Remote employees... the forgotten, the left out, the ignored.
This is the feeling that many remote employees have, and the reason many of them will jump jobs every 2-3 years looking for job satisfaction!
In 2021, most of Australia became "remote staff" operating from makeshift home offices, and the need to stay connected has dramatically increased! Many team leaders and managers who have never had to manage remote staff have been thrown into the deep end and told to swim.
One key feature of remote managing is running engaging and meaningful meetings. This can be far more difficult than team meetings in the office as staff can be easily distracted, feel they can hide behind a mute button, or have cameras off and avoid being called out in the meeting.
Staff can also have background stuff going on; children crying, raining on the washing, food in the oven, or even lorikeets in the laundry (happened to me today!).
Many staff feel like they don't have a voice, or are too self-conscience to un-mute and say what they're thinking or feeling.
Follow an agenda!
Following an agenda allows the team to know how much you need to get through in the time allocated, and keeps the meeting on topic. It is very frustrating to many team members when meetings are extended due to a lack of structure.
Have a Presentation!
Have a powerpoint presentation (ugh, yes these things are still necessary) and share your screen. Make sure the text and graphics is large enough, as some staff may be using tablets, phones or other small screens and they need to be able to read it!!
Include Training
Make it worthwhile for your team to come to these sessions! Everyone wants to learn something new, and this will add so much value to the meeting. But keep it brief!! No more than 5 minutes, or your training session will quickly become an all out snooze session!!
Encourage Involvement
In remote meetings it is very important to allow some time for your team to be able to speak and feel like they are an active part of the group rather than just a passive listener! This can be done through adding a section for 'good news stories'. For the first few weeks you will find yourself calling people out and prompting them with the stories. As the weeks go on they will get more comfortable sharing their wins and start to enjoy the moment of glory. Once you are comfortable with your agenda, you can try getting different team members to run the meetings and training!
Keep your meetings short!
Do not let sales meetings, management meetings or any other "update" style meeting drag on! These should be between 30 and 45mins. Any longer and you will find the team switching off!
Have Relevant Content
Do not let your meetings be over-run with meaningless information. If you are running a sales meeting, accounts meeting, management meeting or operations meeting, keep it to your quarterly plan so your team know what they are executing on!
Have, and follow, an agenda!
Use a PowerPoint presentation
Include training
Encourage involvement
Keep it brief!
Have relevant content
If you feel you would like some help setting these meetings up or would like more detail on anything, feel free to reach out on my details below!
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