How To Build A Strong Work Culture For A Remote Team

With the rise of tech-led startup culture, the trend of managing remote teams has received a huge hype. Business owners are more interested in hiring freelancers than recruiting an in-house team for tasks like graphic designing, content writing, web development and what not. Remote work culture is the need of the hour, yet many business owners struggle with it. Even though they hire freelancers, maintaining good relations with them over a period seems impossible, and that’s why most entrepreneurs fail to maintain a strong work culture among remote team members.

If you’re starting fresh as a blogger or entrepreneur and want to recruit a remote team to handle day-to-day tasks, make sure you know exactly what it takes to build a strong work culture among remote teams. Here are a few suggestions that can help you-

Keep KRA Clear From The Beginning

Even though it’s a remote engagement, your team members should be aware of their responsibilities.  KRAs (Key Result Areas) can help you make things pretty clear to them. Have an easy going remote association but make sure your team members don’t forget their KRAs at any stage. This will help you avoid any sort of performance gap in the future.

Trust Your Team Members

They’re not in front of you, but that doesn’t mean you act like a cocky boss who has no faith in his team-members. If any of them have not delivered their work on time, it doesn’t mean they are out with their friends and having fun.

There can be innumerable reasons which you’re not aware of. So, have faith in your team members and try to build your relation with them on a positive note.

Use The Latest Tools For Team Communication

Communication is the most difficult task when it comes to handling a remote team. In fact, most remote team associations fail due to lack of proper communication. When you’re sitting on the same floor as your team members, you can get things done easily, but when your team members are miles away from you, probably in a different time zone, it becomes tough to maintain a flawless communication.

In order to get rid of this problem, use the latest tools that are easily accessible by everyone and facilitate hassle-free communication. Some of the tools that many tech entrepreneurs use to keep in touch with their remote team members are Skype, Slack, Google Hangout and our very own WhatsApp Groups. If you’re not using them already, start doing so now without any second thought.

Show That You Care For Them

No matter how much you care for your remote team members, unless you show it to them, they’re not going to know about it. Monetary/nonmonetary rewards go a long way in professional associations, so give them surprise gift hampers, write thank you notes, and send appreciation emails whenever they’ve done something worth it. Believe it or not, such acts of kindness can definitely strengthen your bond with them.

Lastly, make sure none of your remote team members feel that they’re sidelined by you. Also, if possible try to meet them once in a while, probably once a month or two months to ensure that your bonding with them remains intact.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.