It’s important to keep your remote team together working effectively and efficiently. Remote teams are a relatively new concept in the workplace.
Because of major advancements in technology over the last several years, many businesses now offer work-at-home positions for workers. This has many benefits, including lower overhead and the ability to allow your employees to find a balance between work and home life.
If you have yet to adopt a remote platform, here are some tips from The Un-Retired Entrepreneur on how to make your business a success when your core team members may never have an opportunity to meet in person.
Keep Your Remote Team Together — General Business Tips
First, let’s look at a few things that will make your business better in the startup phase. Two of these are to ensure that you adopt an equal employment mindset and have your business structure set from the beginning.
Equal Opportunities
Offering equal opportunities for potential employees, whether remote or in-person, is a smart move that can help you avoid legal action based on discrimination or wrongful termination. No matter where you live, most countries offer workplace rights.
As a rule of thumb, take steps to ensure that your positions are open to people of all races, genders, sexual orientations, and abilities.
Establish a Business Entity
Next, add establishing a business entity into your business plan. Your business entity separates your work from your personal life.
This is crucial if you want to safeguard your personal assets. If you form an LLC, for example, you’ll not only have management flexibility and little paperwork but your home and personal bank accounts can’t be targeted if you wind up in a lawsuit for any reason, including because of discrimination.
Each state and country has different rules and regulations, so do your research and learn about all the requirements in your area.
Keep Your Remote Team Together — Job Description Matters
When you’re hiring a remote team, your job description matters almost more than when you are seeking an employee for a brick-and-mortar role.
To write a compelling job description, Workable recommends using job titles and crafting a strong summary. You also need to outline the responsibilities of the role and verify that potential candidates are aware of their day-to-day expectations.
Choosing the Right Candidates
Obviously, your job candidates should possess all the skills necessary to do their job. But aside from their experience, you’ll want to try and evaluate their soft skills, such as communication and personality.
Further, keep in mind that working from home is very isolating. While there are many resources for lonely remote workers, you want employees that have social support beyond the workplace. This is because humans are, according to MindWise Innovations, inherently social creatures. We need in-person human interactions who enjoy our best possible mental health.
Creating Synergy
Something else to consider is how your remote employees’ strengths and weaknesses will complement each other. Just by sheer statistical probabilities, not all your employees will be strong in every area.
The key to hiring in any type of environment is to make sure that you have a great variety of people who can and will hold each other up for the greater good. If you are in the market for new employees, a recruiting agency is an excellent resource for finding the screened and tested members for your team.
Finally, you cannot forget about practical concerns.
Potential employees should be made aware of what they are required to have to work remotely.
While you will most likely need to provide equipment, your employees should have an excellent internet connection and a private workspace, such as an office or study, where they will not be interrupted by children or other family members during the workday.
Working from home is no longer a novelty. The coronavirus pandemic has shown us all that you do not have to be together 40 hours per week to be an effective team. The above tips can help you run a better business no matter where your employees may be.
By Cherie Mclaughlin from Couchbasedbiz.com
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