How to manage a distributed team?

The pandemic has started a period in which more and more companies are practicing remote or hybrid work. Finding and hiring talent from all over the world into one organization is also gaining in popularity. This makes it challenging for team leaders and HR departments to well integrate teams dispersed across the country and even the globe. Previously known and practiced methods of integrating a team working in one office in the face of a new form of operation no longer pass the test. Therefore, innovative ways of integrating employees and proper communication adapted to the new reality should be introduced in the company. This will increase the efficiency and satisfaction of all employees. So how to manage a distributed team?

As indicated by the results of the State Of Remote Work 2023 report conducted by Buffer, in a situation where an employer made remote work impossible, as many as 31% of respondents would start looking for new employment, and 6% would immediately resign from their current job. This indicates how important a benefit the possibility of a hybrid or remote working model is among employees today.

The direction of the labor market makes it necessary for managers and HR departments to get used to such a situation, and to reinvent team management strategies.
This is very important, because the change in recent years – triggered by pandemics and the development of technology has made this not a temporary trend, but a standard mode of operation for many companies.In the United States, according to Forbes Advisor, already 16% of organizations operate fully remotely.

Despite the many benefits of this employment model for both employees and employers, it also causes some difficulties.Key among them is the efficient management and taking care of the integration of distributed teams of employees, in order to achieve the best possible efficiency and satisfaction levels.

Distributed team – what does it mean?

We speak of a distributed team in a situation where a group of employees do not work together in a fixed office, but function in a remote or hybrid model. The reason for such a situation is the different latitude of the employees or the lack of a physical location of the company.
Then communication between team members occurs only online, and thus they do not have the opportunity to meet each other in person on a daily basis, informal conversations during the workday or direct contact with their manager.

Such a model of cooperation, on the one hand, brings many advantages. These include flexibility, the ability to work from any corner of the world, rotating in an international environment, mutual exchange of experiences. On the other hand, working fully remotely makes it difficult to integrate and manage the team from the manager’s perspective.

Difficulties of daily work among distributed teams

In the aforementioned Forbes report, as many as 53% of those surveyed who work remotely admitted that they feel a definite difficulty in feeling a sense of community and integration with other employees. And the more dispersed a team is, the more difficult it is to integrate and work together in a matter and open manner.
Difficulties in the daily work of dispersed teams that we can distinguish include:

• cultural or nationality differences, language barrier, different time zones among employees from different national backgrounds;
• Difficulties in establishing informal relationships, due to difficult contact with other members of the company, resulting in a lack of a sense of loyalty and belonging to the organization;
• unawareness of the scope of work of other team members, their competencies and time occupancy, which translates into difficulties in the division of tasks, flow of information or mutual support in the duties performed;
• lack of awareness of the overall stage of the project or the status of the work, due to the focus of employees solely on their tasks performed in isolation;
• exclusive online contact, which does not allow one to feel the other person emotionally, character-wise, and leads to unexplained or conflictual situations;
• the feeling of being controlled and watched over by a supervisor who does not see the work being done with his own eyes in the office, but only gets the end results of the activities;
• the inability to have quick access to a manager or other team members on an informal basis;
• a constant feeling of having to be active, available and on call, leading to rapid professional burnout;
• the lack of top-down rules for remote work, which negatively affects work-life balance.

Depending on the type of company, its size, industry or work system, there may also be other problems that members of a distributed team must face. In turn, the effect of such impediments is a sense of exclusion, a decrease in motivation and efficiency, discouragement and even professional burnout.

However, there are ways to avoid this and take care of the well-being of distributed team employees so that they perform their duties with willingness, enthusiasm and satisfaction.

Strategies for integrating distributed teams

The key aspect in terms of good integration of distributed teams is to change the existing strategy of people management and translate the relationships that take place in the office into an online form as much as possible. It’s important to understand the current changes happening in the labor market, so as not to treat the remote form of employment as a fallback option, and remote workers as less important team members. The strategy for managing a team of remote workers should be as important as the rules for working in a physical office. Over the years, it may even turn out to be the most important human resources strategy developed in the organization.

Let’s start with the fact that employees need to be well informed about their responsibilities, the prevailing rules of remote work and the purpose behind their work both individually and as a team. Knowing the direction of the company and the established forms of mutual functioning are key to performing tasks comfortably and confidently. A good way to do this would be to write down an official document with all the important rules such as:

• working hours,
• possible lunch breaks,
• described channels for daily communication,
• dissected positions of all employees along with their duties.

Such a document and its content, of course, depends on the individual needs of the organization, and it is also a good material to use when onboarding new people.

Next, let’s focus on the needs of the distributed team. To be able to provide the team with satisfactory work, it is necessary to know:

• what workflow suits the employees best,
• what hours they are most productive,
• what they appreciate about working remotely,
• what causes them the most difficulties,
• what they would like to change,
• what style of communication suits them best.
• Which digital tools they would like to use in their regular work.

For this purpose, it is worth conducting an anonymous questionnaire in which everyone can share their insights. The result of the questionnaire could be, for example, to establish a single common time when everyone is available and can call each other or call a joint calla to discuss issues important to everyone or organize a casual coffee chat. This arrangement will take away the stress of being constantly at the computer for employees, while improving communication.

Communication comes first

Because it is communication in the context of integrating distributed teams that is key. A clear, fast flow of information streamlines work and increases efficiency, while transparency and trust on the part of the company builds loyalty and attachment to the organization.

Ways to ensure clear and comfortable communication are to hold regular, announced 1:1 meetings with a pre-planned agenda, during which both the manager and the employee will be able to raise issues important to them. On the other hand, during online team meetings, it’s a good idea to make sure to set aside a few minutes for small talk. In a situation where the company holds recurring statuses, it’s also a good idea to introduce a morning warm-up before them in a relaxed, fun format to build an informal relationship. It is also worthwhile to create a sphere outside of work for pure integration. If employees are scattered all over the world, a good solution is to organize an event in the Metaverse using AI tools available to everyone.

At the very end, it is worth noting that the role of the leader is very important, who should be accessible to employees, engaged, focused on building mutual relations. The manager’s role in the context of integrating distributed teams is to listen to the needs of employees, refresh the system regularly, and guide the team through these changes as best as possible.