A manager’s guide to managing and measuring remote team productivity

“Despite adapting to newfound circumstances, productivity does not appear to have recovered to pre-pandemic levels”, says a recent survey by ADP Research Institute.

ADP’s survey also set forth that the productivity of employees declined drastically and that the employees struggled to complete their tasks. The reasons cited for losing productivity were  technical difficulties, including internet connectivity and insufficient equipment, and the fear of contracting the deadly virus. Many employees worked fewer hours and communicated less often with colleagues and customers.

Source: ADP Research Institute® (ADPRI)

The study also highlights that participants, whose managers and employers were empathetic during these testing times, were more happy and less anxious than the other respondents.

How to increase the productivity of your remote accounting team?

Employee productivity in the post-covid world depends on three factors: Communication, Collaboration, and Empathy.

Communication

The right tools and communications strategies help remote accounting firms to overcome communication hassles and drive efficiency and productivity of their teams. 

Creating an engaging routine

Humans are creatures of habit. And routines help us form good daily habits. Daily routines such as morning scrum meetings or monthly retrospection meetings help teams to stay focussed on their tasks, flag issues at the right time, seek timely help, and finally eliminate any roadblocks in the project workflow. 

While working in a physical office, these meetings were a natural part of our routine. However, for virtual teams, they make little to no sense at all.

Imagine you log in at 8:00 AM CST and ask your team member in India, what are your tasks for the day?

Cultural and geographic differences make regular meetings hostile for remote teams. They need a more engaging and fun environment, which not only boots their morale but also helps them to improve their productivity. 

Instead of a regular standup, try hosting a fun and engaging virtual coffee chat.

Depending on the time zones of your team members, plan these coffee chats either in the mornings or afternoons. Virtual coffee chats are great for promoting a sense of belonging and reducing anxieties and stress levels of remote teams.

Sharing calendars with the entire team

Missing a deadline leaves a lasting impact on your business.After all,who wants to work with a firm that has missed an important deadline?

Sharing calendars with each other makes project management efficient and effective. Managers will have better visibility on the availability of their team and can plan their tasks more efficiently.

Sharing calendars and updates with each other also increases transparency in your firm and relieves your team members from the stress of always being available.

Planning tasks together

Planning tasks together helps to set the right expectations to all the team members.

Create a weekly schedule of tasks and add them to your workflows.

The workflows will track the updates, identify roadblocks, and alert the team for timely action. 

By planning goals together, helps team members to see the bigger picture and motivates them to stay productive.

Collaboration

Collaboration for remote teams has more to do with unlearning and relearning. Sitting in front of a camera or hopping between a zillion tools will not help in achieving higher levels of productivity.

You need tools that prioritize human connections. Especially during these times of social distancing,  collaboration tools that prioritize human connection at every phase help you to get things done, and enable you to build an empathetic work culture in your firm.

Tools like chat, video conferencing, task management, and document management , when integrated with workflows not only make collaboration easier but also make your interactions more meaningful and productive.

The advantages of having all your tools together are two fold.

Managers will have better visibility across your business and will be fully equipped with the right insights for faster and better decision making. 

Team members will be able to communicate effectively and support each other better. 

Above all, the increased visibility at work holds team members accountable to each other and motivates them to perform better.

Empathy

At the time of writing this blog, we are surviving a pandemic, a time when being empathetic is the need of the hour.

Cultural and geographic diversities of remote teams calls in for a more flexible and empathetic approach of management.

A recent discussion on LinkedIn says that we only need two magic words: “tell me”, for opening up more inclusive and empathetic conversations at work.

When managers demonstrate empathy, team members realize that their efforts are being valued and are more likely to stay motivated and productive.  

Measurement of remote team productivity

Measurement metrics and key performance indicators are also equally important for driving employee productivity in virtual teams.  

Why do remote accounting firms need Key Performance Indicators(KPIs)?

Before we delve deeper into the various productivity metrics for remote accounting firms, let’s try to understand the Why.

Measurement metrics and  KPIs are used to measure productivity and efficiency of the organization. These measurement metrics help individuals to understand how their efforts align with the objectives and goals of the organization.

Essential metrics for measuring productivity

Tasks Closed & Worked On 

The number of tasks closed metric shows the total number of tasks , closed by a team member or the number of tasks on which they have worked on , over the span of one week.

Measuring the number of tasks completed by individual team members helps managers to visualize the contribution of each team member towards common business goals. 

When planning individual tasks managers must take into account individual capabilities and the complexity of the tasks.

Tasks to $$ Billed / Collected

The revenue generated per task ratio gives the amount earned by completing a task.

This ratio gives a clear understanding of the profitability of each task in your business.

Using the revenue per task ratio, managers can allocate more time and resources for all the tasks that generate higher revenues. 

Tasks Vs Time

The tasks to time ratio gives the time taken for the completion of each task.

Managers can use this metric to observe the average time taken for the completion of each task. This measurement metric is useful for identifying roadblocks in the workflow well in advance and also for creating more realistic estimates in future.

Aging of Tasks between Phases 

The aging of tasks between phases metric, shows the time taken for a task to move from one phase to another. 

With the help of the Aging of Tasks between Phases metric, managers can measure and manage the efficiency and productivity of the entire workflow.

For example,a tax return was due for review on 01/01/20. However, the same tax return was filed on 01/15/20. 

That means, the tax return was under review for 15 days in other words aging for 15 days. Managers can probe in to find out the reasons for the delays in filing and come up with better processes to improve the turnaround time for tax filing.

Volume of Responses to Client Queries 

The volume of responses to client queries metric shows the average number of responses sent for every client query.

This productivity metric, helps managers to evaluate the effectiveness of the resolution provided by each team member.

Final thoughts

COVID-19 started as a health pandemic across the world and ended up impacting every aspect of our careers and lives, and the situation does not seem to become better anytime soon.

During such unprecedented times, it is important for firms to understand the challenges faced by their team members, develop processes that prioritize humans above business, and adopt processes and metrics that help in increasing individual productivity while adding value to the firm.