Popularity of remote work brought on by the pandemic has presented unique opportunities and challenges for many organizations. It provides you access to global talent, and hire employees with diverse backgrounds without geographical limitations. Employees, on the other hand, can enjoy better work-life balance, eliminate long commutes to work, and allow flexible schedules.
However, remote work also presents unique challenges, especially when managing teams across multiple locations. You need to take into account time zone differences, language barriers, and working with diverse work cultures – even setting up a meeting can be tedious.
In this article, we will give you tips on how to manage remote employees. This includes communication protocols, using the right tools, how to break silos, and effective performance management.
Establishing Effective Communication Strategies
While many remote organizations put a huge emphasis on synchronous (real-time) communication, asynchronous communication is just as important. This means, team members can communicate without needing to be engaged simultaneously in real-time interactions. It increases productivity and focus by minimizing interruptions from instant messages or meetings, enabling employees to engage in deep, concentrated work.
For organizations operating in multiple time zones, establishing a “standard communication time zone” in your company sets a common reference point. This simplifies remote meeting scheduling, sets clear deadlines, and allows for a small overlap window for real-time collaboration. Setting up response-time expectations can help maintain accountability and keep projects moving efficiently.
Leveraging Tools and Technology for Managing Time and Projects
In remote work setups, technology is your best friend. Using the right tools can help you manage time and your projects and is essential for productivity, coordination, and transparency across distributed teams.
Here are a few tools that can help you manage projects together with a remote team:
| Tools | Features | Details |
| Teamcamp | – Task boards with list, board, calendar, and timeline views – Messaging and file/document management within tasks – Time tracking with reportingInvoicing and client portals – Integrations with Slack, GitHub, Zapier. | All-in-one collaboration system built for remote developers, reducing tool switching and enhancing seamless communication and project tracking. |
| Asana | – Visual boards, lists, timelines – Collaboration via comments and file sharing – Workflow automation 270+ app integrations – Customizable dashboards – AI-based project summaries and risk detection. | Trusted by large enterprises, offers structured project management with strong automation and analytics, easing coordination and accountability for remote teams. |
| Trello | – Visual boards with lists and cards; task due dates, checklists, attachments, comments – Drag-and-drop interface. | Simple, intuitive visual task management, ideal for smaller remote teams or straightforward projects. |
| Clickup | – Task and subtask management – Customizable views (lists, kanban, Gantt charts) – Goals and time trackingDocument collaboration – Automation capabilities; internal knowledge base. | Comprehensive all-in-one customizable workspace suitable for teams of all sizes wanting to reduce tool sprawl. |
| Microsoft Teams | – Video conferencing, chat, file sharing, calendar integration with Office 365 apps. | Central hub for communication and document collaboration, excellent for large, distributed teams already using Microsoft ecosystem. |
Choosing tools with good integration capabilities allows syncing with calendars, email, development platforms (like GitHub), and reporting software to create a seamless workflow ecosystem. Features like shared document management, file sharing, and client portals enhance transparency and streamline workflows especially when multiple stakeholders are involved.
Encourage Sharing Knowledge to Break Silos
One key challenge in managing remote teams is combatting isolation, not only for individuals but also teams. The best way to break silos in a remote organization is to share knowledge, encourage collaboration between teams and individuals to innovate and avoid duplicated efforts. Here’s how:
- Foster a culture of openness and trust where team members feel comfortable sharing insights, questions, and lessons learned without fear of judgment or competition.
- Use regular cross-functional meetings, virtual coffee breaks, or “lunch and learn” sessions to encourage informal knowledge exchange and relationship building beyond project teams.
- Recognize and reward these contributions to collective knowledge, such as sharing helpful resources or solutions, to motivate an active knowledge-sharing mindset.
- Assign “knowledge champions” or rotate responsibility for maintaining documentation and encouraging knowledge transfer within and between teams.
- Encourage documentation of processes, decisions, and feedback to create accessible institutional memory, aiding onboarding and reducing dependency on individuals.
- Create centralized knowledge repositories such as wikis, shared drives, or document management systems accessible by all team members to store and update key information, best practices, and project details.
Set Clear Deliverables and Milestones to Manage Performance
Setting clear goals is critical for managing the performance of remote staff. It provides structure, clarity, and measurable goals to follow. A classic example is setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals to understand what exactly is expected and by when.
