REMOTE TEAM MANAGEMENT

Why empathy and efficiency are critical factors in motivation – Gloria Spittel

Most companies and their teams have experienced working remotely – largely due to the pandemic. But working remotely is not a new phenomenon. For the most part, BPO and KPO work involves working remotely from the parent company or headquarters.

The difference between these dispersed teams and those that had to go remote suddenly in 2020 was that in the former, there was no expectation of having to develop and maintain a working relationship between local teams and their overseas parent companies.

In the case of the latter however, there’s absolutely an expectation of business continuity.

In addition to the expectation of business continuity is the overarching environment of working during and through a pandemic that has brought with it varied circumstances that affect operations, employee wellbeing and performance.

These have all made the management of remote teams difficult even if flexibility and remote working were practised at the workplace in the past.

Companies and their employees have waded through the early days of remote working, and have a clear strategy on how to manage remote teams and work – or how to manage hybrid variants. While managing remote teams is not rocket science, it certainly does need some study.

It’s imperative that managers are aware of the environment in which they and their employees find themselves. Surely this seems obvious but it’s much harder to acknowledge that working during a pandemic is anything but ‘work as usual.’

Framing working from home (WFH) or remotely as an advantage to the employee isn’t helpful or realistic in the context of the environment he or she may be in with added caregiving duties and remote schooling from home.

Additionally, navigating health and safety concerns, and dealing with social isolation during a pandemic, can be stressful. As such, managing teams require managers to improve their empathetic capabilities.

Displaying empathy towards employees can come in various forms. Regularly checking in on workers, organising social interactions and gatherings online, and providing interventionist support through access to resources that may be useful to the employee will help people cope under stressful conditions.

However, empathy mustn’t be displayed only in relation to work and work related performance; it should include employees’ personal situations as well.

This could make some managers uncomfortable and HR may need to train them, and provide guidance on how to approach employees and discuss sensitive matters. But in the long term, strategies such as this will presumably add to overall organisational health.


Everyone knows that communication is the key especially as remote working is mainly over technological platforms. But cues are lost even in face-to-face video interaction; and with time, video-conferencing fatigue may affect attention spans too. So it’s important to communicate clearly, concisely, regularly and even repetitively – at the risk of getting on everyone’s nerves!

Since collaborative work is a team requirement, it might be best to determine the platform that’s going to be used by the organisation – such as Dropbox or Google Drive – and prepare a workflow plan that’s complete with assigned responsibilities and deadlines.

It’s also important to centralise data and resources through shared drives or other technological features. If employees aren’t familiar with the platform, they should be trained to prevent the technology from becoming a problem.

Obstacles and resources are other areas where managers can assist team members. Whether the obstacles are personal, problems with a technological platform, access to supporting infrastructure such as reliable and fast internet on which remote working relies, or financial issues in relation to supporting working remotely (increased data and phone bills), all these need to be addressed.

Working under constraints is not uncommon and easy resolutions may be at hand once the difficulty is discussed. One of the hardest changes for managers to circumvent is the reduction of supervision. Remote working can’t realistically afford time (and patience) for micromanaging, which isn’t beneficial for a healthy working relationship.

Managers then have to shift their focus from processes to outcomes and clearly communicate those expected outcomes to employees, while providing both a sense of purpose and the necessary resources to complete the task. The manner in which employees get there and what processes are used need to be expanded, both in breadth and depth.

This then brings up the ultimate challenging issue of flexibility!

The key to being flexible is in laying the foundation upon which it is built. For instance, focussing on an outcome is the foundation. Working remotely and among other added pressures may dictate that managers provide flexible time schedules and not insist that employees need to sign in to a roll call at 9 a.m. in order to mark attendance!

It’s also necessary to provide employees with a road map, resources and support, and trust them to deliver the expected outcomes. Being flexible with their processes and overall time will result in a happy remote working environment.