We are in the business of working in and leading eLearning development teams, opportunities to work in remote teams has grown exponentially since COVID. Here at Pop Education, our business has the distinct pleasure of upscaling our team depending on the project and the project skills required.
For smaller-scale projects we may find that we have all the talent in house, but when dealing with larger or more complex projects, we bring people in to join our team no matter where they may be.
The ability to work with a diverse and talented group of individuals, even for a short timeframe is inspiring and will always keep us on your toes.
This may not work for all industries, but in the business of eLearning – well – we can be anywhere just like the students at the other end of what we build!
We have learnt many lessons along the way, including what not to do. No matter how big or small you are when bringing together a remote development team, these tips can really make a difference.
- Choose your team members wisely!
Sounds obvious – but it makes a BIG difference. The success of many projects is having team members being team players. Many projects will have a project lead or manager with remaining team members all playing a vital role. It is important that each member of the team can be reliable. You need people in your team that can do their part. Be sure to analyse the needs of the project and know the talent and skills you are looking for before jumping into hiring.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate
Everyone must be on the same page around the project’s needs, goals, time frames, budgets, critical milestones and clear expectations. All team members need to share in the vision of the project and be motivated to achieve it. To avoid fragmentation of your team due to geographical locations, internally you can set regular meeting times if possible. This can be as a group or in subgroups depending on the size and the nature of the project.Use the plethora of project tools available to track progress and keep everyone up to date. There are seriously hundreds of tools to choose from.
Your aim is to ensure a culture of openness, trust and transparency by building a healthy work environment.
- Set out processes for within the team
As each member may be relying on another to do their part, set out a specific process, how work will be shared and move from one person to the next. Set out how feedback and reviews will be completed and all important timeframes for each step along the way.Don’t forget things will go wrong – ensure your team know what to do when the inevitable happens.
- Trust the people you have in place
Once you have all your people and processes in place, placing trust in each of your team members will go a long way for a happy and harmonious team. For anyone who is new to managing the remote team, this may be hard to do at first. Many organisations are comfortable in knowing when people start and finish, but in a remote development team, your focus is on output – achieving the tasks they are hired to do and doing them well.
Working remotely means demonstrating respect a lot more than when face to face for it to be felt.
Respect also applies to the flexible work schedule of remote teams. Many people choose to work remotely to suit family and lifestyle commitments. Working remotely means respecting the flexibility in which a working day for people may look like.
All of these tips do not apply only to remote teams these are equally important for all teams. What other tips would you add since COVID has brought many more of you to the remote team working space?
Image by Fabio Bracht on Unsplash