Communicate deliverables and milestones clearly through project management tools or written agreements, reducing ambiguity and aligning expectations. Break down large projects into smaller, manageable milestones that serve as checkpoints to monitor progress and ensure timely completion. Track deliverables and milestones visibly in shared platforms so both managers and employees can monitor status in real-time, facilitating transparency and early identification of issues.
If needed, adjust goals in response to changing priorities or challenges, maintaining flexibility while holding to overall objectives. Once achieved, it is also equally important to celebrate achievements to boost morale and reinforce a sense of accomplishment and engagement among remote teams.
Recognize Your Employee’s Work-life Balance and Well-being
Managing remote staff not only focuses on productivity but also on the well-being of their employees. In an office setting, employees have a clear divide between work and personal life, simply by leaving the office after work. With remote employees, it is difficult to recognize that transition.
Encourage your remote employees to disconnect after their shift to prevent burnout. Set clear start and end times and discourage any after-hour emails or messages. Support a flexible work schedule that allows them to balance personal responsibilities at home and peak productivity times. Encouraging regular breaks, physical activity, and healthy routines helps maintain energy, focus, and mental well-being throughout the workday.
To help relieve stress, promote open communication about challenges, workload, or stress levels. If available, train your managers to recognize signs of isolation or fatigue in remote staff and to actively promote work-life balance and well-being ensures ongoing support. You can also provide resources for ergonomic workspace setup and internet costs that show care for employees’ physical comfort.
Managing remote employees can be challenging, especially when it comes to handling logistics and regulatory requirements for each of your staff. Thankfully, Emerhub has everything you need to help you manage your remote workforce globally.
RecruitGo’s Employer of Record service can help you hire staff immediately without the burden of setting up a legal entity. We can help you establish a remote hub for your workers and ensure that they have the right equipment to help you accomplish your business goals.
Need help with hiring and managing your remote staff? Talk to our local experts by filling out the form below.
FAQs About Managing Remote Employees
You must understand that local employment laws are different in each jurisdiction. This includes adhering to regulations on contracts, wages, work hours, benefits, termination, tax, and social security obligations specific to each country.
To reduce risk, using RecruitGo’s Employer of Record helps you handle legal and payroll complexities across borders. By tailoring employment practices to the legal framework of each remote employee’s location, you can foster trust, reduce risks of penalties, and build a compliant, cohesive global remote workforce.
To manage different holidays, create a centralized holiday calendar that includes public holidays and cultural observances for all employee locations that’s accessible to the entire team. Encourage employees to take local holidays off and plan projects and deadlines around those dates to avoid scheduling conflicts. Use project management and scheduling tools that support multi-regional calendars and enable clear visibility of upcoming holidays across time zones.
Communicate holiday policies clearly and regularly and encourage employees to notify managers about upcoming time off so teams can plan workloads accordingly. Foster a culture of respect for diverse holidays through education and virtual celebrations to boost inclusion and morale.
To reduce remote employee isolation, you should foster informal social interactions that encourage casual conversations and relationship building. A buddy system with a tenured employee also provides personalized support and regular touchpoints, especially for new employees.
Leadership plays a critical role by promoting open communication, inclusive team-building activities, and a culture of appreciation to make employees feel valued and connected. Regular one-on-one check-ins and creating channels for non-work-related discussions help replicate office camaraderie virtually.
Managing office supplies and equipment for remote employees requires centralized procurement and clear policies to ensure consistency, accountability, and security. With RecruitGo, we make sure that your remote staff have compatible and effective tools, We have state-of-the-art tracking systems for these equipment to maintain oversight on issued devices, warranties, and replacements.
Managers need to pay close attention to changes in employee behavior and communication patterns. Indicators include decreased participation and enthusiasm in meetings, turning off cameras frequently, fewer contributions in discussions, and avoiding eye contact.
Declining work performance, missed deadlines, or increased errors also signal potential burnout. Managers should observe signs of fatigue such as low energy, frequent yawning, or mental distraction during virtual interactions.
A reduction in responsiveness to emails or messages, shorter and less thoughtful replies, and isolation from team discussions are also key warning signs. Regular one-on-one check-ins with empathetic, open-ended questions about workload and well-being are critical to identifying stress early and providing support.
