Remote teams have the potential to be more convenient than teams you meet face to face. Building a remote team allows you to have access to the best talent, not just the best talent within a reasonable radius of your office. It also comes with some challenges. Since everyone is spread out, working with the remote team is an entirely different experience. You’re going to have to start thinking about things you didn’t think about before.

1. Communicating Effectively

Around the office, you see team members in passing. If there’s an “I forgot to tell you” or “while I have you right here” moment, you can communicate bits and pieces as they become relevant. That’s not going to happen with a remote team. You need to learn to draft great emails that provide enough details for your team members to reference throughout a project. It also helps to touch base to go over new developments and changes.

2. Keeping Things Secure

When your team is remote, you have little bits of data all over the place. Make sure everyone is using antivirus and antimalware software. Have a password updating policy and make sure people aren’t storing more than they need. You also might want to consider having everyone use VPNs. They’re the most secure way to connect to the internet and can even be used to bypass region restrictions. VPNs solve a wealth of obstacles and security risks.

3. Measuring Progress

It’s hard to see and know what everyone is working on, much less where they all are at on separate aspects of a project. Create a group document where team members can leave progress notes or attach Dropbox (or Google Docs) links to rough drafts, estimates, and invoices. Everyone will be able to see what everyone else is doing, which makes it easier to keep the team working at the same pace. No one will find out at the last minute that they’ve fallen behind if they can see where everyone else is.

4. Arranging Meetings

Periodically, everyone should be able to discuss the project in real time. Whether you choose to do this via conference call, a group video chat session, or a group messaging system is up to you. It might be difficult to work out scheduling conflicts, particularly if you’re all in different time zones. Understand that some compromises will have to be made, but you can’t skip these meetings. You need them for brainstorming, innovation, and team building.

5. Creating Uniformity

Ideally, you’ll want everyone using the same software. This will allow team members to transfer, review, edit, and add information without any hassle. If you can, select cloud-based solutions. Your remote team members will be able to access them from anywhere in the world, and since they’re all members of the same group, they can co-work on projects. You won’t need to worry about file incompatibility or expensive licenses for tons of different software programs to keep everyone on the same page. Since the cloud also provides its own security, you won’t need to worry about the safety of the data you’re working with.

Remote teams can generate killer productivity and incredible results, as long as they’re worked with properly. It might take a little getting used to, but after a while, a remote team will begin to feel normal.

Amelie Mahone is a loving wife and a mother of 3. She loves to read about history and write articles on various topics, such as business, education, history, teaching. As a young mum, Amelie also likes to read about motivation and parenting.