5 Remote Work Tips to Steal from the Outsourcing Industry

Remote working is one of the most popular methods of working today. In part, companies had to transition to remote or hybrid teams due to the pandemic. On the other hand, many employees were laid off during COVID-19 and had to become remote freelance professionals.

This popularity of remote working has also led to the growth of the outsourcing industry. The two are closely related, so it’s no wonder that they influence each other. Hence, here are the five remote work tips to steal from the outsourcing industry.

#1 Build Healthy Relationships Between Teammates

First of all, you need to build healthy relationships between your teammates. If there are no proper relationships between your team members, they can’t work effectively as a team. That’s why building healthy relationships should definitely be at the top of your remote working checklist. Here’s how you can build these relationships:

● Communication – Enable all your team members to have easy access to tools for communicating with each other effectively. Everyone should be able to reach each other at any point during the working hours for your team. It is necessary to have multiple channels for communication such as text messaging, emailing, and voice and video calling.

● Trust – Trust should be at the foundation of all the relationships inside your team. Your employees should trust you and you should trust them. Moreover, they all need to trust each other. If there is trust between all the team members, it will be easier for team members to rely on each other during times of crisis and handle difficult situations together.

● Feedback – Continuous feedback is critical for having an ongoing conversation about the ways in which your team can improve and grow. You should provide and get feedback from your teammates as well as encourage them to give and get feedback between each other. This way, everyone can better understand what their strengths and differences are and how they can improve themselves.

#2 Set Up Effective and Efficient Communication

As explained above, communication is essential for building healthy relationships between your teammates. At the same time, communication is the key to the success of your company, so your remote team needs to have an effective and efficient system for communicating. Here are some things to keep in mind:

● Tools – Find and select the right tools for all your communication needs. These should include instant communication tools (e.g. Slack for text messaging), tools for sending larger pieces of information (e.g. Outlook for emailing), and video calling tools (e.g. Zoom for voice and video calling). You will also need additional tools for functions like file sharing, project management, and so on.
● Policies – Having a set of policies and guidelines for communicating during critical situations will help you handle the said situations better. If you don’t know how to write a set of guidelines or policies for communication, you can hire a professional writer from the writing services reviews site Trust My Paper to create the manual for you. Make sure that all your employees are informed about the guidelines and know how to act in specific situations.
● Daily Meetings – There will be different types of meetings you will need to hold with your team regularly. Daily meetings are essential for ongoing projects, but it’s best to keep them as short as possible. If you don’t make them too long, you can make them all quite productive and successful. Besides, keeping meetings short is the best way to avoid making your teammates bored.
● Roundups – Roundup meetings can be less frequent (e.g. once in a week, two weeks, or even a month) as long as they serve their primary purpose of summarizing your past activities since the last meeting of such kind. At roundup meetings, you can assess how your activities helped you achieve the goals you set and then set new goals and define a plan for achieving them.
● One-on-Ones – In addition to group and subgroup meetings, you will also need to have one-on-one meetings. Don’t neglect such individual meetings because they will help you better connect with each employee separately. Moreover, you will also have the opportunity to discuss personal matters with each employee (e.g. individual progress, private matters, etc.)

#3 Hire Virtual Assistants to Help with Basic Tasks

Hiring a virtual assistant might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you want to improve the productivity of your remote team, but it can actually be quite helpful. Virtual assistants can be perfect for completing basic tasks such as scheduling meetings, booking places, ordering products, and so on. You will be pretty much outsourcing some of the tasks that would otherwise have to be done by your own employees. When you have a single person doing all of that for all your team members, they can focus on their actual tasks.
To find the best virtual assistant (or several of them depending on your needs), you will need to look for either an agency that provides such specialists or a freelance virtual assistant. Make sure to carefully assess every virtual assistant’s skills to decide who will be the best person for the job. It can be difficult to find the perfect fit, but once do find your new virtual assistant, your team’s work will become much easier to handle.

#4 Reward Employees with Meaningful Items

Rewarding employees with meaningful items is one of the most important aspects of keeping them motivated and determined to complete their tasks and excel at their respective jobs. For instance, if one of your employees writes the best essays or content for your brand’s blog, you need to acknowledge their hard work and reward them in some way. Here are some ideas for rewarding employees with truly meaningful items:

● Gift Cards – Give your team members gift cards for buying products or services from their favorite brands. Always make sure that these are gift cards specifically for the brands that your employees favor.
● Bonus Payments – Paying bonuses in addition to salaries can be a great reward at the end of the year for the most hardworking and high-performing employees. Make sure that the bonuses are not too small and not too big.
● Extra Off-Days – Extra off-days can be ideal for employees who are soon going on vacation as well as those who often ask you about sick leave (e.g. employees with little kids, those with family members who need extra care, and those who have chronic conditions of their own).
● Physical Items – Actual physical gifts are another option for the rewards you can give to your employees. Of course, as long as they are meaningful and valuable to your team members. To enhance the emotional well-being and motivation of remote employees, incorporating personalized recognition through meaningful rewards can be particularly effective. Consider gratifying your high-performing team members with a personalized glass trophy as an acknowledgment of their hard work and success. Not only does it reflect a touch of elegance and personalization, but it also serves as a lasting symbol of appreciation on their workspace, continuously reminding them of their valued contributions.

#5 Define and Set Up a Reasonable Schedule

Last but not least, don’t forget to define and set up a reasonable schedule for all your activities. This is precisely one of the biggest reasons why big companies use outsourcing – it allows them to have more time for other activities. When working with a remote team, time becomes a particularly valuable asset, so you need to be very smart with the way you manage it. Here are some things to keep in mind when setting up your schedule:
● Schedule repetitive tasks first and only then add new tasks as you move along.
● Distribute tasks between different subgroups within your team as well as specific individuals.
● Use a powerful tool for task and project management (e.g. Trello, Asana).
● Don’t be afraid to reschedule or cancel tasks if the need arises for it.

Conclusion

To summarize, working remotely can be just as effective as working in-office as long as you manage your team correctly. Use these tips from outsourcing to help you improve your remote working strategy.