Support Remote Teams at Work: 3 Research-Backed Steps

Support Remote Teams at Work
Long before shelter-in-place orders, many organizations were already testing the waters with remote work — and for good reason. Employees were increasingly dispersed across cities, regions, and even continents. Commutes were draining time, energy, and morale. Meanwhile, collaboration technology had matured enough to make virtual meetings and real-time discussions both practical and effective.

Then the pandemic hit. Overnight, remote work stopped being a pilot or perk and became a requirement. Unless you were part of an essential service, working remotely was no longer a choice or a convenience — it was the only viable way to keep work moving forward.

The Research: Experience with the Experiment
Harvard Business Review shared insights from a survey designed to surface the less visible challenges of remote work. The findings made one thing clear: while remote teams can work, they do not work equally well by default.

Leaders must first confront the friction points — misalignment, weakened relationships, communication drag, and uneven workloads — before they can be resolved. Only by acknowledging and addressing the drawbacks of remote work can organizations create remote teams that rival the productivity, focus, and cohesion of co-located teams.

5 Downsides of Remote Teams at Work
The biggest downside to working remotely from a team perspective is that interpersonal work relationships are harder to build and maintain across five survey areas:

• Communications
  80% said they would have better relationships with teammates if they were communicating more frequently.
• Relationships
  43% felt their relationships would be deeper if they had more face time with co-workers
• Fairness
  52% felt they were not being treated fairly by their colleagues
• Trust
  41% (10% more than on co-located teams) believed teammates were saying “bad things” behind their back.
• Responsiveness
  84% stated that workplace concerns lasted longer (a few days or more) because they could not be addressed in a timely, direct fashion

The Benefits of Remote Work Models
Allowing workers to do their jobs remotely also has some obvious benefits.  According to Forbes, Global Workplace Analytics, and BCG, remote working models implemented correctly — a big if — can:

• Increase productivity by up to 40%
• Reduce employee turnover by up to 15%
• Cut real estate and resource usage costs by more than 20%

The same report also anticipates that almost half of employees will continue to utilize a remote working model in the future and many others will will work in hybrid models that combine remote and onsite work. So it seems that remote teams will only continue to grow.

What Team Leaders Can Do to Support Remote Teams at Work

We know that high performing teams have a common focus and feel bonded to one another. They are unified in team direction and purpose.  Their relationships are built on trust and respect. When a team no longer has multiple opportunities to “bump into” each other or exchange ideas over a cup of coffee in the cafeteria, relationship building simply takes more effort.

2. Provide the Right Technology
   When virtual teams struggle to connect or lose time navigating clunky systems, performance suffers. Friction in the technology stack quietly erodes focus, momentum, and trust. The goal is not more tools — it is the right tools, working together on a common platform that enables seamless collaboration.

   Equally important, teams must know how to use the technology effectively. Even the best tools fail when people are unclear about when to use them, how they fit together, or which channels matter most. Clarity and competence are what turn technology into a performance enabler rather than a distraction.

   Common categories of tools that support effective remote collaboration include:

   • Collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Huddle
   • Project management tools such as MS Project, Basecamp, and Smartsheet
   • File-sharing tools such as Dropbox, SharePoint, and Google Drive
   • Meeting tools such as Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, Skype, and Google Hangouts
   • Scheduling tools such as Calendly and Doodle
   • Social networking tools such as Yammer, Chatter, and Jive

   The right technology — paired with clear norms and consistent use — removes barriers, accelerates coordination, and allows virtual teams to focus on what actually matters: getting the work done well.

3. Revisit Team Norms
   Work as a team to redefine any team norms that do not translate seamlessly from the office to working remotely. While all high performing teams need clear and agreed-upon goals and accountabilities, roles and responsibilities, processes, and interpersonal relationships, remote work teams need to invest extra effort to get virtual team meetings, collaboration, communications, and accountabilities right.

   Meetings: Virtual team meetings require more preparation, higher levels of engagement, and greater attention to ensuring that everyone has an equal chance to participate, and stronger follow-up.

   Coordination: Team coordination is fundamentally more difficult when people are not co-located. Virtual teams must pay more attention to clarifying and simplifying the processes required to get work done.

   Communication:   Remote teams communicate far less frequently and do not have the benefit of the in-person cues that convey so much important information. Virtual teams must put more rigor into how and when the team will communicate.

   Accountabilities: It is common for virtual team members to feel disconnected from the normal rhythms of work life. Be disciplined in creating and enforcing rhythms of team meetings, progress reviews, and celebrations.

4. Create New Virtual Team Rhythms and Expectations
   Once you have the right technology and have adjusted your team norms for the virtual environment, it is time to create a new virtual team rhythm and expectations. You want everyone to feel as comfortable contributing their thoughts remotely as they did in face-to-face meetings. This requires a conscious and additional effort to be friendly, polite, and inclusive.

   Set up a system of regular and frequent one-on-one meetings with each team member so that you know how they and the team are doing. Consider setting aside one hour each day for virtual office hours to encourage the type informal conversations that often happen face-to-face to help people stay up to date on important decisions and information.

The Bottom Line
It is hard enough to work on live teams; hybrid and remote teams add another layer of complexity.  Done right, leaders can sustain their culture and their employees by making a concerted effort to adjust to the new normal.

To learn more about how to better support remote teams at work, download 10 Tips to Overcome the Top Virtual Team Challenges

by Tristam Brown: CEO

Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.