Remote working provides countless possibilities and benefits.

It promotes freedom and autonomy, a peaceful life, not having to count with one physical space to develop tasks. It implies not needing to travel to arrive at work. As a plus, it enables setting workplaces environments according to what suits you best while managing your own schedules and a lot more…

Those of us who work in this manner know the benefits. But there are a lot of people who still feel a bit mistrustful of considering this mode of work. It is they to whom this article is targeted, for them to dare to take this step, in order to create a remote working team with outstanding performance capabilities.  

Know clearly what your requirements are

It is true that freelancers work more autonomously than traditional professionals. Yet, it is essential that you feel safe about your needs and about the way in which these requirements should be met. In that way, you will be able to guide freelancers’ work and to express what is right and what is not.

Connection with team

The most relevant aspect to be considered is communication. Given the fact of being far from each other, it may seem difficult to keep the very communication that happens in an office environment. Nevertheless, nowadays there are tools that can replace that “face-to-face” and even improve this aspect within a team, achieving commitment towards work objectives.

A good way of keeping connected is organizing one-to-one meetings with every team member on a periodical basis (every week or every fortnight). This can be done using Hangout, Skype or any other means.

It is good to see each other’s faces and get to these meetings with a shared agenda, thus providing mutual fruitful outcomes and a chance for you to talk about the desired issues.

Additionally, we recommend that all the members of the team keep communication with customers via and within Workana platform.

Monthly meetings

It is also important to have the team met every week or every fortnight, aimed at setting new goals, talking about what has happened lately and coordinating the most relevant issues.

But don’t forget that work is not the only subject you may talk about. Knowing the people you work with is important, but equally important is to talk about subjects beyond your working responsibilities, in order to distend and provide a chance for team bonding.

Meetings are crucial to make up for physical absence and to stay connected. Knowing each other is essential. For day to day developing, it can be of great benefit counting on a chat system on which you can check your mutual needs.

Chatting with your workmates is a good thing. You can also create team-chat rooms which will enable that all the people in the team can participate in the same conversation. Slack is a notorious tool to these regards. If the chat activity disturbs you while carrying out tasks, you can always turn it off for a little while.

Even though communication is essential, it is of key importance to be aware that media should not be overused. If we opt to speak via Hangout when setting up a conference, then let’s forget Skype. With one application is enough. Therefore, it should be clearly established which means will be used for each task. Avoid spam and multiplicity of channels. E-mail is set for certain matters, hangout is assigned to others, and chat can be useful for further issues.

Task organization

Another fundamental tip to be taken into account is the use of applications such as Asana, on which working team projects and activities can be organized, assigning each member specific tasks, providing a deadline if necessary and followers who could be involved in that particular job. If you are not familiar with Asana, you can catch a glimpse of its performance possibilities by clicking here.

And never dismiss Google. Apart from Hangout, Google Docs and Google Sheets can help you build shared documents in which the process and improvements can be traced. Every member of the team will be able to provide input, leading to the best ideas as an outcome of these contributions. Whenever our inspiration is on the rise, it’s only a question of writing down!

The tools available are innumerable. The core matter is coordinating them appropriately and organizing time availability, working teams, and communication. Organization comes first then it is all about being available, not discarding communication, giving and asking for feedback and discovering those tools which may reveal helpful.

An extra tip for your remote working team

May I give you a last-but-not-least advice? Identify the skills your team demands from you, and those aspects which should be improved. Once you have done this, research on how to achieve these objectives. You will find out there is always an application or program ready to help you in meeting your goals.

If you have already built your remote working team, do not forget to share your opinions and advice with the rest. Help them to have a first-hand experience of this amazing way of working. If you haven’t done it yet, you can start by posting your project here.