Tag: Remote

Building A Remote Team

Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. More and more businesses are facing the prospect of remote working. As such, building an optimal remote team is critical. The following contributed post is entitled, Building A Remote Team.

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One of the best things about starting a business from home, or even freelancing, is that you can build a team as remote and flexible as you. Investing in remote team members is one of the best ways to scale and grow your business, and the best part is that you don’t need to have long-term contracts.

A couple of remote team members will make a huge impact.

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

Bookkeeper

One of the areas of your business that you might think is significant in the early days is your finances/ But it is better to practice good financial hygiene in your business as early as possible. Remote bookkeeping is the perfect solution for keeping your finances in order and is as flexible as you are.

Social Media

Ideally, you want to spend as much time working on your business rather than spending a lot of time on the admin and things like social media. While you can spend a few hours a month planning and setting up automatic posting, it is often better to have someone who has professional experience do it.

They will manage to tackle it faster and create content that packs a punch. Some people also prefer a virtual assistant that includes social media in their package.

As they are professionals, remote social media managers usually have their own software, which can reduce the cost for you.

Look for a remote social media manager with packages that fit your needs. If you haven’t set up your social media, they can also give you recommendations about what you should have for your business.

Blogger/Writer

One of the signals that search engines want to see from your website is that there is fresh content going on it. It shows the search engines that you are active and relevant to your audience. If you have a lot of ideas but aren’t great at putting them together, then a freelance writer might be the perfect solution.

There are writers that work within all types of budgets, and you will likely find one that specializes in what you do too.

They will be able to create all types of content, and you can decide if you want to have a running contract or order from them when your budget allows.

An up-to-date and often updated blog will do wonders for your SEO too!

SEO

You might not have the budget or the need for an SEO company to handle everything for you, but freelance SEO experts can come in when you need them to, set up a plan, and help you stick to it.

You’ll need to find one that works within your budget, but often they will be able to tell you what you can and cannot get for the amount.

The benefits of a remote and freelance team are that they will be on hand when you need them, never cost more than you have, and you can change and grow your team as you wish.

You might decide that you’d prefer a combination of in-house and freelance, in which case you’ll need this: 4 Tips For Hiring The Right People For Your Company.

How To Master The Art Of Working Remotely

Two focuses of my blog are Career Discussions and General Education. Now more so that before, working remotely is a key consideration for both employers and employees. Working remotely is a valuable tool but it comes with its own set of considerations. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Master The Art Of Working Remotely.

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With remote working becoming the ‘new normal’, adapting to this new style of working has never been a more important task. Thankfully, learning how to master the art of remote working doesn’t have to be as difficult as you might initially imagine! In fact, this guide contains some of the most effective steps that you can follow to become a seasoned pro from the comfort of your home office. So, what are you waiting for? Read on to discover more!

Image Source – Pexels

Create The Ideal Environment

One of the biggest stumbling blocks that people tend to struggle with while working from home is creating the ideal environment. Making the mistake of trying to work while you lay in bed or lounge on the sofa will no doubt hold you back from achieving your full potential, as you’ll simply be too comfortable, relaxed and chilled out to give any task your full attention. The same thing goes if you’re sitting somewhere too uncomfortable and cold like your dining room table, as you’ll be thinking about how painful your back feels rather than focusing on your work. The ideal environment for a home office is a private room, such as a spare bedroom or even a summer house (insulated shed) that you can repurpose into a dedicated workspace. Taking up a corner of a room will only lead to extreme distraction, especially if you live with other people, so try and find a space that you can fully dedicate to your new office. Choose a good color scheme for your home office, as you’d be surprised at just how much your palette can influence your mood and ability to focus. Make sure you buy a comfortable office chair with arm and head rests, along with a desk that is large enough to house all of your technology and paperwork – a cramped desk is a recipe for disaster, as you’ll be wasting too much time shuffling through your junk to find what you need. Try to allow some natural light into your home office, too. Natural light is better for your body and mind, as it helps to regulate your natural circadian rhythm and encourage more vibrant wakefulness. LED lights usually just cause headaches and migraines, so stick with sunshine whenever you can.

