Remote work is no longer a temporary trend or privilege - it has become part of modern business tools in Western countries and in Russia. According to various studies, today job seekers prefer a hybrid form of absence or a completely remote form.
This stage requires managers to take new approaches to team management, some flexible skills. Effective team management in remote mode is not online time control and endless reports, but the ability to inspire, support and build reliable communication with employees located in different cities and time zones. We provide you with practical tips that will help increase team productivity.
TOP 5 main problems in managing a remote team
Let's look at five of the most common challenges modern managers face when managing remote teams.
Unclear Expectations and Boundaries
Employees work in different time zones, asynchronously, with varying degrees of autonomy. Without clearly established expectations and boundaries between work and personal life, overtime, divergent priorities, and misunderstandings easily arise. It's important for managers to set clear guidelines for schedule, availability, and accountability.
Communication Issues
Without face-to-face meetings, the risk of misunderstandings increases. Messages can get lost in emails and instant messengers, and the time difference makes face-to-face communication and prompt feedback difficult. It becomes more difficult for the team to synchronize tasks, schedule calls, and maintain engagement during online meetings.
Emotional burnout
The blurred line between home and work often leads to burnout. Employees feel the pressure to be constantly “connected”, respond to messages outside of working hours, participate in video calls without interruption. This drains resources and negatively affects the psycho-emotional state and productivity of the team.
Social isolation and loneliness
The lack of daily communication with colleagues leads to a feeling of alienation. In a virtual environment, it is more difficult to establish warm, informal relationships that support team spirit. Remote workers often miss the “human” moments — spontaneous conversations, sharing emotions and humor.
Compensation and Legal Compliance Challenges
The globalization of teams makes it difficult to comply with the laws of different countries. Managers face a variety of tax regulations, employment classifications, and requirements for payments and benefits. Mistakes in these areas can lead to legal risks and reduce employee trust.
Remote team management tips: how to be an effective leader in a virtual environment
Managing a distributed team is not only a challenge, but also an opportunity. To make this process less stressful and more productive, it is important to develop a clear strategy in advance and master key virtual leadership skills.
Regardless of the industry, leaders need to be able to build interactions with colleagues located in different parts of the world and accessible only through a screen. This has become especially important in the post-pandemic era, when remote work has turned from the exception to the norm.
The Art of Influence in a Remote Team
Virtual communication is limited - without face-to-face interaction, it is more difficult to persuade and lead. Distance, cultural differences, and asynchrony of work create additional barriers. Here's how to overcome them:
1. Authority through information. Create a single information center: an internal blog, a corporate group, or a communication channel in a corporate messenger. This will help share news, build trust, and create a sense of involvement among remote employees, despite different time zones.
2. The principle of reciprocity. Encourage initiative and achievements. Introduce a system of virtual awards or badges displayed on the corporate network. This motivates, strengthens team spirit, and promotes a culture of recognition.
3. Commitment and consistency. Encourage employees to voice their goals and commitments during team meetings. This reinforces accountability and increases the likelihood of completing tasks on time.
How to cope with time differences?
Working in a distributed team requires special attention to planning. To quickly navigate different time zones, use specialized tools, such as the World Clock mobile app or the Every Time Zone web service.
Effective team meetings and facilitation
Successful online meetings require preparation: choose a convenient time, think through the agenda, use interactive tools and ensure the active participation of each team member. Facilitation skills are especially important in distributed teams. The facilitator helps the team to steer the discussion in the right direction and creates an environment where everyone feels comfortable and can openly share their ideas.
In addition, it is very important to establish certain communication rules: determine the schedule of online meetings, use of chats, calls, voice. It is very important to decide on the tools that will become the generally accepted norm for communication in the team. For example, as a corporate platform, you can use eXpress - it combines a messenger, video conferencing, a calendar, as well as various chat bots and mini-applications within one program.
Building trust through communication
Open and transparent communication forms the basis of trust. Regularly share goals, listen to employees, be accessible. Use video, voice, and written channels — combine formats to achieve maximum impact and give employees freedom of choice.
Say “no” to micromanagement
Excessive control is a trap that remote team leaders often fall into. It creates mistrust, demotivates, and reduces efficiency. Instead, focus on results, autonomy, and regular feedback.
Learn from practitioners
Even top managers make mistakes — it’s important not to be afraid to learn from others. Study the experience of tech CEOs who work completely remotely. Many of them use non-standard approaches to management that successfully adapt to the virtual environment.
Onboarding: adaptation of remote employees
The process of adaptation of employees working remotely requires a special approach. A clear plan for managing the team's work, a personal mentor and access to corporate information will help newcomers get used to it faster and start producing results.
Online team building for employee engagement
Remote work should not become an obstacle to team cohesion. Elements of informal communication play an important role in maintaining engagement and trust between colleagues.
Among the effective formats of online team building:
- intellectual quizzes organized in the program for conducting video conferences;
- short morning calls without an agenda - for informal communication at the beginning of the day;
- creating common music playlists;
- using chatbots for mini-games, quick challenges and light pranks within the team.
These initiatives help employees feel a sense of community, relieve tension, and re-establish personal connections, which are especially important in a virtual work environment.
Additionally, you can use virtual master classes, cooking evenings, workshops, or online interest clubs - for example, watching films together and then discussing them, or book meetings. Such initiatives are especially valuable in multicultural or regionally distributed teams, where face-to-face communication is limited.
It is important that participation in such activities remains voluntary, and the format is light and unobtrusive. It is better to hold short and regular meetings than infrequent and overloaded ones. This way, you create a culture of trust and emotional openness that can support the team even in a remote work environment.
How does eXpress help keep distributed teams efficient?
In a remote or hybrid work environment, it is critical to have a single digital space for collaboration. The eXpress platform solves this problem by combining all key processes and teamwork tools in a single interface.
Advantages include:
- access from any device without loss of functionality;
- chats, channels, groups;
- built-in tools for conducting quizzes, surveys;
- a structured environment for communication, idea exchange and employee information.
eXpress not only unites the team, but also develops lively, sustainable interaction within distributed teams. You can create a modern digital environment that you want to return to. Download a free version of eXpress to test the platform on your tasks.
