Tag Archives: remote team management

how to manage a remote team

How Tech and Digital Agencies Can Manage Distributed Teams for Remote Effectiveness

Leave a reply

Remote hiring is growing at an unprecedented rate across the globe. Access to a wider talent pool and reliable offshoring employment partners have made it easy for digital agencies to fulfill their talent needs. In this regard, India has risen as the most preferred country for offshoring requirements, mostly due to its massive talent pool of 6.5 million skilled, remote-ready, and cost-effective digital talents.

However, a study reveals that 40% of digital agencies find it difficult to manage their remote talents post-onboarding. Clearly, managing a remote team requires a different approach from sourcing remote talents. But what exactly should you do?

In this blog, we will discuss the common challenges digital agencies face in managing Indian remote talents and suggest strategies to overcome them.

Challenges of Managing Remote Teams from India

remote team management

Contrasting communication style

The Indian talents are used to communicating in a high-context form of communication which involves body language and non-verbal cues. They respect the hierarchy and avoid using harsh tones or detailed questioning to avoid any confrontation, preferring to discuss larger topics separately from a group. However, global digital agencies prefer a straightforward communication style  where everybody is open to add their viewpoints. This difference in propagating ideas can lead to some disconnect between managers and Indian talents and impact remote team management.

Time zone difference

If you want to find cost-effective and skilled talents in India, you must face the caveat of the time zone difference. The impact of this challenge is visible in coordinating and managing a remote team, as one talent may have to work at odd hours to complete any urgent task from a team in another country. Therefore, many global agencies are compelled to either ask the talent to work in night shifts or let them work during daytime asynchronously.

Monitoring productivity

Digital agencies are bound by deadlines and it is important to maintain productivity across all levels. It becomes very difficult in a remote environment to measure how well a talent is performing by simply looking at their daily output. There needs to be a system in place that helps in tracking the efficiency of the remote talents for effectively managing teams remotely.

 Strategies for Managing Remote Teams

  1. Clear communication protocols
  2. Establish a remote-friendly culture
  3. Goal setting and performance management
  4. Promote flexible work timings
  5. Using technology and tools for productivity

how to manage a remote team

Hiring and managing a remote team are very distinct challenges. Once you onboard the remote talent, it is up to you to ensure they integrate well within the organization and do not feel misplaced in the team. It must be noted that managing a remote talent is very different from managing an on-site one, which is why you need a different approach.

Here are a few strategies that can help digital agencies in remote team management:

1. Clear communication protocols

You must establish communication channels and relevant protocols for reaching out to other employees across the agency. New hires are very reluctant to speak out in their first few days, as they aim to acclimatize with the company’s culture. Knowing how to reach out to someone will help them gain confidence and reduce communication challenges in remote team management.

It is also important to set a precedent of the expected response time, as nobody should be kept waiting for a long duration. Time is of the essence in remote collaboration and even slight delays can push deadlines. Develop a habit within the organization to respond to texts and emails as soon as possible to avoid any operational setbacks.

2. Establish a remote-friendly culture

Working in a remote setup requires the entire agency to be empathetic and trusting of each other. The trust between colleagues and managers to finish a project on time is essential to build understanding and team chemistry. Empathy for each other in a distributed setup helps in developing a sense of community and belonging, which further improves team engagement, job satisfaction, and overall well-being. This step will also help in managing cross-cultural remote teams.

3. Goal setting and performance management

One of the most important tasks for managers in digital agencies is to establish performance expectations with all the talents. To make it big in a fast-paced environment, like a digital agency, the employees must perform consistently well and meet client requirements. It takes only one team call to define the KPIs for the team members and explain how these goals will help in achieving bigger milestones. The remote talent will feel a valuable member of the organization once they start tracking these goals and their impact.

4. Promote flexible work timings

A digital agency in, let us say South Africa, has to overcome the time zone difference to leverage the massive Indian remote talent pool. In such a scenario, digital agencies must provide flexible work hours and set a workflow that accommodates the talent without compromising the quality of work. Several global companies hold regular meetings with their remote teams to check up on their activity and progress for the day. Asynchronous communication for team meetings is a good option, only if response time is not crucial.

5. Using technology and tools for productivity

There are several software and remote team management tools which aid in smooth communication and collaboration between remote teams. Zoom and Skype are the most popular voice and video conferencing tools for virtual team meetings. Microsoft Teams and Slack are used in many organizations for instant messaging and organizing channels of communication. Digital agencies can also use virtual whiteboards and project management platforms to make team meetings more interactive and ensure visibility about tasks.

 Best Practices to Manage Distributed Teams for Remote Effectiveness

With the above strategies, you can also rely on some best practices of managing remote team effectively, trusted across several digital agencies:

remote team management tips

1. Ensure smooth onboarding

A survey reveals that organizations with a strong onboarding process improved their new hire retention by 82%. The onboarding experience sets the organization’s tone and approach towards everything and creates an everlasting impression on the talent. Challenges amplify in a remote setup, where everybody is virtually connected and the new hire needs a lot of hand-holding before they familiarize themselves with the workflow.

Manage all the paperwork as quickly as possible and lend a helping hand to the talent if they are facing any issues. The managers should introduce the talent with the larger team to build their rapport and break the ice. It is also important to field the talent’s questions and keep an open channel of communication to build trust, which will help in managing remote teams.

2. Create well-documented procedures

The standard operating procedures (SOP) vary in every agency. From a simple task like requesting leaves, to more responsible ones like dealing with a client’s requirements, there must be certain SOPs in place that set the workflow and eliminate vagueness regarding the next steps. Hence, it is up to the managers to prepare these procedures and populate them across the remote team, so everybody knows the next actionable step without asking around.

3. Regular check-ins with team members

In an on-site opportunity, it is very easy to simply walk to the next desk and check up on a colleague. In a remote scenario, however, managers will not notice if the talent is skipping their lunch or juggling too many tasks at once, proving a challenge to managing a remote team. This is why it is important to check up with the remote team members on a daily or a weekly basis to understand their workload, challenges, and deadlines. You should also inquire about the existing tasks before assigning them something urgent.