Add Extra Security & Privacy

When you work from home, you don’t have the same security and privacy that you do when you work in a dedicated office. A dedicated office will likely have its own secure internet connection that is monitored and controlled, whereas you’ll simply be using your own Wi-Fi or even a public Wi-Fi connection to access your files and apps while working remotely. You’ll also probably have no security cameras or other forms of physical security at your home as you would in an office, so this can open up a whole variety of risks and dangers that you need to be aware of. Adding extra security and privacy to your setup while you work from home is absolutely essential, as you need to be able to maintain the greatest confidence that your files and network is as safe as can be. Putting your data at risk due to mistakes made while working from home could prove catastrophic for your business, so there’s no time like the present to improve your chances of staying safe. Start by installing a reputable firewall on your computer and any other internet-connected devices, as this will act as a strong barrier that repels different risks that lurk on the web. You can also find some good antivirus software, as well as a computer cleaning program that rids your device of unwanted and potentially dangerous data. Make sure that you use complex passwords, changing them on a regular basis (at least once every 3 months). Always communicate using secure methods, as oftentimes things like email messaging can be corrupted and monitored by external sources. Suggest that your colleagues or staff follow these steps too, as even one weak link could jeopardize your whole network. It’s a good idea to find some resources for SD- Wan explained, as this might be an option you could benefit from.

Mastering the art of working remotely has never been such a simple task when you can utilize some of the brilliant tips and ideas that have been carefully described above. You’ll be able to smash your goals out of the park despite being away from your normal office environment, so follow these steps to become the best remote worker you can be!

Keeping A Remote Working Team Productive

Three focuses of my blog are Organizational/Management Discussions, Workplace Discussions and Technology. While remote working has its advantages, it has its host of challenges as well which both management and staff must be cognizant of. The following contributed post is entitled, Keeping A Remote Working Team Productive.

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Remote working has become a lot more popular over the last couple of years. More people than ever before are doing their jobs from the comfort of their home, enabling them to make money without having to leave the house. This offers huge benefits to businesses, but the whole team has to be managed correctly to ensure that productivity doesn’t drop. To help you out with this, this article will be exploring some of the best ways to ensure that your remote team is able to maintain productivity.

Regular Conversations

Talking to your remote team on a regular basis is crucial if you want to make sure that they are productive. It can be hard to know what people are doing with their time if you don’t talk to them, and this should happen on both a one to one and whole team basis. For example, if one team member is falling behind their peers, you should talk to them over the phone to make sure that they don’t need extra support. It’s always worth keeping in mind that remote work can be more challenging for some.

Setting Targets

Setting targets for your team is incredibly crucial, giving you the chance to make sure that they are doing enough work while they are at home. Targets need to be fair, and you shouldn’t be working to push them up whenever one target is met. Not only will consistent targets help your team to work more effectively, but they will also provide you with the means to improve productivity. It can help to offer your team access to platforms that make it possible for them to track their own targets.

Monitoring Performance

Alongside setting targets for your team members, you also need to be able to monitor their performance without talking to them. While you trust your team, it can be hard to know if they are covering their backs when you talk about their work. There are a lot of tools on the market that enables you to track sales performance metrics, and you need to use this sort of platform to keep your business productive. This can be an easy way to make sure that your overall targets are being met.

Healthy Competition

Finally, as the last idea to consider, it’s time to think about healthy competition within your business. Rewarding those who perform well can be far more effective than punishing those who don’t, and you can always offer rewards to those who perform the best each week or month. This sort of reward doesn’t have to be expensive or grand, but it will help to keep your team working hard. Most people like the idea of outperforming their peers.

Working to keep a remote business productive can be extremely challenging. Of course, alongside these ideas, you also need to make sure that you have a team that is willing to work hard to achieve the goals you set. This will usually get easier and easier as time goes by.

Tips For Introducing Remote Working

Three of the focuses of my blog are Current Events, Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. During this Coronavirus/Covid-19 Crisis/Pandemic, many businesses and organizations have been able to survive due to the ability their workers to perform their duties remotely. It’s not as easy as it sounds and takes some adjusting. The following contributed post is entitled, Tips For Introducing Remote Working.

