Remote management: the keys to fostering collaboration

With the rise of hybrid working methods, telecommuting is challenging remote management. In particular, it has contributed to the emergence of a managerial model based on trust and greater employee autonomy. But remote management can also respond to a desire for growth through the opening up or assimilation of new subsidiaries. To meet these new challenges, find out how to manage a remote team in an inclusive and collaborative way.

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The challenges of remote management

Managing a team remotely requires great flexibility on the part of management teams. Viewed as challenges to be overcome, the difficulties encountered can encourage good practices, and become drivers of change for an ever more agile and inclusive organization.

An apparent lack of control

Presenteeism, once valued, is now challenged by teleworking. Managing a remote team raises doubts about employee involvement, and this feeling of loss of control can give rise to counter-productive behavior: 

• The use of micro-management ;
• Surveillance can create a deleterious and demotivating atmosphere.

In reality, remote management should be seen as an opportunity to capitalize on the productivity of your teams, working in conditions that encourage performance. More than a work culture based on presence, you need to focus on achieving objectives by providing your managers and employees with the right resources.

Less humanized communication

Long-distance communication is a source of distortion, as it encourages misunderstandings and misinterpretations due to a lack of emotional transmission. This deterioration in relations can be a source of psychosocial risks, such as feelings of isolation or increased workloads.

However, new ways of working require the introduction of remote management based on fluid dialogue. It is essential to maintain a collaborative spirit to encourage sharing and mutual support, while providing solutions to reconcile private and professional life and avoiddigital hypersollicitation.

Challenging team cohesion

The physical isolation of teams can undermine cohesion between employees, and complicate the dissemination of an organization's culture and values. 

Remote management must therefore foster a strong team spirit, an essential aspect that impacts motivation. Maintaining close relationships, both digital and physical, is essential in telecommuting to combat demobilization.

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The main principles of successful remote management

Remote management is based on strong concepts, designed to develop proximity and communication between team members, and to maintainengagement.

Redefine everyone's missions and objectives

Successful telecommuting management requires the transmission of precise information on each person's tasks and roles. Managers need to set concrete, achievable objectives, encouraging the delivery of deliverables within a short timeframe. Employees must understand the importance and nature of their contribution to the company.

Creating a climate of trust and equality

Trust forms the basis of remote management, because telecommuting is synonymous with employee autonomy. As disparities in trust levels can make telecommuting even more complex to manage, managers need to be fair and accept that they no longer have permanent control over their staff.

Valuing the work of each employee encourages everyone to support the company's project.

Demonstrate availability and flexibility

Remote working and management can leave employees feeling isolated. Their need for support is often exacerbated when working from home, so it's vital to make yourself available to them. To ensure they remain motivated, it's essential to provide a framework for individual exchanges, so as to respond to them in a personalized way.

Promoting skills development

Isolated or remote employees should not feel that their career is on the sidelines. You can integrate into your remote management an ambitious and inclusive policy of skills development for all your employees.

Remote or face-to-face training workshops help your teams to develop their skills. They become more efficient, and may eventually be entrusted with more challenging missions.

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Remote management: how do you manage and unite your teams?

Remote working presents managers with a major challenge: maintaining close relations and a strong team spirit between dispersed employees. To reinforce cohesion, it is important to develop certain structuring aspects.

Clarity and guidance to foster a climate of unity

Effective remote management requires a transition to a more flexible, goal-oriented model. Since a certain framework is still necessary, the manager can :

• Use videoconferencing to communicate in a more human way and maintain real relationships;
• Clarify expectations to set clear, achievable goals for everyone ;
• Clarify missions and tasks so that everyone can see themselves in their day-to-day work.

Encouraging communication and listening to develop mutual support

Remote management remains inextricably linked tofluid, efficient communication. It is a major lever for managing remote working, particularly in :

• Determining the time slots when everyone needs to be reachable : concentrating the moments dedicated to exchanges means not encroaching on employees' personal lives. This frees up time for purely executive activities, which in turn boosts productivity;
• Framing exchanges so that each contact is motivated: in order not to encourage untimely interruptions, structuring discussions helps to increase efficiency and avoid dispersion;
• Selecting only relevant channels: to avoid poor transmission or information obsolescence, it is advisable to integrate certain conversation tools, but not to multiply them;
• Scheduling regular meetings: scheduled meetings establish a common work rhythm, for better organization and dissemination of information;
• Balance formal and informal meetings : telecommuting tends to favor formal exchanges to the detriment of convivial moments. Yet it's important
  to encourage relaxed discussions to preserve team spirit.
  
  

Establish work methods to facilitate collaboration

Presenting simplified, yet precise, work processes is essential for creating organizational automatisms and better managing remote working:

• Set up rituals: structuring meetings creates a rhythm and maintains productivity and motivation;
• Establish a culture of writing: developing note-taking and reporting means keeping records that can be consulted easily and at any time;
• Selecting tools and getting them adopted : managers must ensure that they use tools that are intuitive, flexible and within everyone's reach, so that everyone reaps the benefits;
• Establish procedures: a framework for working must be clearly established and respected by all to avoid loss of efficiency.

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3 tips for remote collaboration

Exchanges between employees are a real challenge in remote management. It is essential to develop effective solutions to make exchanges more fluid, avoid isolating certain team members and thus improve everyone's performance.

Use collaborative tools

The right tools for smooth communication and effective collaboration are essential for successful remote management:

• Google Drive or Dropbox for data sharing and storage;
• Trello or Asana for project management ;
• Slack for instant internal discussions;
• Zoom or Google Meet for videoconferencing.
  
  

Cenareo's in-house communication software is an integral part of the company's digital workplace, enabling it to distribute high-impact content easily and on all types of screen. A true multi-channel tool, it integrates with existing tools and adapts to employees' work environment. The Cenareo solution meets the objectives of cooperation between corporate teams, to promote the digital inclusion of all employees, whether teleworking, in the field or on site. Corporate digital signage is a powerful lever for more engaging and effective communication.

Adopting strong leadership

Hybrid management and remote management both rely on the manager's ability to deploy assertive leadership. His or her role is to instill motivation with a keen sense of listening and communication. To remain active at a distance, employees need to adopt the company's vision, as expressed by the manager.

Strengthening team spirit

The manager must direct all his decisions towards the collective good and consolidate team spirit by :

• Organizing group meetings and team-building operations to develop cohesion;
• Promoting the essential values and pillars of our corporate culture;
• Recognizing and rewarding hard work and performance, to reinforce the sense of belonging to the company.

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Discover a flexible, intuitive and ultra-efficient method of facilitating better collaboration between your teams. Cenareo 's dedicated digital signage solution is your ally in developing engaging internal communications and effective remote management.