Another good practice is to avoid overloading the inbox of other team members. For example, “reply all” is only necessary if the entire group has to be updated. By keeping only relevant stakeholders in a particular conversation you can avoid other members from constantly switching windows to check up on mail which does not even concern them.

And this is how you can ensure full productivity and effective remote team management in a distributed setup. Use the above points as your reference to keep your remote talents motivated and aligned with the agency’s culture.

Remote Team Management Quotes

11 Remote Team Management Quotes Every Remote Leader Must Read

Leave a reply

2020 is the year of ‘unknowns,’ and we have witnessed “The world’s largest work-from-home experiment” this year. According to a survey, 88% of businesses have adopted the remote working approach, and many have extended their hiring efforts to the remote team model. However, there are managers that look at remote team management as more of a challenge than opportunity.

The model offers you the best talent irrespective of your business location and that, too, at a cost-effective price. Yet, some remote leaders doubt the potential of remote teams and aren’t convinced by the idea of leading a one.

Therefore, here are 11 remote team management quotes every remote leader needs to read:

1. Phil Montero, Director, Events and Field Marketing at Model N

“Remote management is not radically different from managing people on-site. The biggest difference is a shift in management style from “eyeball management” (assuming workers are being productive because you physically see them at their desks working) to managing by results.”

2. Seth Godin, Founder of the altMBA

“Outsourcing: It’s not just possible to find someone to make/code/do something for you quickly & cheaply; it is now easy. In addition, the means of production of physical goods and intellectual property is no longer based on geography but is based on talent and efficiency instead.”

3. Jason Fried, Co-founder & CEO of Basecamp

“You’d be amazed how much quality collective thought can be captured using two simple tools: a voice connection and a shared screen.”

Remote Team Meeting

4. Dave Davis, Redfly Marketing

“Rigorously testing the knowledge of a particular individual or team’s task at hand with a remote team in an informal way at the beginning of a project can quite literally save a project.”

5. Richard Branson, Founder at Virgin Group

“We like to give people the freedom to work where they want, safe in the knowledge that they have the drive and expertise to perform excellently, whether they at their desk or in their kitchen. Yours truly has never worked out of an office, and never will.”

Hire Pre-vetted & High Performance Remote Teams

6. Steve Coats

“Remember that we choose to follow leaders based on the way the leaders make us feel. Therefore we’re more likely to follow people who make us feel strong, powerful, valued, etc. Remote associates are no different. You just have to concentrate on ensuring that your remote people feel included, supported and part of a team.”

7. David Coplin, Chief Envisioning Officer at Microsoft UK

“We need to take a more flexible approach to both the workplace and the work we do; one that provides us both the physical and cognitive space to harness the incredible power, insight and experience we offer, but focused not on the individual processes but instead on the overall outcomes our organizations are seeking to achieve.”

8. Bill Gates

“If you’ve got development centers all over the world, you’ve got a sales force out with the customers, the fact that tools like Skype [and] digital collaboration are letting people work better at a distance – that is a wonderful thing.”

9. Alex Turnbull, Founder & CEO of Groove

“Successfully working from home is a skill, just like programming, designing or writing. It takes time and commitment to develop that skill, and the traditional office culture doesn’t give us any reason to do that.”

10. Osman Khan, Co-founder & CEO of Paddle

“In the right roles and with the right people, flex does offer tremendous productivity improvement. It gives people time to process properly. Moreover, it gets them out of the office in terms of being bogged down in day-to-day admin. So there is more thought leadership that comes to the table, and that’s where your creativity and innovation come in.”

11. Meghan M. Biro, Founder & CEO of Talent Culture

“As a proponent of work-life flexibility to recruit and retain talent and an observer of the World of Work, I support the notion of virtual workplaces and the reality of having virtual or remote employees. Not everyone wants to, or can afford to, live in Silicon Valley, Austin, Boston/Cambridge, Chicago, Raleigh-Durham or NYC and around the globe the story is much of the same.”

In Conclusion

There is no denying that remote team management comes with plentiful of responsibilities, and we hope these quotes have ignited some motivation in the readers’ eyes.

Moreover, Uplers has been helping over 7000+ Digital Clients across 52+ Nations hire pre-vetted remote talent and is at the front-line of discovery about the remote-hiring trend. If you require any assistance with managing or building performance-driven remote teams for web development or digital marketing, contact us.

8 Ways Managers are Failing Remote Team Management

8 Ways Managers are Failing Remote Team Management

1 Reply

It’s 2020, and the advantages of hiring remote teams are clear to everyone. You can get the best talent, no matter where they’re located. You can count on higher productivity. And you can meet your targets in a cost-effective manner. Let’s dive and find out how Remote Team Management works.

What business owners feel about remote work:

remote team management - What business owners feel about remote work.

Source.

  • One study showed that the cost of recruiting could be anywhere from 15 to 25% of the employee’s annual salary. With remote work outsourcing, this is not the case.
  • In 2019, the worldwide outsourcing market was worth $92.5 billion. The top reason for outsourcing (59%) is to save money and cut costs.

Yet, many managers aren’t savvy enough in remote team management. There are misconceptions in briefing, feedback, and expectations.

Let’s look at these and how to address them.

Removing the Eight Stumbling Blocks of Remote Team Management

1. Stressing over the Bad Examples of Remote Team Management

Often, managers look at remote working through the lens of full-time employment and misjudge. They wonder if the employee will be as productive, as committed, and available when needed.

Statistics reveal that this is misguided.

  • A recent remote working experiment showed that there was a 13% increased output, with 4% from workers being able to cram in more tasks per minute due to fewer distractions.
  • Globally, there is a renewed emphasis on remote work. In the U.S., there’s a 159% increase in people who are working remotely from 2005 to 2017.

With a culture of dynamic innovation, any company can benefit from remote work, even with a majority of its workforce at a remote location.