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Remote working is something that many businesses are now starting to pick up on, and if anything, this Covid-19 virus is a wake up call for those companies who weren’t using it before. So if you want to introduce remote working in business, here are some tips that might help.

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Consider If It’s Possible For Your Business

Firstly, you want to check whether remote working is possible for your business or not. Usually, in order to do remote working, it has to be a job or have tasks where you’re working from a computer. The more practical-based jobs might not be as effective when it comes to remote working, or even possible. For those roles that require you to be on the phone, there are options such as diverting calls to a landline or mobile of the worker. There are lots of options worth exploring before you quickly dismiss the idea of remote working. It’s worth considering, especially as there are many benefits for you as a business to take advantage of it.

Trial It Out With One Or Two First

What tends to be an issue for those who have tried remote working is that they often roll it out to the whole company and suddenly everyone wants to work from home. Instead, trialing it out with one or two staff members is going to improve the rate of success that you have. There are going to be some staff members that take advantage of this company perk, and so you want to cherry pick those guinea pigs that will take it seriously and not take advantage of what’s been given to them. Remote working doesn’t have to be a company benefit for everyone, and for some, it’s not possible anyway.

Invest In The Right Equipment

To make remote working be as successful as it can be, it’s good to invest in the right equipment. That means making sure you have the right computers so that staff can access files and work on these devices to the same level of productivity that they would do if they were actually in the office. You might want to look at a company like www.solutionpartner.com who can help with the transition of helping staff work remotely, as well as providing ongoing support.

Monitor Staff’s Work On Remote Days

And finally, be sure to monitor your staff’s work on remote days. The reason why you should do this is that otherwise, some staff members might still take advantage of working from home or whilst traveling. Work still needs to get done, and so having the ability for line managers and supervisors to check in on staff to get updates on the work they’re doing is essential. There are plenty of systems out there that can help monitor this efficiently.

Introducing remote working is the future and should be an option for most businesses and the staff who work for them. Pandemics like this one, show that a backup such as remote working should be in place.

The Remote Mistakes You Didn’t Even Realize You Were Making

Three of the focuses of my blog are Current Events, Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Due to the Coronavirus/Covid-19, many businesses, companies and organizations have shifted to have their work forces work from home remotely. Working remotely is a new concept to some and there are some keys to it. The following contributed post is entitled, The Remote Mistakes You Didn’t Even Realize You Were Making.

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In recent weeks more than ever, businesses have had to test whether they truly are prepared for any situation. Not only have marketing drives had to altogether change direction, but companies have also had to face the sudden reality of remote work.

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. You’re past the worst of this working shift, and that’s a considerable achievement. But, you might not want to pat yourself on the back just yet. After all, you’re still a long way from being able to call yourself an established remote front-runner.

In fact, it’s possible that you’re still stuck making a few rookie mistakes which are preventing you from truly making a go of things. That’s bad news as it means that you’ll continue to struggle through the pandemic, and may even fail to maintain the remote processes you’d like once things return to normal.

To make sure that isn’t the case, keep reading to find out what mistakes you may be making, and what exactly you can do about them.

Too much of the personal

As they choose their own hours and settings, processes are inevitably going to become more personalized to your team. This is fantastic for productivity and is something you should be sure to encourage. What you definitely don’t want to encourage, however, is the use of personal phone lines/internet connections. Remember that, amidst all this madness, you still have a responsibility to keep consumer data safe. Personal connections like these simply don’t offer that. Instead, aim to implement business-based VPNs and even cloud phone services like those provided by lighthouseit.us. That way, you can guarantee that no unwanted listeners or unaccounted risks crop up along the way.

Washing your hands of the need to provide tools

Providing employee tools is essential in an office setting. It’s down to you to supply computers, office chairs, and desks at the very least. And, don’t think this responsibility is altogether over just because you’ve gone remote. While your team will need to use home desks/computers, you should still ensure they have everything necessary to complete tasks. In this instance, that primarily comes down to software tools like those outlined on https://www.proofhub.com. At the very least, this continued assistance on your end will keep employees happy. The chances are that it will also do a great deal to boost results.

