emphasis is on interactive documentation, designed to integrate documents, phones, and device functionality, including Kanban boards and mini databases. You build and share one file with your colleagues. Coda documents are also essential to keep all the proposals of team members in a particular document - in other cases; they can be used as a project management tool. You may add additional pages to a document, group them into files, and create a library from an entire shared database.
Here are some of the best web applications for managing remote teams:
NiftyPM is your regular process preparation, arranging, and monitoring tool to help you effectively run remote teams. The app supports Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS. It is a new-age management software that reduces project development cycles and improves virtual team productivity by combining projects, work, people and team members.
Features:
- Milestone Tracking
- Budget Management
- Project Planning
- Issue Management
- Status Tracking
- Time & Expense Tracking
- Task Management
- Percent-Complete Tracking
- Idea Management
- Timeline View
- Portfolio Management
- Kanban Board
- Requirement Management
- Resource Management
- Recurring Task Management
- Project Templates
- Starter: Free
- Pro:$79 /User/Month/Billed Yearly
- Business:$124 /User/Month/Billed Yearly
- Enterprise: Custom
More than 10,000 people worldwide continue to make and using time-tracking tools from Hubstaff. Track hours of service, pay staff members, invoice customers, show in-depth content, and more in their mobile, desktop, and online dashboards.
Features:
- Billable & Non-billable Hours
- Billing and Invoicing
- Automatic Time Capture
- Leave Tracking (Vacation)
- Timesheet Management
- Offline Time Tracking
- Employee Database
- Mobile Time Tracking
- Multiple Billing Rates
- Free: Free
- Basic :$5.83 /Month/Billed Yearly
- Premium: $8.33 /User/Month/Billed Yearly
- Enterprise: $16.67 /Month/Billed Yearly
Hive software is a project management and collaboration tool to help you run remote teams. The platform integrates well with tools like Slack, Zapier, Zoom, Hubspot, and more. It is a team management solution for teams of all sizes who need to share files, chat and automate work management.
Features:- Project Management Software Features
- Portfolio Management
- Milestone Tracking
- Requirement Management
- Percent-Complete Tracking
- Task Management
- Project Planning
- Timeline View
- Kanban Board
- Resource Management
- Collaboration Software Features
- Project Management
- Task Management
- Discussion Boards for team members
- Audio-Video Conferencing
- Group Calendars
- Chat (Messaging)
- Task Management Software Features
- Percent-Complete Tracking
- Gantt Charts
- Progress Tracking
- Time Tracking
Pricing:
Professional: $12 /User/Month/Billed Yearly
4. Intheloop.io
In the Loop is a cloud-based event scheduling system to help you run remote teams at ease of clicks. It allows businesses to track and record event registration. Th platform lets users manage shared mailboxes like "info@", "support@", and "sales@" with team members. The platform offers the best way to know who's working on what by assigning emails and give an overview of your team members responsibilities and monitor their progress with automated workflows.
Features:
- Attendee Management
- Abstract Management
- Exhibit/Vendor Management
- Badge Management
- Donor Management
- Contribution Tracking
- Gift Matching Management
- In-App Sponsorship
- Payment Processing
- Guest List Management
- Room Block Management
- Pledge Management
- Reporting/Analytics
- Social Media Promotion
- Speaker Management
- Sponsorship Management
- Studio:£7 per user/month
- Business: £12 per user/month
- Enterprise: On request/Contact for details
Plutio is a platform for top management that helps an organization to operate and function smoothly. This software tool assists people in project scheduling and time control. Users are quickly paying for invoices to customers through PayPal and Stripe.
Features:
- Portfolio Management
- Budget Management
- IT Project Management
- Requirement Management
- Project Planning
- Task Management
- Status Tracking
6. Time Doctor
Time Doctor is a time monitoring app that works well with Linux, Android, and iOS. The automatic time logging allows users to monitor the time of your team members accurately. Users can monitor check hours, different billing patterns while working remotely. You can make use of Time Doctor to track time and projects.
