It is not always easy to get this right, but by simply looking at some of the things you can do to improve it, you are going to find it easier to actually treat them like a team and get as much out of them as you can at the same time.

Let’s take a look at how you can properly manage a remote team in this kind of situation.

Conduct individual check-ins

One of the most important things you need to do is to ensure you are conducting the occasional individual check-in with each of your employees.

At first, you might be concerned that this will take up a lot of time - but once you see just how much it improves their motivation and workload, you are going to appreciate that it’s actually a way of saving time in the long run.

It will also ensure that you know exactly what is going on for each person, and you can make sure that you are going to get a lot more out of each individual as you go.

These check-ins can be done via Zoom, or just as a phone call if you prefer.  You don’t need to go overboard with checking in as they’ll start to think you don’t trust them, but a weekly check in is a great idea so you can catch up and express any concerns or celebrations.

You can also share ways to stay productive working from home if they need some encouragement working by themselves.

Celebrate successes

Just as you would when everyone is working under the same roof, you should make a point of celebrating whatever successes your team might experience.

That could be related to making sales, improving processes or how you do things, or anything else that the business has achieved.

Whether you celebrate with an online meeting, or you send flowers to the individual who has particularly excelled, it is the kind of thing that will help everyone to still feel like a real team, as though you were in an office together.

Maybe every now and then you can celebrate with a takeaway and send them a gift voucher each to order theirs.  Even remotely, you can enjoy social things together as a team.

Encourage transparency

One of the main concerns with remote teams is that you can’t be sure that they are working as hard as they could, and you might be worried that problems are going to be ignored or swept under the carpet more easily.

In order to work against that trend, you do need to make a point of actively encouraging transparency as best as you can.

By making that a rule and being on top of it yourself, you are going to encourage it more in other people, so this is something you might want to think about.

Communicate lots

The more you keep in touch with your staff members when you run a home business, and the more you encourage them to do the same with you and with each other, the more like an office environment it will feel.

You should make sure that everyone is communicating lots with everyone else, so that they are all going to feel as though they are really working together.  You can even use software such as oVice virtual office spaces to make your remote team feel like you're in an office environment when it comes to meetings, conversations and even break times.

This is one of the most important and most powerful things you can do of all.  Have a group chat available as well as individual chats, so people can chat easily throughout the day when it suits them rather than needing to be on video all the time with can be quite interrupting.

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