Due to advanced technology, it is now possible for managers to organize projects without worrying about team members’ home location. Enterprise-level companies and startups are involving remote projects in their planning. In contrast, other companies are opting to adopt a completely remote workforce practice.

Multinational corporations are hiring talented teams for management. However, there are unique challenges in remote team management compared to the local team that you may face quite frequently.

Project Management Challenges for Remote Workers and How to Overcome Them

There are several project management challenges for remote employees. Here, you’ll learn about those challenges and tips to solve them.

  1. Lack of Motivation

While working from home can make you feel less motivated and disconnected from the work. This mainly happens with new remote employees who aren’t used to this routine. They work more effectively in a long-term in-office environment. Such change can negatively impact employees’ productivity, which means less revenue and loss of input.

A motivated team of remote workers can bring a profitable ROI (return of investment) because they can be more creative, better problem-solver, and customer-forced. These features can help attract new customers and retain existing clients, resulting in improved income and sales.

So, how can a project manager improve motivation in a remote team? How about starting with appreciating outstanding work? It’s one of the effective ways to motivate other team members. Also, you can identify and acknowledge their outstanding work. This way, your remote team will feel happy and motivated.

Other than appreciation, you can ensure their good health, share long-term goals/bigger picture of the plan, and establish measurable goals. Remote employees should also try to keep a positive mindset, which requires cheerful communication.

  1. Local Time Differences (Time Zone)

Remote work practice means that every team member works in a different time zone due to different locations. Indeed, it’s an amazing way to add talented workers from a diverse culture into one tough workforce. But the time zone difference can be challenging, too, especially for managers. How can a project manager of a particular remote team manage everyone’s time accordingly?

The most effective way to manage the remote team’s time zone difference is by establishing a specific time for a meeting. Make sure that the time is convenient for everyone. You can start by taking into account the time zones of those willing to arrive at a reasonable time. Your project manager can help you decide too. Through this, you can avoid causing inconvenience for other workers. If you fail to establish one official time zone, you can always set up rotational timings. To create a successful time zone for seamless workflow, follow the below steps;

  • Set a time in working days
  • Use advanced tools to point local time differences
  • If anyone fails to arrive, you can record the whole meeting and send it to the employee
  • Use tools to monitor progress and assign work
  1. Monitor Employee Efficiency and Success

For project management personnel, you have to monitor each remote employee’s success and efficiency rate. It’s another challenge for a remote project management team; they have to track each individual’s performance, execution time, and delivery time of tasks.

When the monitoring shows great results, it means that employees are working on time efficiently. But project management for remote workers is challenging, and they still need a workflow to make it all work seamlessly. Here are some tips you can follow for a successful monitoring system;

  • To advanced project management technologies to build an open platform for communication
  • Get frequent and relevant updates on every remote worker’s activities
  • Share your expectations from employee and comply it accordingly
  • Make daily check-ins with employees
  • Focus on final results instead of numbers of hours spent on a task
  • Organize a co-working space is important
  • Track and monitor employee’s performance efficiently
  • Appreciate remote employee on every small and big achievement
  1. Lack of Productivity Due to Procrastination

A remote worker is more productive as compared to in-house. But in some scenarios, remote employees fail to deliver the assigned or expected amount of productivity. Why? It’s mainly because they are new to the whole remote work practice. However, they still have ways to stop procrastination, accomplish more, improve and boost their productivity if they follow the below tips;

  • Break every task into small chunks
  • Set the timer according to your will or in what time/hours you want to work at intervals
  • Build cues and implement your intentions precisely. It will help you remain commit-full to the work
  • No need to be perfect, the quality of your work matters the most
  • Eliminate distractions and make a home office space
  • Connect with other resources for help whenever it’s necessary
  1. Communication Challenges with Team Members

It’s crucial to achieve positive and seamless communication with other remote team members virtually. It would have been a lot easier when everyone is in-office. However, communication and clear understanding is another remote project management problem. What’s the best way to solve communication challenges in remote work practice?

Various kinds of remote project management software can help you eliminate communication challenges. It will also provide a smooth interaction through a common channel between every member. Management software allows project managers to avoid burnout and increase the output of a team while working remotely. Thus, below are some popular software that can provide seamless communication among employees;

  • Slack: Slack can streamline smooth communications among employees by building a single platform for interaction.
  • Zoom: Like slack, Zoom connects you with other team members through video conference, text-based chat, etc.
  • Dropbox: Through Dropbox, you can share all the files, documents, and worksheets with team members.

In Conclusion

Remote project management or managers often meet one or more of the above challenges with the remote team. When a project manager creates and implements remote work strategies, he/she has to keep the planning more effective than a traditional in-office team. You can start with a proactive project management strategy; it will help you eliminate many challenges.

At Aspired, you don’t have to stress yourself with remote project management tasks. They provide experienced and talented managers who take full responsibility for the job.