2. Hiring Workers, Not Remote Workers

Managers should treat remote workers as a different breed. They’re focused, professional, and have found productive ways to work from home.

Seek out workers who fit into this new paradigm. Align them with the company’s vision. And watch productivity and innovation zoom.

As Alex Turnbull, CEP and Founder of Groove, once said, “Successfully working from home is a skill, just like programming, designing or writing. It takes time and commitment.”

Hire Pre-vetted & High Performance Remote Teams

3. Mixing Up Freelancers and Remote Workers

While many companies depend on freelancers, the drawbacks of such an approach are well-known. Freelancers can be professional, but there are question marks about their long-term commitment.

When you hire remote workers from an established agency, this is not the case.

  • Full-time remote workers understand your business objectives and have a stronger sense of ownership over their work.
  • With freelancers, multitasking is the name of the game. With professional remote employees, on the other hand, there is focus and commitment to your goals.
  • Though remote working can be a home-based job, it involves virtual presence via communication channels like Zoom or Slack. This is very different from a freelance approach.

4. Making Feedback Only One-way

Very often, managers make feedback only about them and their goals. This is understandable, but effective remote team management involves going a step further.

Effective feedback leads to great results:

remote team management - Effective feedback leads to great results

Source.

Actively giving feedback and then asking for feedback from the remote team is a powerful tool. It puts everyone on the same page, irons out alignment issues, and manages expectations.

  • With two-way feedback, you can learn about remote workers, their goals, and challenges. This can help you better manage them.
  • A recent survey showed that more than 1 in 10 of all respondents listed frequent communication as among the most useful ways their company supported their remote work.
  • Remote workers have the advantage of not seeing day-to-day developments on a work project, yet understanding the larger mission goals. This means feedback from them will often provide a fresh point of view.

Also Read: Uplers Guide to Managing Remote Teams – A Sure-shot Win!

5. Ignoring KPIs and Accomplishments

KPIs for remote workers not only establish expectations, but they also help them to stay on track.

  • With digital productivity tools, managers can assign projects and tasks to remote employees. They can access assignments and view priorities.
  • Once KPIs are established, the need for constant oversight and control is lessened. Everyone can do their job with the trust that tasks and goals are being efficiently met.
  • KPIs should be relevant, simple to comprehend, and easy to measure. Both productivity and accountability can be greatly improved by this.

Different companies have different approaches to measuring and tracking tasks. Sam Maley, Head of Growth at Bailey & Associates, says that when tracking the productivity of remote staff, “there is no substitute for real-time screen tracking, either through screenshots or screen recording.”

And Jason Davis, CEO at Inspire 360, has a task system: “the task creator adds in the deliverables and the staff member assigned to the task then estimates the time it will take to complete.”

6. Micro-managing All the Way

It’s only natural that with a remote team, managers want to keep a constant eye on what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and how long they’re going to take.

However, such micro-managing is not only unnecessary but also unproductive. The best way is to strike a balance between supervision and trust.

  • Create a regular communication schedule, whether on the phone, via e-mail, or other tools. This sets up expectations and optimizes productivity.
  • Remember that remote workers are professional, self-motivated, and trained to deliver. Give them a sense of ownership and believe in their abilities.
  • Clear deadlines, as well as feedback on work-in-progress, are essential. This aligns everyone in the same direction.

With these few changes in your management process, you can ensure accountability and efficiency without looking over everyone’s shoulders.

7. Ignoring Remote Team Management Tools

One survey shows that 400 companies with 100,000 employees each cited an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year because of inadequate communication to and between employees.

Luckily, technology has provided several solutions to get the best out of remote teams. Be it communication, time management, or feedback, there’s every reason to use such tools to get the best out of your team.

  • Online chat rooms can be accessible to all team members. These are great platforms for brainstorming, sharing, reviewing, and status reports. They can be private or public, and in real-time or to a schedule.
  • Project management tools are also invaluable. With these, the progress of projects and timelines are available at a glance. Documents and files, to-do lists, and message boards make the experience close to having your team close to you at all times.
  • Other tools, such as those for time management as well as tracking and harvesting data, also lead to breakthroughs in productivity and innovation.

Also Read: Best Project Management Tools To Manage Offshore Remote Teams

8. Not Developing Camaraderie

Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, the online shoe retailer with over $1 billion in sales, stresses fun and friendship as part of his corporate culture. He’s just one of the many managers who has realized the value of camaraderie.

remote team management - Developing camaraderie is a key skill.

Source.

A Gallup poll found that close work friendships boost employee satisfaction by 50%. With remote team management, this quality is as important.

There are several ways for managers to do this.

  • Treat remote workers as people, not just workers. Chat with them about their hopes and dreams. Create togetherness and team spirit before and after work sessions.
  • You could even create informal contests and creative online games with prizes to boost spirits.
  • Trust and respect for each other’s skills and abilities is essential.
  • The best managers also appreciate and reward achievements, usually by publicly acknowledging the individual or team’s contribution.

How organizations can support remote team management

Source.

At Uplers, we’ve been helping companies all over the world work with digital remote teams for almost a decade now. We have rich experience in how to handpick such teams to mesh with your corporate goals and improve productivity without breaking the bank.

To know more about how we can help, do get in touch today.

uplers guide managing remote teams effectively

Uplers Guide to Managing Remote Teams – A Sure-shot Win!

Leave a reply

Many companies, such as Uplers, are 100% operating and managing remote teams.

However, despite the widespread usage of remote working models in the light of the COVID-19 outbreak, there is still not enough insight or resources into how to prepare your remote team for success.

If you are at such a crossroads, we are here to share our experience.

With a massive workforce of over 600 employees, Uplers sets the de facto standard for remote team management. Additionally, Uplers is at the front-line of discovering practical and implementable remote-first hiring trends that have helped 7000+ companies hire and manage a remote team.

We are remote, and we have helped business turn remote.