Image by Christina Morillo: CC0 License

Too much trust in your employees

Lastly, you may well be putting too much trust in your employees to work hours whenever it suits, or even to get on with tasks without your oversight. Sadly, this often leads to even the best team members letting you down, and it’s something you need to avoid by remembering to do your fair share of managing. That means hosting meetings at set times, and always checking how things are progressing once a project is underway. Only then can you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that your team is continuing to work as well as they would have in the office.

Use Remote Team Lessons With Long-Distance Relatives

A key focus of my blog is Health/Wellness. A major component of life is the relationships with our friends and family. In some instances, career and life circumstances geographically separate us from our loved ones. Thanks to today’s technology though, we can still keep in contact with family no matter how far they are away unlike any time before. The following contributed post is entitled, Use Remote Team Lessons With Long-Distance Relatives.

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Life has a terrible habit; it puts distance between those who used to have a close relationship. Whether it’s your family or your friend, life has more than one way to tear your apart. Maybe you’ve had to leave your best friend behind when you went to college in a different state, and it’s been difficult to keep in touch. Or perhaps you’ve relocated for a job, and your parents now live several hours drive away from you.
Geographic distance used to be an insurmountable obstacle in the past. But nowadays, businesses have long proven that they can create a feeling of belonging with their teams, even though nobody lives in the same town. Indeed, remote teams are proof that you can bypass geography and still bring everyone together. As surprising as it might sound, it’s time for the business world to teach us a thing or two about keeping our family and friends close by.

Make a family t-shirt

Communicate as often as possible
Successful remote teams have understood that communication is vital to creating a sense of togetherness. Indeed, as explained in a previous article of the blog bigwordsarepowerful.com/2019/, businesses need to consider digital solutions to implement a healthy communication strategy. Collaborative tools and chat systems are favorites, as they make sure that everyone is on the same page at all times. Ina private environment, there is no room for collaborative solutions. However, group chats are an option. You can create a private group chat on Facebook, for instance, which can let you share your news and interact with your relatives. Additionally, Whatsapp offers a similar option. As you use online groups, you also need to accept that not everyone might be online at the same time. However, both Facebook and Whatsapp enable all participants to review the messages they’ve missed while they were logged out. In other words, you can get an answer both in real time and at a later point too.

Facebook lets you create private groups

A collective project brings everyone together
Remote teams also share a sense of purpose. They collaborate on the same project. Distant relatives and friends, however, may not have any common objective. But nothing is stopping you from introducing a collective project you can share. For instance, why not plan a big family reunion with tailored t-shirts for everyone? You can use a vinyl cutter – see here for more info vinylcuttingmachineguide.com – to design your family logo, for instance. Make sure, however, to use a heat press to transfer the logo onto the t-shirt. You could also create a party board for your next family Christmas or the next round birthday. Ultimately, you can start a project and assign tasks to each other, so that you’ve got a reason to organize a meetup and share your creations.

Respect each other’s lifestyle
Last, but not least, remote teams value flexibility. Everyone knows and understands that other members may not be available at the same time. But that’s precisely what collaborative tools are about. Similarly, you also need to display the same understanding with your relatives. Not everyone returns calls; not everyone is active online daily, etc. Build your long-distance relationship on mutual respect instead of high expectations!

Modern businesses have a lot to teach us. They introduced a practical solution for long-distance relationships, which can not only help you to stay in touch with your relatives but also build new memories to cherish and remember.

Employee Engagement Ideas For Remote Teams

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and two focuses are Business/Entrepreneurship and Career Discussions. A great perk for many employees is being able to work remotely. Working remotely gives a lot of flexibility and can add to productivity. There’s a downside to it too, and management must consider how to get the most of teams of employees working remotely. The following contributed post is therefore entitled, Employee Engagement Ideas For Remote Teams.

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Ensuring your employees are engaged is not always an easy task, yet it can become even more difficult when dealing with remote teams. Nonetheless, the following employment engagement ideas from Unum should give you a helping hand…

https://pixaby.com/photos/office-adult-computer-african-3370835

Frequent Communication

When dealing with a remote team you should never take the ‘no news is good news’ stance. This is likely to lead to disengagement, as the team members may feel you don’t value them enough to tell them what’s going on. It is definitely a case of the more communication, the better.

