Learning to Set Goals for Remote Teams
With 52 percent of the global workplace already working remotely at least once per week before the current pandemic, it is becoming important for businesses to encourage a productive and engaged remote team.
A manager should always focus on setting goals to help employees succeed and grow in their roles; provide coaching, mentorship, and sponsorship; and give corrective feedback when something needs to change. All of these ties into the idea of setting goals with an employee. Without clear expectations for a role, it’s difficult to coach on how to meet those goals, and even harder to help give feedback when an employee falls short. Now imagine how difficult this communication would be if your team is remote.
In a remote team, you cannot use attendance as a means for feedback—this is a good thing.
Not having a physical office to go to in order to verify you are working means that a remote workplace shifts itself to measuring if someone is frequently completing high-quality work in practical time constraints. Here, you’ll benefit from having clear and detailed job descriptions. Studies show that when employees understand how their work contributes to the betterment of the company and their companies objectives and overall goals, productivity increases by 56 percent.
When setting expectations with an employee, it is useful to explain the reason behind your expectations. Share the hopes of the overall outcome, and how you’ll be holding teammates accountable.
For example:
- Specific expectation. “I’ll need this research drafted with 1–3 key takeaways and a few ways to visualize the data by 4 pm Eastern time tomorrow…”
- Reason for the expectation. “…so that I can add your angle into the presentation for the next day…”
- Wider context. “…Getting this client to renew their contract is on my mind, so I want the presentation to be top-notch.”
This is generally good management practice; and in a remote team, this level of clarity is not just preferred, but essential. Since the position is remote, there must be a reason behind why that individual took it up or a reason as to why the company offered the position this way. There simply might not be a chance to keep following up or going back and forth on a task if the outcome wasn’t what was needed. Being as descriptive as possible can help cut these obstacles.
With all of this in consideration, remote managers can focus on helping their employees advance and grow in their careers. Being the kind of manager that sets goals for their employees helps employees with career growth and improves the output and well-being of individuals and teams. Even though these employees are remote, giving this feedback and setting goals helps people understand what their strengths are and whether they’re improving. More importantly for remote workers, it shows that you, as the manager, see and recognize these achievements.
We suggest holding weekly 1:1s where you can chat with your employee over a video call to discuss current projects and tasks that have been completed, in addition to a weekly meeting where your entire team can align on collective goals.
Embrace channels like email and video calls.
Think about joining in on instant messaging channels for quick, one-off questions. While we’re on the topic of tech, there are a ton of digital tools out there to help your remote team stay organized and productive. Think project management tools, collaborative tools, and more. You’ll want to investigate what’s accessible, cost-effective, and what could be the perfect fit for your team.