Our success has set such high standards that we often receive questions on how we have pulled it off. So, here is a look at –

How Uplers made Managing Remote Teams Effortless:

1. Establishing a Company Structure

Establishing a Company Structure

Source

The company structure lays the foundation for workplace culture. For higher success, you need to find a remote employee who is a fit for your organization, and for that, you need a company structure.

Here is how you can develop structure:

  • Determine the nature of governance that you need for managing remote teams. It could be formal, informal, or both.
  • Identify the key leaders to coordinate, inspire, support, and refine the management part.
  • Outline and document a standard remote work policy for business operations.
  • Delegate and distribute monitoring activities to action committees and task forces.
  • Keep the feedback loop open for all inputs from the employees.

To make communication easy and free-flowing, you will have to adopt an informal company structure. However, you also need a formal company structure to back it up and hold your teams accountable. Hence, it’s all about striking the fine balance.

2. Creating a Remote Team Onboarding Process

According to Gallup, only a mere 12% of companies find onboarding important. In contrast, consider the fact that onboarding your remote employees can lead to better outcomes such as increased productivity by 20-25%, along with a 25% drop in turnover rates.

You can onboard your old employees and new hires in a remote environment in the following ways:

  • Share a pre-recorded message or conduct a video conference to offer a warm welcome as part of the new hire welcome kit.
  • Ensure that remote employees have all the necessary equipment to do their job.
  • Start a buddy program and pair up new hires with experienced employees.
  • Communicate the remote work policy to minimize confusion and get everyone on the same page.

Hire Pre-vetted & High Performance Remote Teams

3. Using a Wide Range of Tools

Using a Wide Range of Tools

Source

The demand for tools to manage offshore teams has shot up by a staggering 281%! The message is abundantly clear: you need tools for managing remote teams effectively. Whether you wish to communicate the completion of a task or manage the organizational workflow – tools will help you all the way.

Here is a round-up of all the basic tools critical for a successful remote team management :

  • Slack – Remote team communication
  • Zoom/Skype – Video conferencing and screen sharing
  • Google Drive/DropBox – File sharing, organization, and management
  • Loom – Screen recording
  • Trello – Project management
  • Toggl – Tracking remote team tasks.

Depending on the nature of your business and its process flows, you will need more niche tools including time-tracking software and time management tools to help manage your team.

4. Conducting Regular Online Meetings

You need to communicate and over-communicate at every step of the way. It ensures that everyone knows what is expected of them. Hence, online meetings will play a crucial role in managing remote teams effectively and keeping them on track. The trick is to keep the meetings interactive, straightforward, and frequent.

To make your online meetings more productive, follow these tips:

  • Identify the perfect meeting cadence and stick to it. Typically, conduct all-hands meeting monthly, departmental meetings weekly, and stand-up meetings daily.
  • Prepare an agenda and share it with the participants before the meeting.
  • In case this is the first time attendees are meeting each other, encourage them to introduce themselves.
  • Give everyone a chance to share their inputs and contribute to the meeting.
  • Leave room for casual conversations.
  • Follow up on meetings and communicate the next line of action, the proposed deliverables, etc.

Also Read: In-house Vs Remote Teams: Debunk Hiring Myths

5. Acknowledging High-performing Employees

Acknowledging High-Performing Employees

Source

According to a Gallup survey, not appreciating your employees’ efforts can decrease the engagement levels and spur the attrition rates. Rewarding and appreciating high-performing remote employees will play a pivotal role in remote teams’ success.

The following are some excellent ideas for recognizing the efforts of your remote employee or teams:

  • Celebrate achievements over virtual face-to-face meetings to rekindle the in-office feeling.
  • Distribute gift cards to recognize and appreciate their specific actions.
  • Make the recognition public by sharing it over your company’s intranet, website, or other channels.
  • Timely recognition will motivate employees even more.
  • Offer courses and training as rewards for nurturing the employee or team’s professional growth.

6. Engaging Employees and Collecting Feedback

Rewarding and recognizing your teams or employees is one of the many tricks to keep them engaged. Employee engagement gives your remote team a sense of belonging and purpose, which pushes them to improve their performance. Interestingly, according to The Wall Street Journal, this sense of belonging may even trump the effects of reward programs!

Here are a few secrets for managing highly-engaged remote teams:

  • Communicate, communicate, and communicate. Communication should be at a team level as well as an individual level.
  • Managers must conduct one-on-one meetings with team members, especially if they sense mental health issues or register a dip in their performance.
  • Set clear expectations and communicate the KPIs and deliverables that govern the individual or team’s performance.
  • Celebrate the achievement of goals.
  • Encourage personal or professional development through online learning.
  • Have informal events such as virtual parties, book club meetings, etc.

7. Following a People-first Approach

Remote working already follows a people-first approach. According to MIT’s Quality of Life Survey, remote work delivers the following results:

  • 90% noticed an improvement in family and personal life.
  • 85% believed that it reduced their stress levels.
  • 80% felt more engaged and displayed higher morale.
  • 62% registered greater trust and respect.
  • 93% reported better collaboration and teamwork.

However, managing remote teams also comes with its fair share of pitfalls, which you can overcome by:

  • Indulging in small talk to build rapport and combat isolation or loneliness.
  • Encouraging employees to unplug.
  • Measuring achievement of goals rather than the time put into it.
  • Using videos or video conferencing to improve engagement.
  • Gathering feedback from employees.
  • Using GIFs and animated emojis to communicate.

8. Holding Team-building Activities

Holding Team-Building Activities

Source

Your teams no longer enjoy the convenience of having in-person brainstorming sessions or exchanging gossip by the water cooler. However, that does not mean that it is the end of their social life!

Here are some team-building activities that we use at Uplers:

  • Weekly trivia (related or unrelated to work)
  • Online Pictionary
  • Life Story in 5 minutes
  • Two truths and a lie
  • Throwback pictures
  • Sharing bucket lists
  • Home tours

9. Giving Up on Micromanaging

Finally, and most importantly – avoid the temptation to micromanage.

When your employees know that they enjoy your trust, they will outperform and make remote teams management a piece of cake!

