The teams that work remotely have been experiencing declining productivity mainly due to unclear requirements of managers and unclear productivity benchmarks. Thus, it is not true that the main reason would be that the team members work from home or at different sites. This is at least what an interesting article, which was recently published on the Fastcompany.com server, says. So, what should you do to make sure that your virtual team works with high productivity?
Clarify your goals
Get together with all team members to define goals. Clarify what a well-functioning team means to you - what and how often it will require. Plan your individual meetings as well as days when you all meet in the office. At face-to-face meetings you can solve the optimization of processes of remote working, concerns and questions of individual team members.
Be as specific as possible
When you have specifically defined outputs regarding the content of work, its quality and schedule, you do not have to care whether someone "messes around at home." You cannot get something you cannot measure.
Agree on days when you allow working from home
Focus on when specific people will be able to work from home, so that always the right people meet at the workplace at the right time. Make sure that everyone, who works from home, has clear instructions on what to do.
Consider well whether to allow working from home on Friday
If you are sure that your people working from home fulfill their tasks without any problems, you can let also them work from home on Friday. However, if you fight with the productivity, then Friday is the least suitable day. You should be better of to use Fridays as days of teamwork in the office.
Offer the work from home on Monday
Try to let your people quietly begin the week peacefully working from home. For example, you can start it with a teleconference, when you remind weekly priorities and allow team members to plan the whole week peacefully.
Provide flexible working hours
The possibility of working from home should not mean that you plan for your people what they should do at home at any particular hour or even minute. Its purpose is to offer them flexibility and show the confidence that they can handle their tasks themselves.
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