How to build a remote team for your cannabis business

Since the COVID-19 pandemic paralyzed most of the country for an extended period of time, the way many people work has changed. Remote working has become the norm and many employees do not want to work away from home again. At the same time, many employers have recognized that having a remote team is cheaper and more productive than it was before the pandemic.

Today, more and more cannabis companies are giving their employees what they want by building remote teams when they can. There are successful cannabis companies that are made up of completely remote teams, while others have just a few employees who work from home depending on their roles and responsibilities.

A long list of cannabis technology companies, marketers, consultants, and more has already shifted to fully detached teams. At the same time, many growers, manufacturers, pharmacies, and other plant-contacting businesses are now allowing certain employees to work from home who don’t need to be on-site to do their jobs.

Did you know that the entire Cannabiz Media team has always worked remotely? From the Pacific Northwest to sunny Florida, our team is across the country!

One of the most important things to keep in mind when moving to a fully or partially remote team is that hiring and managing remote workers is a little different than for internal teams. Distance comes with autonomy, and trust is paramount – trust both that your team members are getting their jobs done and that you are providing them with the tools, communications, and benefits they need to be successful and happy.

With that in mind, are some of the most important things to keep in mind when building a remote team for your cannabis business.

1. Define what can be done remotely

The first step in building a remote team is to determine which jobs can be done remotely. In the cannabis industry, this depends on the nature of your business and the roles that employees have to fill.

For example, many cannabis subsidiary companies can work seamlessly with a completely remote team. A point of sale (POS) software company or accounting firm is unlikely to need stationary office space. On the flip side, growers and trimmers need to be on site to do their jobs for a grower, but the sales, marketing, and other support teams likely don’t need to be on site – at least not 40 hours a week.

Take some time to define each role as you look for ways to enable remote working. How many tasks and projects really need to be done in a traditional work environment? If you are flexible in thinking, you may find that much of the job you paid for is not necessary at all!

2. Prioritize work ethic in recruiting

When hiring remote team members, your focus should be on hiring people based on their work ethic, not just their skills, knowledge, and experience. Remote workers need to work autonomously, which means they need to think independently, be proactive and problem-solver.

Some people find it difficult to motivate themselves and stay focused when working from home with no colleagues or supervisors close by. Therefore, it can be a good idea to hire people who have previous experience of working remotely.

However, don’t exclude people who haven’t tried remote working (although that number has certainly decreased since the pandemic quarantine period). You could just thrive in a virtual environment!

3. Provide the right tools and onboarding from day one

You don’t want a new employee to show up in your office on the first day and find out that they don’t have a desk, computer, phone, or software to do their job, and you don’t want this to happen to you remotely Neither team. So make sure new hires have the equipment, tools, logins, and software they need to immerse themselves immediately.

Onboarding should also include an introduction to everyone else on the team. Provide new remote workers with a list of all other team members, their roles and responsibilities, and explain who to turn to with different types of questions, issues, or support.

For these coworkers, the new hire has to connect early and often with a one-on-one introductory email or message through your collaboration tool (like Slack – see # 3) to break the ice. You can even schedule introductory meetings with each new hire and key team member to get things going as soon as they get on board.

4. Promote open and frequent communication

When building and managing a remote team, open and frequent communication is key to everyone’s success. Use a collaboration tool like Slack to allow people to connect with each other for quick one-on-one or group conversations as needed.

You can also use Slack to promote non-work conversations. This is especially important in building relationships and promoting a corporate culture. You can also create Slack channels for projects, departments, and fun things. For example, consider creating Slack channels to talk about fun or entertaining topics, vacation plans, family, and more.

Use Zoom or a similar tool so that your employees can hold voice and video conferences quickly and easily – planned or spontaneous. The easier you make it for remote workers to communicate with each other, the stronger your team will become.

Remember that for effective communication among remote workers, your company’s executives must set the tone and behavior by being the first to start and participate in conversations.

5. Set the tone and expectations from top to bottom

During the onboarding process, it is important that you teach remote workers which communication tools to use for which types of conversations. This way the whole team can stay on top of things and know what to expect.

For example, you can train your remote workers to use Slack for all internal conversations, email for external conversations, and your project management tool (e.g. Asana or Trello) for conversations on a specific project that includes milestones, goals and performance metrics is tracked.

Whatever the directions for communication, the executive team needs to act as a role model and use these tools as actively as they expect the employees to do.

6. No micromanagement

Nobody likes micromanaging and experienced remote workers definitely don’t like being micromanaged. For remote teams to be successful, you need to enable them to work independently.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you don’t know what they’re doing. You will get all the updates you need by promoting open and frequent communication (see # 3 above) and setting specific goals with milestones and deadlines for each project.

Remember that in order to build a strong remote team for your cannabis business, you need to hire by work ethic, not just knowledge and skills (see # 1). If you hire well, you don’t have to worry about whether your employees have a full 40-hour week. Instead, you need to keep them from burning out by keeping them from working too many hours.

Avoid partying long hours and never encourage remote workers to work on their days off. Remote workers need to know that you expect them to disconnect after hours.

Key takeaways on building a remote team for your cannabis business

To build a remote team for your cannabis business you need to hire carefully and strategically. Work ethic is important so make sure you ask questions during the interview that reveal a candidate’s work ethic.

Additionally, proper onboarding, open communication, leadership role models, and employee trust are essential to assemble a group of remote workers who can grow into a high performing team.