Key Takeaways

In these unprecedented times, remote working is paving the way for success. We, at Uplers, swear by these tried and tested strategies that make offshore team management easy. And now that you know how to manage a remote team effectively, you are on a journey to success! It is all about putting these plans into action.

Ready to fast-track remote hiring with pre-vetted remote professionals? Contact us now!

4 Performance Metrics to Measure Offshore Development Team's Success

4 Performance Metrics to Measure Offshore Development Team’s Success

Leave a reply

Offshoring of different business tasks from accounting to customer service has grown for several years. In recent years, however, IT outsourcing has overtaken business process outsourcing (BPO).

We focus on web and apps development offshoring in this article.

Why Offshoring Is So Popular

 Among the various location-based models of outsourcing, offshoring has consistently surpassed the others. The reasons, as captured through various global surveys, are as follows: 

  • Saves cost considerably
  • Facilitates access to relevant skills and talents
  • Increases business efficiency as the in-house team finds more time to concentrate on core business activities. 

What Are offshore development team partner

Source

There has been enough research by reputed companies like Deloitte,  A T Kearney, etc. to indicate that offshoring your development creates a win-win situation for both the client and the vendor. Provided you have a set of robust parameters to scrutinize your offshore development team’s performance. So, here we present –

4  Must-have Performance Metrics to Measure the Offshore Team’s Success

1. Time Taken for the Development vs. Expected Time of Arrival

Setting a deadline and meeting it is critical for every project. Clients inevitably trust vendors who can deliver on or before time. 

A delay at one level can set off a chain reaction of delays. The failure to deliver on or before time can even lead to the cancellation of a project. 

Working to meet a deadline has several advantages.  

  • Setting a deadline allows planning a project roadmap and prioritizing activities.
  • That, in turn, facilitates allocating human resources accordingly. You can then distribute responsibilities among the members of the project team according to priorities. 
  • Delivering benchmarks as per the timeline is the best way to keep your client happy. That will promote a relationship of trust. 

A 2009 survey had indicated that 58% of the respondents complained of delivery delays by their offshore teams. 

India has emerged and remained the most favored offshore destination for IT-related work for several years now. That is evidence that Indian companies have clearly transcended that problem of delay in delivery. 

That does not anyway reduce the importance of keeping tight control over the project timeline agreed between you and your offshore development team. It is critical to ensure that no time lag happens between the agreed timeline and the delivery of project benchmarks.

hiring dedicated developers

2. The Deliverables vs. The Project Scope

The efficient management of the project scope is imperative. Pretty much everything to do with a project comes within the project scope, as listed below: 

  • Overall project goal and specific objectives
  • The deliverables to match the objectives and the final goal
  • The features and functions that must be there to match the objectives and the goal
  • The project roadmap to achieve the objectives and the goal within the specified timeline
  • Project costs
  • A monitoring mechanism to check that the project is progressing as per the planned timeline
  • Developing a quality assessment mechanism and applying that on a sustained and regular basis
  • Quality assurance 

This last point of quality assurance is particularly critical. A Google survey indicates that 61% of users will not care to try an app for a second time if their first experience isn’t good. Among them, 40% will straightaway start using a competing app. 

When it comes to app development, three other points are also vital from the quality monitoring perspective: 

  • The app must be scalable as per need. To prioritize scalability from the beginning is to reduce costs in the future.
  • An efficient app developer will make the app customizable. 
  • A good app developer will ensure that the administrator can manage the backend without needing to run to the developer for every small thing. 

Weave in these elements within the project scope part of your contract document with your offshore development team. You will be saved from the stress of uncertainties during the execution of the project.

3. The Project Management Approach

Adopt a project management software and insist on all project-related communications to happen on that platform. 

How to Manage Your Offshore Development Team

Source

Organize frequent online meetings with your offshore remote teams on a regular basis. A Monday meeting schedule, for example. 

Setting up a regularized channel of communication is critical to the seamless management of your offshore remote team. You must also have one point person available whenever you need to convey something urgently. The project manager of your offshore development team, for instance. 

These are all important. Without doubt. Just that, they are not enough. Necessary, but not sufficient. 

There’s a cultural issue that you need to keep in focus in the case of managing an offshore remote team. Not language – culture. That well understood but ill-defined concept called culture can cause communication issues with your offshore development team. 

A quarter of the respondents (25%) in a survey involving 305 clients and vendors mentioned communications to be a problem in offshore team management. The respondents were from different parts of the globe: Asia, Europe, and North America.

If the language barrier does not cause a problem, what else could complicate communication? 

We find the concept of the Power Distance Index (PDI) a practical and useful one in this context. The renowned Dutch sociologist Gerard (Geert) Hendrik Hofstede introduced this notion. 

Hofstede simply argues that the distance between a boss and the rest of the employees get perceived differently in varying cultures. The numbers range from 1 to 120. The bigger the number, the greater the perceived distance. 

As a client, you are the “boss” to your offshore management team. If they have a cultural background with a high PDI score, such as in the Asia-Pacific region, they will never ask questions. 

That can cause misunderstandings. However, simple solutions exist: 

  • Communicate to your offshore development team that asking questions is fine. 
  • Ask your offshore team’s project manager to send you an email after every conversation/meeting. You’ll know immediately if there’s been any communication gap.  

Also Read: Top 10 Facts About Offshore Development Centers Across the World

4. Feedback Resolution

When it comes to app development, feedback resolution is as critical as the development process itself. Bugs in the app development process are inevitable and your offshore team will most likely have their own bug management process in place. That’s routine. 

What happens if a bug has somehow escaped the process, and you report it? What happens if a bug gets discovered via user feedback?

You need to consider these four parameters: 

  • Your offshore development team should not take bug fixing/ feedback resolution lightly. The response should be immediate. Not lackadaisical. 
  • The immediacy of the response demonstrates the expertise of your offshore development team. An immediate resolution indicates the team’s professionalism and skills.  
  • An experienced offshore development team will take feedback/bug reports positively and respond fast to resolving the problem. Any attempt at defense signals a lack of experience and/or expertise. 
  • Feedback resolution should not involve any extra costs. 

