Are you getting the most out of your remote team members?
In his excellent article, Rob Rawson, of the Time Doctor website.  Rob lays out 25 tips for high-performance remote teams.   In this episode of the  IT Provider Network Podcast, I am going to go through the article and give you my take on how to get the most from remote teams.

Since 1994 roughly half of our team has been remote.  Always full-time W2 type employees but with the freedom to work wherever they lived.

* Compensate for the fact you aren’t bumping into each other. Find a way to facilitate conversation via chat and screen sharing. Don’t forget to make these members feel like a member of the team, even though they aren’t there in person.
* Have a chat room open at all times. You could use Skype, Teams, HipChat or Slack. Keep the Chat channel open.
* On that same note, don’t overload team members with chat or email. Make sure they aren’t subscribed to too many channels.
* Choose the communication style that is right for that member. This comes into play with homebased employees or foreign employees. Is an email, phone call, chat or video call most appropriate? Use tools like loom.com and screen sharing tools such as GoToMeeting, Zoom, etc.
* Video conferencing is also important. It brings the remote employee into the work space and they get to collaborate in real time with peers. This also makes everyone in the call stay more focused.
* Set up a daily huddle with that team member. Weekly meeting and monthly meetings are also important. Set up a communication structure for effective communication.
* Use tools to collaborate on documents and spreadsheets. Microsoft Office 365 or Google tools are great tools to get a document up and collaborate on it.
* Use a project management system. Make sure you are using it and are holding your employees accountable while ensuring they are using it and using it your way.
* Make sure you have systems that drive everything people do in your company. You need a standardized way of doing things that you are following and always improving that you are working with.
* Allow some degree of flexible works hours but have some consistent hours. People working from home typically want some flexibility in their work hours. That’s okay but you have to keep core working hours that your whole team can be working, including that remote employee.
* Track their work output, whether the team is working virtual or not. Measure productivity in your team. What are the indicators of success? Make sure you have communicated what you want to have done and what the measurable goal they need to accomplish is. Don’t just track it but check in regularly about the progress of their work. You might be really disappointed if you wait until the deadline. If you check in during the process, you can help negate any issues and get the team member on track, if need be.
* Rescue Time is a tool that can be used to track how much time you spend doing certain things each day.
* Organize a system of overlapping for communicating in different time zones. Have time, a good chunk of your day, where the entire team is working at the same time.
* Do a quarterly review to see how your team members are doing and coping with working remotely. If your company is not doing a good job of making them feel like they are a part of a team, it’s easy for them to become lonely, possibly start feeling irritated and isolated.
* When you are