During the past few years, remote work has experienced a major increase in prevalence, revolutionizing the traditional in-office work environment. This seismic shift has been accelerated by technological advancements, changes in attitude toward work-life balance, and more recently, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A survey in 2023 revealed that 12.7% of full-time employees work from home, whereas 28.2% of employees have adapted to a hybrid work model. The statistics show that workers from each sector prefer remote work, and engineering teams are no exception.

The workforce operating remotely in the engineering field benefits greatly from higher productivity, location independence, and better work-life balance. However, maintaining team cohesion and productivity in a remote environment can get demanding at times.

In this post, we'll delve into various challenges that remote engineering teams face and how they stay connected and productive in remote work settings. Now, let's take a look:

Exploring the Challenges of Remote Work

Though the benefits of remote work are endless, managing remote engineering teams can get challenging at times. The most common challenges employees face when working remotely are isolation and loneliness. The Social Connection in Remote Work Report showed that 55% of those surveyed in the remote workforce experience loneliness to some extent.

Collaboration gets challenging when members are working across different time zones. Late feedback and emails and reduced engagement with the team are some other challenges faced when working with a global remote team.

The next challenge for remote workers is that they usually experience difficulties in establishing proper routines that work in a new work setting. This is because they might need to rebuild their habits from scratch to prevent working non-stop.

Unlike traditional in-office settings where there is an IT team to resolve technical issues, working remotely requires individuals to be prepared to fix things mostly themselves. This can get difficult for remote workers who are not actually tech-savvy.

Lastly, many remote workers face network connectivity issues when using VPNs. VPNpro experts recommend a range of cheap monthly VPNs, offering enhanced data security and protection, specially designed for individuals who travel or work remotely.

Remote workers heavily rely on VPNs to shield their online activities, manage access control, and ensure productive teamwork. However, unstable connection speed is a downside that many remote workers experience.

Setting Up Clear Communication Channels

Communication between team members has usually so many challenges as a group of people with different backgrounds, personalities, and experiences try to get along while working together. Then, there is the added complication of communicating between remote team members who may be working across the world.

The good part is that there are ways to bridge communication that lead to less stressful work days and greater team performance. It begins with choosing the right communication tool from a range of platforms and technologies for remote communication.

Teams can select some of the tools that work best for their size and needs, instead of overloading the employees with many communication software and overlapping features that might cause confusion or misunderstanding.

Some of the best tools for visual and non-visual communication in real-time include Slack, MS Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet, for overseeing the entire process by project organization, task management, and time tracking are Trello, Jira, Asana, Basecamp, and ClickUp, and for digital collaboration include Google Drive and Dropbox.

Since effective communication in remote settings doesn't happen spontaneously, communication rules must be set to guide teams on how to use tools. These guidelines should determine how, when, and where communication takes place.

Defining the standard duration for responses to be given and tasks to be performed and establishing communication channels for different information, types of communication, and channels or services you need to invest in makes it easier to work together and make sure everybody is on the same page.

Implementing regular check-ins and status updates is equally useful to foster transparency. Research shows that according to nearly 46% of American respondents, successful managers are the ones who perform frequent check-ins in the form of daily meetings.

Checking in helps create a supportive, trust-based working environment. Teams can find out any obstacles that prevent employees from achieving the company's objectives, show that they care, and study workers' motivation.

Fostering Effective Teamwork in Remote Settings

Focusing on teamwork is essential for productivity and employee satisfaction, irrespective of the work environment. There are some strategies that remote engineering teams can follow to increase collaboration and develop strong connections with each other. One good strategy is to focus on team-building activities and virtual social events.

Team members can begin their meetings with fun icebreaker questions or activities. Celebrating milestones, such as acknowledging project achievements, birthdays, and work anniversaries, by sending virtual greeting cards or organizing a surprise video call also works great. Some teams also consider hosting virtual social events around certain themes.

Members of remote team members can also connect through informal interactions. This includes setting time aside for informal chats over coffee or joining a virtual meeting room for casual conversations. Teams can create dedicated chat channels for non-work-related topics, such as hobbies or weekend plans, and make random pairings for better connection.

Last but not least, it is always a great idea to plan a day when the team takes a break from work and partakes in team-building activities, like creative workshops or team challenges. Know that teamwork is not only related to work-related tasks but also to developing understanding and trust. Following all these strategies allows teams to build a positive remote culture and nurture the team's bonds.

Increasing Visibility and Accountability

Visibility at work, which is about getting included, recognized, and valued by networks within a company, is important for individuals and teams to thrive and succeed. Research shows that remote workers who don't feel seen are less creative, collaborative, and supportive of each other.

It is common for remote workers to face visibility problems. Isolation from company culture, time zone differences, technological hurdles, and lack of face-to-face meetings play an important part in disrupting the opportunities individuals get to stay visible to everyone within the company.

Since visibility is a vital remote team skill, teams can focus on three practical pillars that make it easier for them to figure out how much they are visible during the workday. The three pillars are as follows:

  • Social Visibility - This is all about strengthening personal connections and building relationships with colleagues through social interactions.
  • Strategic Visibility - Sharing innovative ideas on projects, having a say in important business decisions, and volunteering for a task or opportunity.
  • Supportive Visibility - Building up team members by recognizing and sharing their efforts and achievements with others. Providing equal opportunities for better contribution and collaboration.

Visibility and accountability are closely associated. Remote workers need to hold themselves accountable for assigned tasks, due dates, and deliverables.

Fostering accountability is possible by ensuring that workers know their duties and deadlines, setting periodic check-ins to discuss development, hurdles, and any adjustments required, sharing updates in open discussions, and encouraging individuals to monitor their progress and seek assistance if needed.

Managing Time Zone Differences and Flexible Timetables

This dynamic era of remote work demands an understanding of time zones to ensure effective communication, foster smooth coordination, and promote a harmonious work-life balance for remote employees.

Effective collaboration begins by setting specific core working hours that coincide across various time zones. Remote engineering teams set a predetermined period during which all workers are available to make real-time communication (meetings and discussions) feasible and actively encouraged. This promotes seamless collaboration and minimizes delays in major decision-making processes.

In addition, forward-thinking organizations take steps to empower team members to align their work hours with peak productivity periods. This not only promotes a sense of autonomy among workers but also cultivates an environment where employees can optimize their productivity and creativity.

Embracing flexibility acknowledges the work-life balance requirements of remote teams across various time zones, which then nurtures a more engaged and highly productive workforce.

What's more, effective task management is important to navigate for productivity and efficiency. It allows the centralization of information, increases visibility and accountability, and improves communication.

Task management software, such as Trello, Asana, Jira, Todoist, and ClickUp, allows remote team members to access data easily and participate in video conferences regardless of their location. Such collaboration makes it possible for engineering teams to meet their deadlines despite the time-zone differences.

Final Words

To sum up, handling a remote engineering team comes down to a number of important factors: clear communication and smooth collaboration, more visibility within the company, and a supportive, team-centered work culture.

All these factors help discover the remote team's true potential, keeping them productive, engaged, and connected regardless of their locations and time zones. However, it is important to note that increasing productivity in remote teams usually demands a customized method that aligns with the company's goals and requirements.

The best practice is to have open discussions with remote team members to find and tailor strategies that best suit both the company and the workforce.