By now, you probably know that virtual team members are standard practice in 2022. With significant volumes of workers choosing to work remotely, dealing with remote workers is essential for any successful property management business. Many companies have even found remote arrangements to be more productive; however, that's not to say it doesn't come without some unique challenges.
Working effectively with remote team members requires communication, clear rules, and avoiding digital micromanaging. These are all crucial hurdles business owners must navigate for ideal productivity with virtual contractors.
So how do property managers and real estate professionals overcome the challenges? Let's talk through everything you need to know for remote productivity success, from finding a virtual assistant to the more advanced aspects of managing remote teams successfully.
Set Expectations Right Away
A crucial first step to establishing productive virtual teams is setting expectations early. This means your remote workers are on the same page with your expectations before starting a working relationship.
While details should be transparent in the job description, managers must reiterate these duties and expectations after enrollment during the first few weeks of a VAs new role.
Be realistic and clear with any goals and expectations, as you don't want to overwhelm your remote team member immediately. Make sure they understand the tools and tech available to make their jobs easier and aid their productivity. Not only will this make them feel more comfortable and supported, but it will help your virtual assistant work more effectively right away.
Good communication with a new VA is vital in the first few weeks, leading us to our next point.
Keep Lines of Communication Open
For maximizing remote work productivity, it's essential to be available and keep communication lines open. This can help your real estate virtual assistants feel like part of the team, in the know, and on track.
Whether your VA manages your company's social media platforms or helps with other tasks, video calling, instant messaging, and email should always be available for team members to contact you with questions and clarifications.
In addition, your remote team member may be working from different time zones. Make sure they work during your business's open hours to optimize your availability for real-time communication.
Provide Ongoing Feedback
Giving feedback is a crucial but overlooked aspect of boosting remote work productivity. Whether it is acknowledging good progress, something that requires improvements, or communicating simple tweaks to align with the company vision, giving feedback is the only way to help your remote teams improve and maximize productivity for your company.
At the same time, you must be able to receive feedback. Gathering feedback from virtual workers can exponentially improve productivity. It helps you understand their needs and streamline processes to be more effective, happier, and healthier with their work, which helps boost productivity.
Use a Project Management Tool
Using project management and time-tracking tools helps all team members stay on track and in alignment with the task at hand. Many excellent project management tools allow you to track projects and be transparent with team members, including the resources for companies within the VPM Solutions platform.
Build a Good Relationship With Your Real Estate Virtual Assistant
The environment you create in your workspace, whether in the office or online, is one of the greatest but lesser-known productivity tools available. Whatsmore, it's free.
Your remote assistant needs to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. So it's crucial to include remote team members in online team-building exercises and think back to keeping lines of communication open across all channels.
In addition, ensure you check in regularly with the well-being of your remote team members and try and allow for flexibility. Creating a culture and remote work structure that makes your VAs happy, flexible, and in control is a surefire way to build a productive team.
Avoid Micromanaging
One of the most productivity-damaging things you can do is micromanage remote team members. Your virtual assistant has likely chosen to work remotely for an added sense of flexibility and freedom. So being digitally micromanaged doesn't make anyone want to work harder.
Allowing for more flexibility encourages them to deliver excellent work and want to help you in as many ways as possible.
Increase Responsibilities Over Time
While it's common to hire a virtual assistant without all the skills required for a role straight away, VAs can learn new skills on the job. Build their confidence, then gradually increase their tasks and responsibilities as their skills progress.
Where Do You Find Great Real Estate Virtual Assistants?
Real estate virtual assistants are excellent resources to help scale your business! They take care of routine, non-location-specific tasks and allow you to work on higher-level tasks to grow your real estate company.
So, where do you find the best virtual assistants? VPM Solutions delivers a vast pool of highly trained real estate VAs waiting to help you grow.
Manage Remote Team Members Through VPM Solutions
By following these tips, you're in a formidable position for excellent remote work productivity from your virtual assistant team! When choosing VAs through VPM Solutions, you can also access free resources for tracking time, projects, and productivity. In addition, our Company Accounts feature makes it easy for real estate professionals to access the account, interact with VAs, and manage remote teams effectively. Get started with a Free Company Profile!