Are You Happy?

Does your current offshore partner match up to all the details of the four yardsticks? You can relax. You have a great partner. 

If you are frowning because quite a few of these metrics do not apply to your current partner, it is probably time to consider a change. A dedicated development team from Uplers is what you need. 

We match every single detail shared here, and more!

10 Best Remote Team Communication Tips for Efficient Management

Best Remote Team Communication Tips for Effective Team Management

A recent study informs that employee productivity improves by 25% when employees feel connected with their coworkers and the company. Such a connection can happen when a company has a strong and effective remote team communication mechanism in place. 

“Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a ‘nervous system’ to coordinate its actions.” Bill Gates. 

Effective Communication is Key

Effective communication is a soft skill that has a tangible and measurable impact on business success. 

A study involving 195 leaders from 30 organizations across 15 countries rated communication skills as the most important element of business success. That’s from a report published in the Harvard Business Review. 

Remote team communication and management

Source

The scenario doesn’t change when you work with distributed offshore teams. You just need to be innovative in the way you handle communication. 

Top 10 Remote Team Communication Tips to Help You with Effective Team Management

Tip 1. Organize Regular Online Meetings For All The Teams

It is critical to ensure that communication breakdown does not become a staller when you work with offshore distributed teams. Regular and sustained remote team communication is the solution.

Creating a schedule of weekly online meetings with your offshore remote teams is a good practice. 

Prima facie, it seems to be a challenge when teams are in different timezones. However, it is not an insurmountable problem. All it needs is some adjustments on all sides. 

All the parties involved need to be ready to attend meetings beyond so-called regular office hours. It is possible to fix mutually agreeable timings then. 

Suppose you are in the U.S. in an EST zone and one of your remote teams is in India. That’s 10.5 hours of difference in summer and 11.5 in winter. In summer, 9 am EST is 6.30 pm IST. That’s workable, right?

There’s no dearth of tools for online conferencing. Skype continues to be the most popular with 1.33 million users globally in 2017. Utilizing Unified Communication Solutions can significantly bridge the gap, enabling seamless collaboration regardless of geographical differences.

Tip 2. Adopt A Project Management Tool

There are several online remote team management tools to choose from. Jira, Proofhub, Slack, and Trello are some of the popular ones. 

When you work across time zones, the use of these technologies improves remote team communication and team functioning. The important thing, however, is to stick to the platform once you’ve chosen it. 

The proliferating remote working culture is coordinated with some popular remote team communication tools like Skype and Zoom.

Adopt A Project Management Tool

Source

Insist on the use of the platform for all project-related communications. Discourage your remote team project managers from picking up the intercom to instruct their colleagues next door.

Tip 3. Introduce Agile

The Agile approach originally emerged for software development teams to collaborate. However, it has since been adapted for use across diverse businesses.

Lonely Planet, for example, is a renowned publisher of travel books. The company’s legal team has adopted an Agile approach. In 2019, they reported a 25% productivity hike.

The Agile approach is particularly suitable for managing remote teams as the focus is on distributing project deliverables across the project timeline. That facilitates the immediate identification of bottlenecks and time-lags. 

Adopt the part of Agile that suits your project. Do not worry about the processes. 

Tip 4. Share the Vision

“Few, if any, forces in human affairs are as powerful as a shared vision.” That is what celebrated Systems Scientist Professor Peter Senge says. 

When working on managing remote teams effectively, getting the team on board about the project deliverables is critical. Sharing the larger vision is what works best, experts say.

Share the Vision

Source

Tip 5. Connect Each Team Leader With One In-house Team Person

Depending on the number of remote teams you have, make one in-house person connect with the team leaders/ project managers of one, two, or three teams. 

Let your offshore team leader know that X is the person to approach with all the questions, and for all clarifications. Inform your in-house team members that they are responsible for the overall performance of the team/s they are in charge of. 

Foster a buddy culture between the two team leads – offshore and in-house. 

The typical application of the buddy system is for the onboarding of new employees. However, it is a structured approach flexible enough to be adapted for longer-term use. 

Read more about the buddy system here. 

 

Managed Offshore Teams

Tip 6. Be Culture-sensitive

To be culture-sensitive is to recognize, acknowledge, and respect the diversity of cultures. When you work with offshore remote teams, it is of paramount importance to be aware of cultural differences. 

The key is to ask polite questions, inform experts, when you don’t understand something. That minimizes the chances of misunderstandings resulting from cultural variations and makes remote team communication effective.

Tip 7. Clarify That Asking Questions Is Fine

This is a cultural issue particularly applicable to the Asia-Pacific region. Asking questions, especially to people considered senior or superior, is considered a mark of immodesty. 

In case you have offshore distributed teams in countries in this region, it is critical to clearly state that asking questions for clarification is alright. 

It is also a good practice to state it clearly to all your remote teams, wherever they are. 

This is an area where the buddy program works especially well. That helps reduce the inhibitions people might have about raising questions. They feel easier to pose those questions to the buddy they have in your company.  

Tip 8. Be Inclusive In Your Approach

“You have to be run by ideas, not hierarchy.” That’s what Steve Jobs said in his last interview in 2010 during All Things Digital’s D8 Conference. He died next year. 

Be inclusive in dealing with your offshore distributed teams. Discourage hierarchy in your teams and do not practice it yourself. You will get greater productivity.  

Not to be hierarchical is not to lose authority. It has more to do with working together with a team on the basis of a shared vision. 

If you are openly trusting and inclusive in your approach, you won’t have to watch over your teams. They will deliver.

Tip 9. Treat Offshore Teams Like Partners

If you actually practise everything we have been saying so far, this will happen naturally. 

Working together is a partnership that extends beyond the client-vendor relationship. Remember the costs that your distributed teams save you and the value additions they bring. 

That will help you treat them as long-term business partners, rather than as short-term suppliers of some services. Moreover, the partnership approach adds for effective and transparent remote team communication. 

