A brief article was posted on the strategy + business website outlining the challenges of managing a team made up of both on-site and remote workers. The solutions offered to meet these challenges are all based on sound communication and transparency.
The main challenge that team leaders and managers might face in working with both on-site and remote team members is that both groups can easily perceive that they are being treated differently. So, as a first step in tackling any perception of preference/inequality, it is important that the reasons why someone can work remotely are made clear.
The need to pay extra attention to the team-building aspect of a leader’s job is also highlighted. The breakdown in face-to-face communication cannot be ignored and needs to be replaced by something else, such as a virtual space. The same technology that is allowing us to work remotely, should be used to ensure that we keep united.
If it is common to see the breakdown of communication in teams where members share the same location, you can imagine how easy it is for communication to become negligible between people who rarely share the same physical space. It cannot be ignored but it can be structured, so that it becomes second nature for everyone to communicate in a different way.
