Remote working is nothing new, but having full teams out of the office for extended periods might be for your business. The term “business as usual” has become arbitrary. If managing a remote workforce, on such a vast scale, is new to you, then this article gives our advice on how to mediate the current climate best.
Remote Work is Nothing New.
Remote work is nothing new, and many of us will be used to flexible work; especially marketing teams. This global chart from Merchant Savvy shows us how many businesses were already using flexible workspaces at the beginning of 2020.
However, in our experience, the vast majority of marketing leaders have access to an in-house team which will help them with their broader, perhaps remote, teams. Today, working from home is a requirement to those who can; so if managing a fully remote team is new to you, now is the time to get informed. Tomorrow’s marketing leaders will be judged on their ability to get results in the hardest climates; we hope this guide will help you strategise for the coming weeks.
You will Need The Right People
While this should have been covered at your recruitment stage, remote working will test your people. Operating separately is a challenge, and for those who feel they need a “work persona” and a “home persona”, transitioning into this environment can be difficult; it has the potential to damage their productivity.
To be able to have a productive and accountable remote workforce you need to find workers who are intrinsically motivated to do their best. They must share the company and clients’ values and goals; those goals must act as a primary driver for them to do their best work. If you have people who rely entirely on extrinsic praise and reward, this type of environment could be incredibly difficult for them.
As a marketing leader, you will need to know your people and devise strategies to manage them best so that their work ethic does not suffer due to not being in office.
While we are sure this will not be the case in the majority of cases, this style of working might lead you to reassess your team and their ability. Do not be afraid to make decisions for the better of your clients and your business. The right people are vital, and the next few sections will give you ideas to ensure you give your staff their best opportunity to perform to their best potential.
Instil Company Vision and Values
If you are going to be bringing on further staff, or as an update with your current cohort, ensuring that company vision and values are well instilled in your workforce is a must. At this time, where they will be in their own company for prolonged periods, knowing that they are sharing, circulating and living the same values is invaluable. It will mean that regardless who is being engaged with, the messaging and treatment they receive will be echoed.
This is especially important in your marketing efforts – even if only a small section of your workforce is not communicating the correct messages, communication becomes distorted and confused. Make sure that you are putting time aside to reaffirm goals and values and reiterate the importance of these factors emanating through all outputs.
Develop a Stringent Comms Strategy
Never has communication been more vital. Your workforce and your client base must not be lost to the amount of noise that is currently circulating. As a marketing leader, it falls to you to decide what role your business will play in the current situation – to let your preassigned comms continue to roll out is ill-advised. While your client or customer base may still find value in it, business is not as usual. Your strategy will need to adapt to offer help and resilience.
This goes for both your internal and external comms. Email strategies will need to be checked, workflows reordered, and what might have been a top priority in weeks past may now be irrelevant. Businesses who fail to deviate from their comms strategy are undeniably going to feel the negative effect; it is a time for empathy and togetherness.
Your internal comms must adapt to allow for these changes. And, this change of internal comms must be reflected in the messages you and your business puts out to the world. Once you have decided a stance, stick to it, do not diverge. Stability and consistency are going to be vital in making sure you and your remote marketing team are aligned.
There Must be Clear Expectations and Accountability
Just because it is not business as usual, does not mean that expectations or accountability should follow suit. Marketing leaders will need to establish clear task lists and expectations for their teams – checking in every week, or as often as possible to offer support and guidance where necessary.
Client dashboards are also an option for those who wish to show accountability directly. This way, not only can you as management be keeping track of work in progress and work completed, but the client can have access as well. Depending on the marketing tools you utilise, this is easily managed remotely.
Keep track of your team’s output, catch up with them frequently and most of all, keep the clients in the loop.
Provide the Right Collaborative Tools
There are a vast amount of tools at your disposal. Due to their different capabilities, we have split them out for you.
Internal (informal) Comms
You will need to ensure that teams have a way of efficiently communicating with one another beyond email. Especially for brief or more informal communication. Tools include forums, such as Slack, video comms such as Skype, or social comms like LinkedIn.
Whether you decide to use a single channel or a mix, you will want to set guidelines of the approved internal communication protocol to your remote team. By enforcing a set of channels, they will always be there when you need to call on them.
Task Management & Client Dashboards
Customer Relationship Management systems (CRMs) are crucial, even when your team is all in-house, to keep track of workflow. There are a variety of options here too. Some of the more prominent platforms are Insightly, Accello and Trello.
All of them come with their intricacies and price points. Always make sure you explore the platform before you commit, and if you are taking on a new CRM at the same time as moving to remote work be advised that your team is going to need a lot of support in the adoption process.
External Comms
As well as your CRM, you will need to create ways for your remote team to check in with clients. Some of the better platforms to achieve this are Google Hangouts, Zoom and FreeConference.
By utilising these tools, you will be able to set up conference calls easily, incorporate them into calendars and more. Invite links are easy to send out, and each platform offers a “how-to” guide.
Train and Monitor
We are not in a position, currently, to know the extent of our predicament. In other words, you may be managing a remote marketing team for a while yet. Therefore, make sure that you are checking in often.
As well as being a presence, make sure that your workforce is still being presented with an opportunity. If there is training, webinars, virtual conferences and such like that you feel would benefit the team, share it. Allow them the opportunity to learn and develop, no matter the environment. As a marketing leader, your team will appreciate the support and license you give them to grow.
Stop. Reflect. Praise.
Even though working from home will undoubtedly have an impact on you and your team, embrace change. Stop and think of new opportunities, reflect on your current strategy and the way you are currently working and most of all, do not forget to give praise where it is due.
If your team flawlessly transitions into working remotely and continue to produce their best work, under the circumstances, smash targets and do their best for you and the business, praise them. The best teams operate under open, honest and fair – be open to suggestions and new strategic directions. Your team is your greatest asset, no matter if they are next to you in the office, or halfway across the country working remotely.
At tml Partners, we are here to help you take your next steps as a marketing leader, or help you find your next high-performance marketing manager. We are ready to adapt to the challenges of remote working. Are you? Call us today to learn more about how our executive marketing recruitment can help your business grow.
