In the past few years, with the pandemic and the evolution of the way we look at work in the background, more and more companies have chosen to go full remote.
This means that they have the necessary freedom to hire people from different parts of the world, while still being productive. Or even more productive.
However, even if it all seems like sugar, spice, and everything nice in the beginning, remote working can be difficult, especially when working with teams.
Remote working can affect a team’s well-being in two major ways:
- loneliness and isolation – especially if we are talking about a person who is living alone, also working alone can lead to isolation. This can be especially hard for extroverted personalities, who thrive in a full office and who love to socialize. Feelings of isolation can increase stress levels and can lead to lower levels of engagement from your team.
- burnout – when working remotely, the line between personal time and work time can be very thin. Your team may mix those two up which leads to burnout. And no HR specialist wants a team that struggles with that.
Good thing there are solutions.
Even if you are handling a remote team, that doesn’t mean you can’t have activities, tools, and many more. On the contrary, you should take greater care of those now that everyone is working from home. At the end of the day, people are at their best when they are happy and as stress-free as possible.
To keep your remote teams’ well-being, you can follow the next tips:
Think about the tools your team might need
The lack of the right tools can be frustrating for your team. If your company decides to go full-remote, check with your team what tools they might need.
Here, you should think about software and hardware. When it comes to software, think of apps that might offer you great communication, and reminders, or that can help your team be more productive.
As for hardware, you should be able to provide dual screens, keyboards, mouses, and everything else. Especially if your team needs them to do their job, they will appreciate it and productivity will increase.
Moreover, they might need a dedicated workspace from time to time. Nooka is a great solution for that, and it can help your team increase focus and productivity while working remotely.
If you don’t know where to start, a great way is to ask your team. See from them what are their needs and what equipment they would like to have on hand.
Encourage a positive work-life balance
As we already mentioned, the line between work and life can get thin while remote working. This is where your input can be crucial.
You can think of setting daily reminders of putting the work aside when the schedule ends, 10-minute daily catch-ups at the end of the day, or scheduling eating lunches together.
This way, your team will be more aware of a positive work-life balance and you might dodge the bullet of burnout or frustration.
Implement one-to-one meetings and listen carefully
One-to-one meetings are a great way for you to sit down with each of your members individually and check up on them.
This is where you can track signs of burnout or frustration and where you can let your team know that they matter and that their feelings are important.
A crucial thing here is to listen carefully. You might find small signs or gestures that will tell you more than words can. Also, make sure to include in your meetings questions like:
- how have you been feeling lately?
- how’s remote working going?
- is there anything I can do to help you?
- how do you get along with your team?
If you don’t have an office space to meet in or if you want to have more effective and personal meetings, you can use Nooka here as well. You might find that in-person one-to-one meetings are more effective and you may get to know your team better.
Offer discounted fitness and wellbeing activities
Remote working eliminates walking to the office or running around in the office for different activities. Thus, it can be hard for remote workers to stay active at home.
As you already may know, an active life leads to increased happiness. See with your managers if you can offer discounted fitness and well-being activities for your team.
By doing this, you provide access to these activities for everyone, make it a conversational topic and increase your employees’ well-being.
Recreate the social sense
Just because your team is working remotely it doesn’t mean all social interactions have to come to an end. There are many activities that you can mirror while remote working.
You can set up coffee breaks or meetings where team members just catch up, play online games together and so many other activities.
We also have an article on virtual team-building ideas that you might find useful.
Make sure to ask your team to come up with ideas as well, as they will love to be involved in it. You may never know what great activities you might have.
Be alert to red flags
This is where one-to-one meetings will come in handy, as they will help you to see red flags. If you sense that someone is more distant, has a hard time answering emails, is not as engaged in meetings, or anything like this, it might be nice to schedule a heart-to-heart talk and find out what is all about.
Make sure to be discrete about it and to make the person feel safe while you’re trying to find solutions.
Set a good example
If your team sees healthy habits in you, it would be the greatest example. You should put your money where your mouth is and lead by example.
If you’re telling your team to have a private life as well but you’re answering their emails at late hours is not quite doing the trick.
You need to be the first one to apply these tricks in order to make others follow them as well.
