Managing remote teams during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the majority of the world’s workforce to go remote — almost overnight. For many project managers out there, this abrupt transition can throw a wrench into their team’s productivity and morale, which can be debilitating to a project.  While my team was never fully remote prior to this, being on international projects and frequent travel required remote work at least 30% of the time. Over the years, I developed a firm grasp on the best ways to handle remote working situations. Are you a project manager who’s currently struggling with this? Here are five tips for managing remote teams during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Get the right systems in place

First and foremost, you have to make sure you have the right systems in place and they don’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as making sure meetings have a way to connect to the internet through phones and laptops. Sharing screens is crucial for remote meetings, and Microsoft Teams is a great option for that. 

Working remotely also presents new challenges when it comes to collaboration, so it’s important to have resources that meet these challenges. Everything your team needs should be accessible online and a tool like Sharepoint or Google Docs should be utilized so that online collaboration is possible in real time. 

Communicate more frequently 

When it comes to working remotely, it’s easy for members of your team to become unavailable. Maybe they had to take the dog on a walk or needed to make a grocery store run. Whatever the case may be, you lose the ability to see them physically. What used to be me walking around the office to update key people has turned into having a daily one-on-one call with them. Without the office chatter, I’m also not able to get a feel for how things are progressing, so I have to rely on instant messaging. It’s not as nice as having a real life conversation with someone, but it gets the job done. In this new remote workforce, communication between project managers and team members has to be more frequent and more formal.

Have patience with your team

That being said, it’s also important to have patience with your team. Stress for all of us is at an all-time high, but some of your teammates may have more to worry about than others. Maybe they have a loved one who is sick or have kids to take care of while they’re working. Or perhaps they have new financial pressures. You never know what someone is going through, so while communicating more frequently is vital, having patience and understanding is just as important. If you don’t, you could destroy morale and productivity. This is your chance to step up to the plate as a leader, and leaders prioritize humanity over efficiency. 

Offer advice on setting up a productive workspace

There’s a reason why companies invest so much money into fancy offices and ergonomic chairs: people are a lot more productive when they’re comfortable. If members of your team don’t have the right workspace, it’s going to be hard for them to execute on tasks at full capacity. 

For example, I have a bad back. Working for long hours in a normal chair just doesn’t cut it for me, so I bought myself a Herman Miller chair. Maybe members of your team have different issues when it comes to working from home. Talk about those issues openly and help them come up with solutions so that they’re able to adapt to this new work from home culture. We could be here for a while. 

What strategies are you implementing to manage your team remotely? Comment below or reach out to me on Twitter @theomarproject.