Hiring a virtual assistant (VA) is a business option that is becoming more and more popular by the day. A report investigating remote teams revealed the following:
● 91% of people who work remotely attest that they are more productive.
● On a scale of 1-10, virtual assistants scored 8.10 when asked if they are happy with their job.
● 52% of people who work virtually confirm that they communicate with their direct supervisors at least once a day.
● Majority of remote workers surveyed report that they feel valued by their employers.
These findings only prove that outsourcing tasks to a VA isn’t only convenient, it is also beneficial for business. After all, employees who feel valued at their job give their best work.
As your business grows, your team also expands. What happens when your single online assistant grows into a virtual staff? How do you make people collaborate when they’re in different parts of the world and have unique working habits?
Here are 10 effective strategies for managing remote teams:
1. Hire a Strong Workforce
Your business is only as strong as the people behind it. Make sure that you are working with the best people from the get-go. Hire your people from credible outsourcing companies. Virtual assistants from trustworthy human resource teams are already screened and interviewed even before you meet them. This way, you can be sure you’re connected to the person with the best skill set and most relevant experience.
2. Trust Your Team
Trust is a key element at work especially if you only collaborate with your staff virtually. By trusting that the people you hire are credible, knowledgeable, and skilled enough to fulfill their tasks, you’ll be able to delegate tasks effectively. Believing in your team will also fuel them to be more creative and productive. This is how you get people to think outside the box and generate innovative ideas.
3. Organize a Work Process
Help your team work effectively by organizing a work process. Before hiring a network of individuals to work for you, determine how you want them to operate. Would you require them to report to you before and after working? Is there a system of operations that people need to follow? Document repeatable steps and develop a workflow so that everyone knows how to do a task. This will also make it easy for new members to hop in and join the team.
4. Get the Right Tools
The effectiveness of your work process and relationship is largely dependent on the effectiveness of the tools you use. Tools should help you get organized, communicate better, and work together. Get tools forcommunication whether individually or collaboratively, for keeping and sharingfiles, fortime-tracking, for managingpasswords, and forsigning important documents.
5. Set Project and Business Goals Clearly
What is the vision of your company? What objectives are you aiming for this month? Knowing the long-term and short-term goals of your business helps team members stay on the right track. More than listing down a set of tasks to be done, enforcing clearly defined goals help people meet their individual metrics.
6. Measure Productivity in Terms of Results
When your business team is composed of online assistants, you can’t base productivity on clocked in hours alone. You would do better by shifting the focus on results. How much work is done in the hours your VA has rendered? How many articles can your writer finish in their 6-hour shift? Are 3 hours enough for answering and managing emails? When productivity is measured by how much work is done during a given period, team members become smarter with time management.
7. Cultivate Accountability
One way to know that people are diligently fulfilling their responsibility is by giving them accountability. Don’t just task your social media VA with moderating comments, answering messages, or posting updates. Let them be responsible for the overall social media presence of your company. More than just delegating work assignments, assess completed work by the end of the week.
8. Encourage the Buddy System
This strategy will save you a lot of trouble as your team expands. You can’t be online supervising your staff all the time. Getting a newbie paired up with a tenured member of the team is the best way to train them and ease them into the workforce. Besides, it fosters teamwork as people get to know their co-workers better.
9. Conduct Individual Coaching
Many business owners fail in assessing individual performance from team members after delegating tasks. If you want to make sure that each staff member is performing well, take some time to review their work and assess their progress. Are there areas that they can improve on? What contributions have they made? Your team will be stronger if each member is given a boost through individual coaching.
10.Communicate Daily
You must keep communication open every day so you can stay on top of things. Just because you’ve outsourced some responsibilities doesn’t mean you must leave all accountability to your VA’s.
You don’t have to exchange emails with each team member every day. You can just contact the core members of the team to make sure that business operations are going smoothly. The supervisor or leader of the group can advise you on what tasks have been accomplished, what needs immediate attention, and whatever concerns individual members have.
These 10 effective strategies for managing remote teams will make sure your company makes the most of what technology offers.
Catherine vanVonno, the author, is the President and Executive Director of 20Four7VA, a global Virtual Assistant (VA) Service Provider. She holds a doctorate degree in Applied Statistics, Research Design and Program Evaluation from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and has over 10 years experience in facilitating evidence-based strategic planning, product development, brand management, legislative communications, and medical policy. She is married and has four children. You can reach her at communications@20four7va.com.
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