Features:
- Employee Database
- Billing and Invoicing
- Leave Tracking (Vacation)
- Mobile Time Tracking
- Automatic Time Capture
- Timesheet Management
- Billable & Non-billable Hours
- Overtime Calculation
- Multiple Billing Rates
- Offline Time Tracking
- Business: $49 /Month
- Enterprise:$99 /Month
SoapBox is an all-in-one platform to record, edit, and share videos in no time. It promotes the decentralization, mobilization, and evaluation of input on employee suggestions for businesses. One can integrate Soapbox with Slack, Google, and Microsoft Calendar software.
Features:
- Task Management
- Discussion Boards
- Chat (Messaging)
Toogl is a simple time tracker for remote workers and a useful tool to run remote teams. The software only needs one click to start a new entry of time or to continue tracking. The app works with almost all platforms like Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices on a platform-independent basis.
Features:
- Leave Tracking (Vacation)
- Make Billing and Invoicing
- Mobile Time Tracking
- Multiple Billing Rates
- Make Employee Database
- Overtime Calculation
- Timesheet Management
- Billable & Non-billable Hours
- Offline Time Tracking
- Free: Free
- Starter: $9 /User/Month/Billed Yearly
- Premium:$18 /User/Month/Billed Yearly
- Enterprise: Custom
Desktime includes several profound learning features, such as the ML algorithm library, neural network simulation, and model testing. It is possible to control time from mobile devices, but people can't track time offline.
Features:
- Employee Database
- Billing and Invoicing
- Leave Tracking (Vacation)
- Mobile Time Tracking
- Offline Time Tracking
- Timesheet Management
- Automatic Time Capture
- Overtime Calculation
- Multiple Billing Rates
- Billable & Non-billable Hours
- DeskTime Lite: Free
- DeskTime Pro for $87.08 /Month/Billed Yearly
10. People Box
People box is an innovative meeting program that allows organizations to produce and maintain productive outcomes . It allows them to improve their work relationships through improved interpersonal experiences, automatic preparation, and careful supervision. The system aims to plan, organize, and guide decisions on a broad scale.
Features:
- Employee Management
- Performance Metrics
- Issue Management
- Workflow Management
- Scheduling
- Feedback Management
- Free: Free
- Basic for $6 /User/Month/Billed Yearly
- Enterprise for $10 /User/Month/Billed Yearly
Adam.ai is an all-in-one meeting scheduling system that spans the whole life cycle of the conference. It gathers and integrates information quickly and intelligently to turn the meetings. For people who work remotely, the tool maintains all relevant cloud information, files, and records securely.
Features:
- Item Tracking
- Panel Meetings
- Agenda Managing
- Attendee Managing
- Invitation Managing
- Internal Meetings
- Materials Managing
- Committee Meetings
- Voting Management
- Post-Meeting Tools
- Meeting Preparation Tool
- Minutes Management
- Scheduling
Eyeson is an interactive webinar and conference tool that helps you run remote teams. The app delivers high-quality group video calls with no interruption while keeping data consumption low. Also, the installation of software is not necessary for people who use it.
Features:
- Multi-Presenter
- Live Chat
- Attendee Management
- On-demand Webinars
- Social Sharing
- Screen Sharing
Conclusion:
We all are witnessing the rise in remote work, and more and more organizations are going remote now. Remote work is now a common term because of the changing working conditions triggered by a COVID-19 pandemic. It is time for organizations and managers to have effective team management in place for both on-premise and remote employees. With the number of remote work devices increasing, working and collaboration through teams of various time zones can be made more straightforward than ever!
Questions asked while looking for toold for managing remote teams:
Caroline is an editor and contributor to Wikipedia articles; loves writing around food, wine, and small business. For a short time, she also worked for the Polish marketing consulting firm.
