In any group setting, it can be easy for one or two team members to wind up saddled with most of the work. This is true in the physical workplace, and it might be even more likely in a virtual environment. It is every team manager’s responsibility to prevent uneven distribution of responsibilities and ensure that everybody participates equally. If you’re not sure how to achieve this when your staff is working remotely, though, you can benefit from a few tips to guide your efforts. You should first learn how to use virtual background in Teams and establish a schedule for weekly video call meetings.

Get Input From Team

Weekly meetings are a great tool for managing your team, but their most useful feature is the opportunity to solicit feedback from your staff. A team member who is bearing the brunt of the burden when it comes to team tasks may be hesitant to speak out about the issue. If you initiate a discussion about workload distribution, though, you are more likely to get honest input from your team members. You can ask simple questions, like “how could we improve the way tasks are shared?” or “is there any way we could collaborate more fairly and effectively?” in order to open a forum.

If team members indicate that there’s room for improvement, this is the time to ask for suggestions. You want to hear their ideas first and let them provide their feedback. When you’re soliciting input from your staff, it’s important to stick to open-ended questions and encourage everybody to speak out. Team members who provide meaningful and constructive ideas should be rewarded with recognition and thanks. Remind the meeting attendees that they won’t be penalized for feedback that may be critical — critique is an important part of growth.

Delegate Positively

It’s important to get feedback and guidance from your staff, but it’s even more important to set clear expectations. If tasks are being shared unevenly, you should assess whether you failed to communicate team members’ responsibilities effectively. To avoid unfair workloads, you must identify each staff member’s role in a project, identify the tasks they must complete, and define the boundaries of their responsibility. You can do this by hosting a video conference with a virtual background for Google Meet and assigning a specific position to every employee that you oversee.Delegating can be a complex endeavor, though, and some team members may push back against the responsibilities you hand them. Positive delegation is the key to avoiding this. As you address each team member, you should explain in detail why you’ve given them their unique role and highlight the strengths that make it an appropriate choice. If you’re using Zoom to host this meeting, you may get a notification that your computer does not meet the Zoom virtual background requirements. This might be alarming at first, but don’t worry — there are several solutions available that can help you install a custom background no matter what computer you use.