Remote work is not a new concept at all. It has been around ever since high-speed internet connections became widespread. And many organizations that range from startups to multinational corporations have been using it in one form or another.
So what has changed?
For the most part, remote work used to be optional. Not anymore. Remote work is now the norm rather than the exception.
For instance, 1 in 2 people does not plan to return to jobs without remote work options. And 1 in 4 are willing to take a 10% pay cut as long as they can continue to work remotely.
For most businesses that are further down the road, this isn’t a big deal. If they made it this far, they already have all the systems in place. But for startups who need to collaborate, must run a tighter operation, and need to scale? What can they do? This scenario is where building a culture of accountability around the team comes in.
Here are five ways in which your startup can maintain accountability while managing your remote team.
Setting clear expectations is the cornerstone of making sure that everyone in your team remains accountable.
Put differently, if you haven’t communicated your team members’ expectations, it makes accountability difficult. This lack of communication causes a scenario where your team member is working hard, but due to the miscommunications in expectations, it doesn’t deliver what you need.
Here are three key elements of setting clear expectations.
One of the biggest challenges that remote teams have is being able to communicate effectively. However, communication in itself isn’t the problem since sending messages is relatively straightforward nowadays.
The challenge is keeping it practical.
Due to the overabundance of channels, teams come across situations where key messages and instructions fall through the cracks (aka lost); unavailable for later reference. The only thing worse than digging through a 20-message-long email chain is digging through hundreds of Slack messages, looking for the task at hand.
The purpose of tracking meaningful metrics for accountability is to ensure your team members have the necessary information to make decisions.
Accountability is the opposite of micromanagement; for this reason, making sure your team has access and understands the reason behind each metric is critical to having a solid and effective remote team structure.
Traditionally, holding your team accountable would be akin to punishment or penalty. Instead, keeping your team accountable is a conversation where everyone can share perspectives on reaching the agreed-upon goals.
Here are three tips to make sure your accountability conversations end up in meaningful actions.
One of the challenges every startup faces is that they have limited bandwidth. Resources are limited, and you need to make sure that you keep your startup moving in the right direction. Said differently, you need to make sure that you keep your business moving instead of just keeping it running.
For this reason, getting the right outside help to maintain the efficiency of your operation when moving to a remote model can be a gamechanger. Founder’s CPA knows startups, and because of this, they can work with you to find the best way to support your small team.
Set up a call with one of our experts to explore how to help you reach your goals more quickly.