What Every Remote Worker Wishes Their Employee Knew
According to research published by Harvard, anywhere from 30 to 40 million people around the world work via telecommuting. Indeed, what was once seen as a fad is clearly now a permanent part of the workforce — but despite its increasing ubiquity, there are still many challenges facing remote workers. If you are a manager or business owner who wants to build a productive remote team, there are a few things you need to know.
Consider the following facts that remote workers and freelancers wish their clients knew — and how this information can help you ensure your team is happy.
Finding the Right Freelancers for the Job
One of the most important principles of assembling a winning team is seeking out staff who are enthusiastic about online work. For every employee who celebrates working from home, there’s one who bemoans the isolation. For this reason, it’s important to find freelancers who are suited to the virtual workplace.
Freelancers such as web designers, graphic artists, and customer service representatives are all ideal additions to a virtual workforce because their tasks can easily be done from anywhere.
To find these professionals, you should search on job boards online and seek out sites that specifically cater to freelance talent. Some of these sites allow payment to be submitted through the platform, but in other cases, you may need to pay a freelancer directly via bank transfer or another online payment service.
Still, it may seem challenging to wade through a pool of applicants and ensure that you’re recruiting the best ones. You should develop some intuitive interviewing techniques that will help you identify the candidates who are best suited to the job. Be sure to ask them questions such as why they want to work remotely — and how a remote workplace can strengthen their performance.
Communicating Cohesively in an Online World
After you’ve recruited the best freelancers for your virtual team, it’s important to implement clear communication strategies that facilitate collaboration. Collaboration is one of the greatest challenges for online workspaces, but with the right tools, you can streamline the process and encourage teamwork.
When you’re sharing project details, there are plenty of other tools you can use to improve communication, too. Online group chat applications, for example, can make it easy to maintain a real-time conversation while sharing files and seeking feedback.
Contapp for example is a vital business tool when it comes to communicating effectively online and also in-person, especially at events. Gone are the days of paper business cards. Today’s digital age is prime for an all-in-one digital business card solution like Contapp.
Download it for your team, for free here.
Give Your Freelance Team the Resources They Need
Assembling a team of remote freelancers is a great way to tackle a specific project and ensure you have the best talent to do so. Among the many challenges, though, are the difficulty of communicating consistently and managing the productivity of your team.
Collaboration tools such as CRM or Slack and communication platforms like Contapp make this incredibly streamlined for everyone in your team. That’s the beauty of the digital age, everything is done instantly via the Cloud. There are also many free tools available online, such as converting a JPG image into a PDF. It’s time to embrace digital tools (free and paid) with all the resources available for your team to work to the best of their ability.
