Introduction
Digital agencies aren’t the easiest to run, especially in a time when things have moved remotely. You need tips on how to keep your digital agency team onboard, productive and efficient. It’s one thing for them to understand the goals that need achieving; however, it’s another thing to work together to achieve this.
These are different people with different personalities; hence a lot of tact is needed when managing a team. The distractions from home also interfere with the numerous tasks involved in digital agencies. Additionally, the staff needs to be updated promptly on new leads or changes to the organization.
These days, teams are adopting a style called “distributed teams” to manage remote working. It’s the same as before; you have smaller teams consisting of decentralized workers, who are location-independent and can collaborate to meet the set objectives.
Ways to Keep your Digital Agency Team Onboard, Productive and Efficient
Onboarding
This is the process of integrating your recruits. They need to understand your organization’s ideals, all the tools they need, get used to the working environment, and adjust to the different schedules.
Grant team members autonomy
This is giving ownership to the team members. By motivating, and letting them make decisions, handle little projects, etc. you are showing them you trust in them to achieve the goal, and hold them accountable. There’s nothing greater than a team member who sees the project as their own.
Know your team members as individuals
Every person has special skill sets that add value to their performance. As a great team leader, you should know what your team members like, their strengths and weaknesses, and put it to the best use to push your common goal.
Build team spirit
A way to get the best out of your team is to develop the team spirit by incorporating team-building exercises and making everyone feel like part of a family. You want to make room for friendly banter, chit-chats, and ways to unwind. Working remotely presents a challenge for this, so you could use fun apps or set up challenges where people need to communicate and work together.
Communication
There’s no productivity without effective communication. Team members need to understand whatever message is being passed across to them and how to go about it. They also need to be made aware of whatever changes are ongoing, so they know how best to adapt.
There must be a clear communication line, and you also want to devise means of communicating efficiently, such as taking notes, using guides, following up on the team members, using social media platforms, or email marketing, to keep them abreast of developments.
Get out of their way
You don’t have to micro-manage your team. It’s often just great to sit back and let your team members put the resources at their disposal, the autonomy they’ve been granted, skills, etc. to the best use possible. Of course, you could step in now and then offer some help or simply make yourself available to answer any questions they may have.
Incentives
Praise is often great as a motivating factor, but don’t stop there, offer rewards. They could be monetary, or otherwise, e.g., free courses such as creating a competitive website for your home based business, paid meals, vacations, even time-off.
One of the most important tips on how to run a digital agency team is showing appreciation for the good work they’ve done or are doing.
Create success metrics
It would help if you always define your expectations. You could do this by setting objectives and goals. It could be in bits, rather one giant goal.
Your goals must be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound). Also, set up key performance indicators (KPIs) that help you quantify and track the progress made by each individual or the team.
Regular meetings
You need to organize regular meetings with your team, especially while working remotely. You want to ensure they have no worries and also bounce off ideas. These meetings could be quick and relaxed, so they reduce tension and keep the team close-knit.
Feedback
The importance of an effective feedback system can’t be overstated. After each task they’ve completed, you should let them know how they’ve done, and provide means for improvement.
Conclusion
The solution on how to keep your digital agency team onboard, productive and efficient, is a combination of many different approaches. Make sure to communicate extensively and devise strategies to cover the constantly changing work environment.
Now that you know how to keep your digital agency team efficient, why don’t you put these tips to the test?
