Many managers are now realizing that leading remote employees requires a different approach from managing office-based teams. Rather than relying on rigid processes, Agile methods help managers to adapt as circumstances change, and this is especially useful for managing Work From Home (WFH) and Work From Anywhere (WFA) teams. In this guide, we look at practical ways to apply Agile thinking when managing remote employees.
What this guide covers
Rather than focusing solely on Agile project management, this article looks at how Agile thinking can help managers lead remote employees more effectively. We look at WFA policies, communication, company culture, employee autonomy, and useful steps for improving remote team management.
What is an Agile Work Environment?
An agile work environment is a flexible way of working that gives employees greater choice over how and where they work while focusing on outcomes rather than rigid processes.
In contrast to a traditional workplace, in an agile workplace, you can expect a variety of work areas and zones, such as quiet spaces for focused tasks, large open collaborative areas, and meeting rooms that employees can use as and when they need to.
There is, in essence, more choice for employees and more flexibility; i.e., employees can choose where to work and have some autonomy over their work, i.e., how to prioritize the workload.
The emphasis, in other words, tends to be on the end results and allowing employees more flexibility in return for them meeting set goals.
Agile work environments also normally support cross-functional teamwork, meaning that there is the opportunity for quicker and more effective collaboration between team members from different departments.
In agile workplaces, hybrid and remote work options are common, and so remote team management with agile methods involves a little planning (more on this later).
What are the Benefits of Work From Anywhere (WFA) Policies?
Work From Anywhere (WFA) policies can reduce business costs, improve employee satisfaction, increase employee retention, and give organizations access to a wider talent pool.
Whether as permanent employees working virtually or as a freelancer hired by you, these employees are now increasing in number rapidly.
As a business or company, there are distinct benefits to allowing and also pursuing this drive to allow employees to WFA. These benefits include cost savings from:
- Less need to provide office space
- Reduction in power bills and cleaning bills
- Being able to provide meetings and training online (again, less room space and power bills)
- Research in fact suggests that employees are also more productive (and loyal) if they are allowed the freedom to work from anywhere, and this, in turn, can drastically help reduce staff turnover and new hire staff training costs.
Before proceeding further, let me quickly also explain some terms:
- WFH – has become quite a well-known term recently, and this means work from home.
- WFA – means work from anywhere, and this means that an employee might, for example, be from the UK but working for a year in Barbados on a digital nomad visa, or s/he might be working from home, or from a vacation home in the south of France, i.e., literally from anywhere where they can get a high-speed internet connection.
What are the Action Steps for WFA Success?
Successfully managing remote employees with Agile methods requires giving clear goals, offering flexible policies, running regular reviews, and showing a willingness to adapt as remote working continues to evolve.
So how could an agile model be used for managing remote workers WFH and WFA?
Well, working from home and from anywhere remotely is still in its infancy, with only a relatively small percentage of employees working from home on a permanent basis.
With WFA (working from anywhere) in particular, an agile method of working can be particularly useful as we learn to create management processes that factor in an array of new considerations.
These considerations include staff:
- working in different time zones
- new hires from different countries, bringing different working practices, cultural expectations, and approaches to communication
- working in various situations, i.e., locations in terms of security issues such as sometimes using public WiFi if working from anywhere (a VPN connection might be recommended to start with)
The WFH and especially the WFA revolution will mean a need to fine-tune those management skills, and an agile way of managing is worth considering.
1. Remote Working and the Company Vision
Given that WFA is a relatively new phenomenon, we are still learning of ways in which managing WFA and WFH employees can be tweaked, perfected, and managed.
So, an agile method of exploration and discovery is very much the typical way in which many companies are developing a WFA (Work from Anywhere) policy and guidelines.
This flexibility makes sense for now because we are very much at the beginning of a WFA and WFH shift and, as we speak, technologies and software are being developed to accommodate this shift.
Do not, for example, be surprised if you see a set of palm trees behind Mary of marketing as she starts working from Barbados on one of their new remote working visas.
Likewise, high-quality co-working spaces around the world are developing fast, and many countries are only now beginning to see the commercial benefits of offering digital nomad working visas.
Action: Start by having a clear vision of what the end goal is. Is this a temporary WFA policy to accommodate a pandemic, for example, or is it a long-term goal? Will every employee be allowed to work from anywhere? Do you have a timeframe in mind to get a % of staff working remotely? Create a bullet point list of no more than 8 points and have one to two paragraphs of text to explain the main vision on a maximum one-page document for this WFA vision.
2. Begin Allowing WFA to Employees
If one of your team can work from Costa Rica for a year on a digital nomad work visa, and if you know that they will have no problem getting their work done (are reliable and efficient), then why not encourage this work style?
Happier staff who have a more balanced work-life balance + who are given the freedom by their company to WFA (work from anywhere) = an employee who will value their employer. Happier staff are shown to result in reduced staff turnover and this itself results in huge cost saving in hiring and training new hire staff.
Dr Paul Symonds
So, hopefully, you as a company or manager are able to encourage staff to work from anywhere.
Certainly, the feeling early on is that managers and bosses wrongly have the impression that you need to micro-manage employees, i.e., to have them there in person, and staff need to socialize in person to work well together.
On the contrary, though, studies show that staff is proving to be more effective working from the location of their choice remotely.
Agile Methods and Guidelines: Even with a set of predetermined guidelines for remote employees, new opportunities for improving the way they work from a distance need refining.
Even if you, for example, use specific software to manage teams, the logistics of where and how they can work are changing, and, in this sense, approaching WFA from an agile management perspective, for now, makes sense.