Tip 10. Do Not Micromanage

Provide oversight and guidance by all means. Set up monitoring systems to ensure that things are on track. Utilize your remote team management tool optimally for that. 

But resist the temptation to micromanage when effectively managing remote employees. If you allow your teams to function in their own styles, the chances of project success are considerably higher. 

Do Not Micromanage

Source

Remember that micromanaging remote teams is also a waste of time for you.

Fine Print

What we have presented here doesn’t contain euphemisms from management textbooks or blogs. We have based our research on interviews by business icons like Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs. On publications by eminent scientists and academics like Peter Senge.

And on employee reviews of Google, ranked the best employer in the world for the second consecutive year by Reputation Institute’s 2019 Global Workplace 100 study. 

These are all real-life doable tips. Follow them to manage your offshore distributed teams effectively.

Inhouse team vs remote team vs dedicated team1

In-house Team Vs Remote Team Vs Dedicated Team Model: Which Is The Best Choice?

The changing landscape of IT outsourcing has revolutionized the way businesses operate. The vital need to find a quintessential alternative to the in-house resources has given rise to offshore teams. In 2019, the global market size of IT services offshoring amounted approximately $92.5 billion. Furthermore, there is a momentous growth recorded in the digital offshoring value every year. But, does it mean a step back for the in-house team?

main reasons to it outsourcing disadvantages and advantages

Source

The business arena hints transition from the regular in-house vs outsourcing game. The Remote Team model and the Dedicated Team model are other promising contenders to keep an eye on.

The fleeting growth of IT services offshoring market from $45.6 billion in 2000 to $92.5 billion in 2019 is evidence of the fact that businesses are ready to leverage the alternatives to the in-house team model. But, does that mean that remote and dedicated teams are better options than the in-house team model? Let’s open the book of facts & reasons.

Download: Guide to Hiring Top Indian Remote Talent

The main sections of the article include:

1. In-house Team Model

2. Remote Team Model

3. Dedicated Team Model

4. In-house Team Vs Remote Team Vs Dedicated Team: Comparison Table (Exclusive)

In-house Team Vs Remote Team Vs Dedicated Team Model: What to Choose?

In-house Team

What is In-house Team Model?

This model simply means utilising your in-house team for your projects. This is the most common model as it offers the CEOs maximum trust. A team that shares your vision and business goals. There is no better challenger in this game if your in-house team has the right skill-set.

Best Fits For?

‘All business types’ – Simple as it may sound, be it start-ups or large enterprises, every business type can have their best bet on their in-house team unless the team fails to deliver the right expertise and meet the company’s desired efficiency. In that case, in-house vs outsourcing comes into light.

Successful IT leaders, PayPal, Salesforce and Amazon depend on their in-house team for their development solutions. But, we have a list of pros & cons below to analyze which is better outsourcing or inhouse.

benefits of outsourcing over problems with inhouse team

Source

Pros of In-house Team Model

  • Intellectual Property is Sheltered

Every business has its individual business processes, client data and intellectual property that if leaked is likely to cause the business a loss in its reputation, revenue, or client base. That is where a business can confidently depend on its in-house team. Amazon leverages its in-house team for most of the development tasks to protect its development secrets.

  • Building Skills and Constructing Transferable Standards

Every business invests time, efforts and a certain amount of revenue in training its in-house staff for the right skillset. These skills are transferable in-house and can be utilized to build functional standards across the company. These standards can be followed by a new set of employees and the company saves on the training cost of new employees.

  • Seamless Coordination and Efficient Management

The efficiency of face-to-face communication and seamlessly assisted operations cannot be compared with any other digital communication standards. The in-house team gives managers the right platform to polish their management skills, draw great productivity and offer quality solutions. Conversely, remote team management has been a challenge for businesses. And PayPal extensively depends on its in-house team to offer the most superior quality solutions and products across the globe.

  • Encouraging Personal Participation and Profound Team Ethics

Other than the sense of accountability, there is always a sense of pride when working on your company’s project yourself. This develops a sense of loyalty, as employees feel more involved and influential with the project. The feeling gives rise to superior work ethics and team spirit.

  • Better Accountability and Planned Budgeting

‘Accountability’, certainly the first concern that shoots up the brain of every business owner when he considers drawing a line between in-house vs outsourcing. It goes without saying that the in-house team model offers better reliability than the remote or dedicated model. Furthermore, the business owner has a say in the salary of his/her in-house resources and can efficiently plan long-term budgeting.

Peter Drucker

Cons of In-house Team Model

  • Long-term Overhead Costs

Every business is liable to prepare payroll for its in-house employees. The in-house team model generally offers long-term employment and the business is responsible to pay for its employees’ health insurance, extra-time benefits, meal and travel expenses, etc. Moreover, the added infrastructure cost and employee retention cost, add up to the investment.

  • Lacking the Right Expertise

Certain geographies face a scarcity of the right talent when it comes to certain skilled business operations. Furthermore, most businesses excel in a single niche, which fades the versatility. This leaves businesses with the obvious option of offshoring. 83 Percent of recruiters have to invest an extensive deal of efforts in sourcing the right talent in-house.

 

  • Scalability Requires Much More Time & Effort

Hiring the right talent in-house for a long-term basis requires extensive efforts and time from the recruitment team. The process can extend from weeks to months and doesn’t meet your urgent scalability goals.

  • Paying Way Too Much

In tier 1 countries including the US, UK, and Australia, the cost of hiring skilled digital resources is way much higher than tier 2 and tier 3 countries. This may be due to the scarcity of the right talent or the high economy of tier 1 countries.

Remote Team Model

What is the Remote Team Model?

A remote team model is defined as a type of outsourcing in which businesses hire several remote resources to build a distributed or remote team. So here, these are skilled resources with great expertise, and available at affordable costs. They work remotely and are dedicated to a client or business on a long-term contract basis.

Also Read: Exclusive Research on Why Remote Working is the Future of IT Industry

Best Fits For?