Embrace Instant Messaging

A lot of managers believe it is more efficient for them to be the only point of contact. However, you risk alienating the team in question, and this is extremely damaging. Why? Well, information won’t flow effectively and work relationships won’t develop. Instead, promote healthy communication via the use of internal instant messaging.

Consider Various Communication Tools

When engaging with a remote team you need to make sure you use the right tool in relation to the message you are giving. If you merely need to rely on a simple message, an email will suffice. However, when something is more elaborate, or complex, or requires brainstorming, it will be more effective to use an advanced video tool. You can easily find these on the Internet, and some are even free to download. However, managed solutions come highly recommend, as they will be developed to suit your business.

Better Scheduling

Why should those on the other side of the world always have to take a conference call whilst they should be sound asleep? A lot of businesses schedule in relation to what is convenient for their home office. However, if you consider your remote teams and schedule for their benefit in some instances, you show that they are just as important and this keeps them engaged.

Give An Explanation

This is a simple yet effective engagement idea for remote teams. Often, everyone in the home office will know what is going on and consequently their reason for performing a particular task. However, remote teams may be asked to do something and they have no clue why. This may interrupt their current workflow and thus cause irritation. Moreover, it may lead them to feel disengaged because they are working on something without purpose. Therefore, all you need to do is explain why.

Create Personal Connections

It doesn’t hurt to ask someone how he or she is and what is going on in their life. A lot of managers neglect to do this because they feel they are wasting time. However, creating a human connection is time well spent. If you can’t spare five minutes of your time to get to know an employee, no matter where they are located, they won’t feel valued. Instead, they will feel overlooked.

So there you have it, six easy yet highly effective employee engagement ideas for your remote teams. As soon as these practices are implemented you will immediately notice a difference. Start today by making a personal connection when you next communicate with someone in a remote team.

Looking To Grow? You Have To Let Go? How You Can Work With A Remote Team Effectively

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. With today’s technology, many workers are working remotely. There are certain keys to working with remote teams. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Looking To Grow? You Have To Let Go? How You Can Work With A Remote Team Effectively.

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Growing a business these days means having to find ways to cut financial corners. If you’re someone that’s on the road constantly, remote work is an essential cornerstone of a developing company. Many businesses use remote workers now, but for all of the pros and cons associated with remote working, if this is essential right now, how can you work with a remote pool of workers effectively?

Don’t Confuse Brevity With Clarity
When we looking to maximize our effectiveness and we need to communicate with remote teams via email, we can feel that the fewest number of words possible is the only course of action. But, we can confuse brevity with clarity. You have to think about getting your point across, not just so your workers know what to do, but so you can avoid any bounce back. A lack of clarity will result in more confuse responses which will triple your workload and reduce your productivity for that day, meaning you will have to work hard to catch up later in the week. Regardless of your type of work, whether you’re growing a digital agency, a pool of bloggers, or an e-commerce business, if you have remote workers that have to be firing on all cylinders, you have to ensure that you are able to distill exactly what you mean into a message so that it leaves no stone unturned. This is a fine art.

Breathing Space
The anxieties that creep in when we’re running a remote team is that we, very simply, have no idea how our employees are working. There are ways for us to ensure they are on the right track, regular meetings, either in person or via video call work perfectly fine, but part of the draw of remote working, especially when you are starting up a business, is that the employees have some sense of freedom. They are working from home, so they are able to do things, within reason, their own way. The temptation can be for us to breathe down their necks a lot more and metaphorically look over their shoulder. But you have to think about the overarching productivity. If you are constantly pinging messages to an employee to check on their work, you’ll have to think that this will invariably slow them down. This is why it’s better for you to instigate communications first thing in the morning or the end of the working day. It all depends on the feedback you have to give, but working at home comes with its own unique set of challenges, and we have to think about this, because if we are sending numerous little emails, messages, and we are one step away from picking up the phone and speaking to them, the number of little tasks that they have to do throughout the day that purely involves messaging you back could slow them right down and impact you at the end of the week.

To work with a remote team, it requires the ability to say what you mean, but let them work in their own way. In many ways, you are relinquishing a lot of control, but if you are looking to grow, then you have to let go.