The model above (see image above) uses an agile method to factor in the different conditions and environments (including time zones) staff will begin to work from.
Remember also that with a WFA option policy, many new hires will very likely start working from day 1 by distance remotely. In this case, the onboarding (induction) process will be done remotely.
One thing that is certain is that the big move towards allowing employees to work from anywhere is a very fluid process – meaning that the boundaries and ways of working from anywhere are changing very quickly.
Action: Create an initial set of guidelines for employees working from anywhere. Also, be prepared for step 3 below; this will be an agile process – whereby every month you will re-evaluate the guidelines and adapt them accordingly.
3. Adapt as Employees Begin Working from Anywhere
As discussed, the landscape is changing so quickly at the moment that an agile process can be a great way of developing your WFA guidelines for now.
Likewise, technology itself is changing so fast that employees can choose to work as digital nomads quite easily.
With the combination of digital nomad visas and the availability of devices such as a Glocalme (a portable wi-fi hotspot), working from anywhere literally does mean from anywhere!
For a company, having a plan on how to manage meetings when staff are working in so many different time zones is just one example of how, as a manager, you will have to re-evaluate how you manage a team. Integrating and learning how to manage different cultural work styles will also become increasingly important.
Action: Embrace the WFA era and use an agile system for re-evaluating WFA guidelines. Plan to re-analyze the WFA processes every month and be willing to adapt and change the guidelines and how you work, as technology and WFA opportunities change.
4. Perfect Your Company’s WFA Policy and Guidelines
For companies offering staff the chance to WFH (work from home), it is far easier to create the guidelines, particularly if staff are working in the same geographical region.
Time zones will be the same. Providing hardware will be much easier if needed, etc.
A WFA (work from anywhere) policy, on the other hand, can better benefit from an agile method.
Workplaces are becoming more flexible, and with this flexibility and an ever-changing workplace, agile methods work well.
Indeed, training managers and team leaders in agile methods can be worthwhile.
Action: Continue to review WFA guidelines frequently.
Creating a Remote-First Culture to Support WFA and WFH Teams
To successfully manage Work From Anywhere (WFA) and Work From Home (WFH) teams, you need to focus on building a strong and resilient team, where all employees, whether they work remotely or in the main office, feel fully supported and included.
In order to create what can be termed a ‘Remote-first culture ‘, we can set in place practices, values, and systems. to prioritize effective communication, inclusion, and adaptability, these are strategies you might wish to consider:
1. Establish Core Values for Remote Work
The goal with remote working in terms of a remote-first culture is to create a foundation that provides flexibility, accountability, and open communication within your team.
To do this, I suggest setting clear expectations and processes for responsiveness, availability, and deliverables.
Putting these processes in place helps build trust because it then means that everyone is on the same page and adhering to the same rules, regardless of location.
2. Encourage Inclusion and Collaboration
Creating an inclusive workplace is always important whether in a physical office or for managing a remote team.
With a remote team, it becomes more complex if employees are spread across different time zones, so you will need to include strategies such as rotating meeting times and ensuring that everyone has access to the same resources so that remote employees do not feel isolated.
3. Maintain Connection and Team Morale
It is not as though you are going to grab a cup of coffee and will have that 2 or 3 minutes seeing an employee online like you would in a physical office.
With this in mind, to keep remote employees connected to the team, consider running regular virtual team-building activities.
Also, consider trying to keep the remote and in-office teams all connected in conversations on a platform such as MS Teams or Slack.
Regular informal check-ins and chats can help replicate the communication that takes place in a real office environment.
Best Practices for Onboarding Remote Employees in an Agile Environment
Effective onboarding is important because it helps remote employees become productive more quickly while also improving engagement, confidence, and long-term retention.
Effectively onboarding newly hired staff is critical because, just like with office-based employees, turnover is far higher when employees are not properly integrated into a company.
For integrating employees in an agile work environment, you might consider the following:
1. Create Structured, Accessible Onboarding Plans
Ensure that the new hire has access online to a full set of onboarding materials.
These materials might include access to detailed new hire FAQs, a first-week agenda/plan, and a list of important contacts, such as if they have any issues to sort out with work equipment or their pay.
2. Provide Mentorship and Ongoing Support
It is worthwhile allocating each new hire to an ‘Onboarding Buddy’ who can act as their mentor for the first month, i.e., their go-to person for any questions.
3. Consider Using Project Management Software
In an agile workplace online, project management software such as ‘Trello’ can be useful to set a new hire up on.
Likewise, adding the new hire to Slack or MS Teams to connect them to the wider team is a good option from day one.
An agile approach to WFH and WFA should always include planning for onboarding.
Online Training for Remote Employees
Regular online training helps remote employees develop new skills, stay connected with colleagues, and work effectively across distributed teams.
With remote teams, offering training is a great way to still find a way to build team spirit, communication skills, and teamwork skills.
Having talked about agile methods and adaptability and continual re-evaluation, factors including personal well-being, health & safety (including ergonomics and workspace setup), information security, team-working, online meetings, and the social aspect of working at home all need to be considered and offered to WFA employees.
Some training materials you might find especially useful for providing online training for WFA staff are:
- Intercultural Communication skills
- Digital Wellness
- Mental well-being for Staff Working From Home (or from anywhere)
This article is one from our guides to Managing Remote and Hybrid Teams.
In addition to this post on managing remote employees with Agile Methods, you might also find this post useful on tips for managing distributed teams.