The model is preferred by clients who have a well-analysed project scope and progress with a clear vision of investment. Other than the cost benefits, the remote work model renders a well-proportioned list of benefits for a business.

remote team vs dedicated team statistics

Source

Pros of Remote Team Model

  • Increased Productivity

A remote team can increase work productivity by as much as 13% as compared to the in-house team. 2/3 of employers, report some increase in the productivity from their remote team as compared to the in-house team.

  • Negligible to No Upfront Cost for CAPEX

“Office space is not cheap and start-ups need to find ways to save money, especially in the early days,” says Savage of GoShare. Costs like office furniture, electricity, business-level internet and other infrastructure facilities can be saved when opting for a remote team.

  • Access to a Large Pool of Resources

Employers who invest in building remote teams are open to hiring talent from around the world. Owing to the scarcity of the right talent in a specific location, businesses prefer to opt for the remote work model. As the Gartner survey reports, 22% of the CIOs are unable to find the right skillset in-house.

  • Finding the Right Expertise at the Best Price

When seeking for talent to join the remote team, employers look for candidates independent of their location. This allows employers to hire resources from tier 2 and tier 3 countries, allowing them to leverage the lower resource cost benefits as compared to tier 1 countries like the US, UK and Europe.

  • Reduced Overhead Expenses Per Employee

A survey of 2018 reports, an estimated $5 billion in the upfront cost for U.S. companies who hired remote teams (part-time and full-time). With the remote team model, an employer is not bound to bear the cost of health insurance, extra-time benefits, meal and travel expenses, etc. for its employees. Cost remains an important parameter in in-house vs outsourcing decisions.

inhouse vs remote vs dedicated team model remote pros and cons

Source

Cons of Remote Team:

  • On-on-one Communication and Remote Team Management Becomes Tangled

The digital communication channels including phone, email, chat or video calls, cannot replace the efficiency of face-to-face communication. As a manager, it is hard for business owners to analyze the capabilities and managing remote workers. They need to push greater efforts in skill development and creating the right coordination among the member in the remote team.

  • Scaling Isn’t as Easy as It Seems

Though remote team model, grants access to a large talent pool, finding the right workers to be added to your remote team remains a crucial challenge. The associated concerns include data security, time-zone management and reliability.

  • A Cross-culture Gap Is Evident

Remote workers from different geographies, different time-zones and with no direct connection with the in-house team display a cross-culture gap. This can make remote team management a tough peak. However, start-up culture is more about shared values and goals.

  • Risks Associated to Project Failure

Remote workers are generally self-employed experts who aren’t answerable to a parent agency and work on a contract basis with clients as full-time or part-time resources. Though these experts have a significant level of expertise and a reliable work portfolio, the risks associated to delay in timelines and project failure are higher.

Dedicated Team Model

What is the Dedicated Team Model?

As the name resembles, the ‘dedicated team model’ is about building a team of dedicated resources with the help of a specialised resource agency. This model of outsourcing is leveraged by large & long-term business projects. A perfectly-structured dedicated team is a good harmony of great skills, accountability, authoritative management and affordable costs. The model is constructive for clients having defined project-scope and business goals.

There is a list of pros and cons related to the dedicated team model, which are discussed below in the article.

 

New call-to-action

Best Fits For?

Dedicated team model is the right choice for constant workload projects where the dedicated team is liable to serve a client in the same sense as his in-house team. It can help startups to cut down on the upfront costs of building a skilled team and help large businesses with their team expansion goals.

dedicated team to remote team comparison

Pro’s of Dedicated Team Model

  • Team Dedicated to Your Goals & Processes

Unlike a shared resource team, a dedicated team functions as a team of experts working full-time on your projects. You as a business owner can manage your team independently and align them according to your project and business goals. Some resource agencies grant businesses access to train their dedicated team at their premises and align them according to their processes and time-zones.

  • Manage Team Structure and Scale On-demand

Large enterprises often prefer to choose the dedicated team model to meet their staff augmentation goals. Hiring a dedicated team from a specialized resource agency avails a business the capability to manage their team structure. The business owners can make quick calls about new additions to the team. Unlike managing remote workers, a dedicated team is more synchronized and the outsourcing vendor is liable to help you manage the team seamlessly.

  • Build Team for Long-term Goals

A dedicated team serves the best for long-term projects and the same team working on a prolonged project avoids the hassle related to resource transition. Skills and standards developed across your dedicated team are transferrable and helps you in the long term.

  • No CAPEX and Overhead Costs

Equivalent to the remote team model, the dedicated model helps save business owners from the CAPEX cost, including infrastructure setup, furniture cost, electricity and business level-internet. 44% of US businesses choose offshore development to reduce costs. Clients also save on overhead costs like healthcare insurance, free-time benefits, and meal expenses.

  • Increase in Productivity

The Harvard Business Review claims that businesses experience a 10% increase in the average productivity from the dedicated development team model, without surpassing the budget. Moreover, businesses have access to a larger resource pool across the globe.

Also Read: Myths Associated with Hiring a Dedicated Web Development Team

Cons of Dedicated Team Model

  • Cross-culture Gap

Though a dedicated team works in close coordination with the hiring manager at the client-side, it gets a narrow perspective about the company’s values and goals. This creates a cross-culture gap, which is likely to fade over time.

  • Not Fit for Short-term Projects

Dedicated team model doesn’t fit right for short-term projects. Hiring a dedicated team for a short-term project (less than 2 months) may result in investing more time and finances as compared to the fixed time mode of outsourcing.

A Comparison Graph between Dedicated Team, Remote Team and In-house Team Model

Dedicated team vs remote team vs inhouse team

Summing Up

The Upwork projection states that by 2028, 73% of all teams worldwide will utilise the remote team model. Another parameter that puts the dedicated team model above the other models of outsourcing is that it combines the benefits of an in-house team model with the remote team model. However, there couldn’t be a better bet than the in-house team model, if your resources have the right skill-set and deliver the desired returns on investment. A business needs to scrutinize its goals and capabilities well before making a choice!