Managing a finance team that is spread out across various locations can present challenges, even for the most experienced person. The geographical dispersion of teams has become increasingly common in the modern workplace, but how do you help remote workers feel part of a team?
Setting up global virtual teams who were fully part of building (and then delivering) a finance strategy falls within my working experience, as does building a sense of inclusion for a large shared service centre located far from business operations. Here are a few useful tips from what I’ve learnt over the years to help things run smoothly:
It’s important for managers put in the time and effort to make sure that remote workers feel connected to their colleagues and that a true team dynamic gets cultivated. If you don’t effectively create open communication channels, you’re in danger of team members feeling forgotten or losing their sense of working towards a common goal. Ultimately you have to compensate for the fact that your colleagues are not ‘bumping’ into each other. Keep your teams informed about how the company is doing, and encourage them to learn about the business they support through reading, conversations and calls, visits and secondments where possible. People like to know what’s happening in other parts of the company and how they themselves fit in and are contributing to the bigger picture. Invite colleagues from other parts of the organisation, and external stakeholders, to come and speak to your team.
There’s no right or wrong amount of time you should spend visiting your remote teams. Yes, nothing beats an in-person approach, but for the times when you can’t physically be there, then make sure you listen. For a team to operate successfully, individuals need to feel like they are being heard. Reassuring team members that their opinions are valid creates a more productive environment and instils a sense of purpose and self-worth within team members no matter where they are. And encourage people to challenge you (respectfully of course!), because this is the only way you will learn and develop – and remember that for some cultures ‘challenging the boss’ is particularly taboo.
Make sure you set out clear expectations as to goals and outputs (communication is SO important here, so you need to ‘check’ understanding to ensure you are all on the same page from the start), and ensure the necessary tools and resources are available for their delivery. Follow up on a regular basis and use collaborative documents where feasible to ensure transparency and efficiency, as well as a sense of joint purpose. It’s important to track contribution so there is visibility that each team is pulling their weight, as well as celebrate successes. Hold people accountable in equal measure – all teams no matter their location will face challenges and barriers to success, but apply consistency to the way you manage them so that no one team is perceived to be favoured, or another allowed to get away with things.
Build trust and relationships by making sure you chat to your remote colleagues for a few minutes at the start of meetings to catch up on their lives, just as you would in an office. Getting to know people on a more personal level often reveals hidden strengths and insight into how they deal with situations. What ensures the success of virtual teams is personal empathy and comradery. Make sure remote teams don’t feel invisible and undervalued. Ask them to take the lead on certain projects, and give all teams equal opportunity to contribute. Spread the load in a systematic way, where possible and subject to resources and capabilities (don’t for the sake of inclusion assign something to someone who will most likely fail!)
Great ideas can come from anywhere, so pay attention to feedback across the board. Just as you would chat to colleagues while making tea, make sure you’re carving out the same quality time with remote teams. It’s imperative that remote teams, although in a different location, know that they are not fundamentally being treated differently. In the same way that you would pop past someone’s desk for a chat, check in with your remote colleagues and keep the connection alive. An efficient way of doing this is holding a ‘virtual coffee break’ – where you get people to dial in from around the globe and introduce them, maybe by rotation if a large group, give them an update as to what you’ve been up to at work, but also maybe where you went on holiday etc, and then open the call for their updates/celebrations/questions and concerns.
Be considerate! If your teams are in different time zones, set up a rotating schedule for meetings so that one particular team is not constantly having to be the ones put out at an awkward time, or organise two separate calls to cover all time zones. Spread the burden to avoid resentment. The main thing you want to avoid cultivating at all costs is a ‘them vs us’ feeling.
• mind your language – be inclusive when talking where possible, slow it down, and avoid local expressions
• be generous with praise – make sure actions and efforts are noticed across the board
• develop a good induction process – a consistent on-boarding process helps embed company culture, and ensures new team members receive the same introductory training no matter where they are
• clear common goals – teams perform better when sharing a collective focus
• make it fun!
