How to Train a Remote Team

The internet has afforded business owners many wonderful opportunities to grow and expand. If you’ve ever wanted to start a business, there’s never been a better time to make the leap. The best part about doing business online is that you don’t need your team to be where you are: remote work is continuing to grow in popularity. It’s not without its challenges though. Whether you run a team of two or two hundred online, you need a strategy for checks and balances. If you’re gearing up to start a company or expand your existing operation with remote works, here’s how you can train them and set them up for success.

Hold regular meetings...and then let them get to work on their own.

The whole point of having remote workers is that you don’t have to micromanage every little thing they do. It frees up a lot of your time and provides you with a great deal of flexibility. That is, if you can avoid the temptation to require your remote team to clock in and clock out and allow them to do work at their own pace. Get together at the start and end of every week to review the goals and how they have been achieved; there might not be a need for two meetings a week but that is something you’ll need to figure out with your team. In the beginning, you might want to check in with everyone a little more, but as time goes on, loosen the reigns.

Encourage teamwork amongst your employees.

Even though they don’t work in the same place, encourage your team to stay connected through online tools or platforms. If one or more of your team is in the same city or town, you might encourage them to work from a shared office space that you rent so that they can collaborate together. Remote work is very lucrative for a lot of people, especially freelancers, but it can be lonely. Don’t leave your employees out in the cold. If you can’t be together, hold video chats whenever you can and focus on building rapport with your team regardless of where they are in the world. If your company can afford it, fly your team in once a quarter to meet and talk about goals and strategy. If you can’t afford to bring everyone together, focus on the managers or people who delve out the work so that you can ensure continuity of information.

Check in one-on-one.

When it comes time to talk about performance or personal directions in someone’s career, take the time to have a meeting either via video chat or over the phone. Making those connections and maintaining them is really important. If you hire someone as a contractor or freelancer, keep in mind that they have their own way of running their business and you need to determine how their skills fit into your business and respect that they are also running a business. Whether you need them full-time or part-time, have conversations at the outset of the relationship to set the expectations and ensure no boundaries are crossed. If a remote worker asks for a meeting or phone call with you, make time for it. Just because you aren’t in the same room or building or even the same city doesn’t mean you can run an amazing business with a remote team. Having access to the world’s talent is an amazing thing.

When it comes to running a remote team, the first challenge is always finding the right people. After you have found your team, treat them as though they are right in front of you. Send emails to check in and see how people are doing. Ask about weekend plans. Set up an online chat system where people can hang out around the water cooler, so to speak. Going the extra mile to provide a sound workplace for your remote team will make all the difference for them - and you. And when you decide to add team members, make sure everyone is properly introduced. You might do a webinar to introduce everyone to the new employee, or you might ask them to send an email with information about their background and experiences as a way to connect and communicate with the rest of the team. Above all else, give your team the support they need, when they need it and don’t make assumptions about their abilities to do the job completely on their own. If they wanted that, they would run a business on their own. They are still your employees.