THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO TEAM BUILDING FOR REMOTE TEAMS
Written by Miss Samantha ElizabethIf you are new to working with a remote staff member or an entirely remote team, it is quite an adjustment as you have probably noticed already. You will start to notice early on that there are numerous challenges of working virtually with virtual teams.
One of the biggest challenges I have noticed working remotely is the lack of team building. As a small business owner with a virtual team, there are a number of ways to communicate and to get a message across to virtual staff members. But you can not always fill your virtual staff member in on every little detail about your business, and especially by email your personality or the importance of a matter does not always come through.
Team building for remote teams is very important if you want your team to be on the same page as you, have a deeper connection to your business and want to help you to succeed and retain virtual staff members.
HOW TO MASTER TEAM BUILDING FOR REMOTE TEAMS
SHARE YOUR GOALS
Knowing how to connect with remote staff on a deeper level can be challenging, as you are likely never to see them in person. So casual conversation about your business and personal life is likely kept to a bare minimum. When working in a physical 9-5 job, you are more likely to speak with your coworkers about what goals you have for the future of your business as it would come up in general conversation. When working with a virtual team, it is a bit harder to have these types of conversations.
Make a point to connect with your remote staff and share your goals and dreams for your business. Even if you think it does not apply to them, it will certainly build rapport with them and give them a better understanding of what you want in your business. It will give them a better understanding of what you are trying to achieve in your business and will assist them in tasks they are doing on your behalf.
Such as creating content for your social media or managing your inbox. If they are aware of your goal and dream within your business, they will feel more confident and connect to you and your business.
GET TO KNOW YOUR VIRTUAL STAFF
It is just as important to get to know your virtual staff. What is their story, they’re why for wanting a remote job, what are their goals. Getting to know them on a more personal level and keep connecting with them is a great way to build rapport.
Working in the online world it is easy to forget that there is a person on the other side of your messages that has their own life. Connect with them, see when their birthday is, if they have kids or if you both have the same interests such as traveling, connect over your favourite places to travel to! Any remote staff member would appreciate you reaching out to get to know them and will make them feel 100% more comfortable working alongside you.
SHARE YOUR WINS
A great way to encourage team building for remote teams is to share your big wins with everyone. Having everyone included in your wins no matter where they are working from in the world will make them feel like part of the team. Especially if they were a big part of that win.
It is an awful feeling knowing you had a hand in selling a large amount of product form social media. So make sure you share these big wins with your remote staff and build some rapport before sharing with everyone on social media.
COLLABORATION TOOLS FOR VIRTUAL TEAMS
There are many tools out there to build better relationships with a virtual team and increase communication. Here are the best collaboration tools for virtual teams you should think of implementing into your business process:
GOOGLE HANGOUTS
If you are looking for an easy way to connect with remote staff, consider using Google Hangouts. This tool acts as an instant messenger chat box to allow you to message your contact quickly and easily from your inbox.
Another awesome feature is that it will allow you to video call your contacts at no extra cost! It even allows two contacts to watch the same Youtube video at once. So you are both bouncing ideas off of each other, there is no need to go watch a video when you can both view it together at the same time!
SLACK
This tool is fantastic for virtual teams that have several things going on at once. It allows you to create separate channels for your team to communicate on. If you have separate projects going at the same time this is the perfect tool to have for your virtual team. It will allow your team to ask questions in the designs project channel and will not confuse anyone’s or waste anyone’s time scrolling through messages that do not pertain to them.
FOLLOW UP ON THEIR ROLE
After your virtual staff has been in their role for a little while, follow up with them to see how they are feeling in the role. This is a fantastic way on how to connect with remote staff and build rapport.
This will open up communication between you and your virtual staff and will allow you to find out if they have everything they need to complete their tasks. You never know, maybe they did not feel comfortable coming to you but by you opening up that communication they will feel more at ease and enough, to be honest with you.