Though many people hoped that the world would have already turned back to “normal” in the wake of COVID-19, we are still in the midst of a pandemic. Unfortunately, the virus continues to impact individuals, businesses, and governments across the globe. Moreover, many of the changes that came with the novel Coronavirus are likely here to stay; remote work just happens to be one of them.

Now, many businesses are seeing the inherent benefits of having a remote staff. Remote workers generally require less overhead and, in many instances, can provide better output than they could in person. However, this doesn’t make the task of managing a remote workforce any easier. In fact, many small business owners are wading into unfamiliar territory with little to no sense of direction.

So, in today’s post, we are going to look at some of the best ways to manage your remote staff effectively!

Learn (& Teach) Remote Processes

While it may be tempting to just tell your employees to work from home and hope for the best, this is not a solid business strategy. Your staff needs guidance on how their responsibilities will look or potentially change while working remotely. Additionally, you need to understand the processes for communicating, delivering, and reviewing worker output from a distance.

This means that you need to learn all of your business’ remote processes inside and out — and be ready to show your staff the ropes. If you’re in need of assistance, you can always look to various elearning content tools to help jumpstart the remote training process.

Choose a Comprehensive Communication Tool

Email is a good tool for standard business communication, but it is not perfect. Though you may be able to get by with traditional email, most remote offices need additional tools to help deliver information quickly and accurately. For example, if you need to explain complex details concerning an upcoming project, you may need to talk to your employees face-to-face.

This is where video conferencing tools like Skype or Zoom can be extremely useful. These products allow you to communicate in a variety of different ways, from text chats to large-scale conferences and business meetings.

Create a Workflow Ecosystem

Getting your message across to employees is just half the battle. You also need to make sure that everyone is on the same page concerning your business’ most important procedures, projects, and schedules.

For that reason, many small businesses turn to tools like Google Calendar, Slack, or Asana to help organize projects and keep workflows in one place. Even if you have to use multiple tools, you can still help cut down on miscommunications and missed deadlines by creating an ecosystem that makes sense. After all, if your employees don’t know where to find the information they need to work effectively, it could greatly reduce productivity for your entire organization.

We hope you found this guide on managing a remote staff useful! Do you want even more advice to help grow and improve your business? If so, be sure to check out some of our other posts on Small Business CEO today!