Creating a global village
The concept is not a very new, it does exist for many years. Main reason why it is not a common way of working is that many companies preferred to have their employees working from their offices where they can see them. The Digital Transformation process was not started or it was postponed over and over again. Nobody had to pay attention to this in an urgent way since the employees were at the office, we were able to fly whenever we wanted etc. Since the outbreak of Covid-19 things changed rapidly and companies who reacted to this change at the same pace won!
Suddenly it didn’t matter anymore where you are located. You can work from home, 10 km from the office, or in another building 3.000 km away as long as your infrastructure is in place and you have your processes right. This means you have to have two basics in place: Infrastructure and process.
The most important topics you need to pay attention to when setting up and working with remote teams are described below.
1. Location
Where do you want to start? Locations is important for a couple of reasons; culture, cost of living, popular vs. impopular city, job hopping, salary expectations, time-zone.
When selecting a location you need to evaluate all these points and decide what is most important to you. You can get developers for a very good salary, but they might be in time-zone that they are working while you are sleeping. Is this an issue? or not? You can select a city where yo can find many good resources, then you will not be the only one and in no time you can loose your new hires. Are you going to hire seniors only or will you consider juniors too? How do you do that?
Think very carefully about all these topics before considering a location. Make a good plan on how to avoid all these issues. Each location has it own legal challenges, from starting an office/new branch/company to employment regulations. Each locations has it’s cost of living and how people work. Also check the local IT developments, this will give you an impression of the level of experience at each location.
To give an example in Turkey the official work week is 45 hours in stead of 40 hours in the Netherlands. You can use this in your benefit.
Tip: If you decide to start at a location where many resources can be found and you would like to keep them, you can pay them a bit more than average. This will not have an impact on your budget but they will be loyal to you and they will not have the urge to go for another employer for more salary since they make more then average and feel valued.
At each location beware of cultural differences, you will have this challenge even when you just cross the border and go to Belgium from The Netherlands.
2. Employee (what to look for when hiring)
Now you have a location in mind the next step is to recruit new people to help you. Two important things you need to take into account next to experience is the level of English (assuming that this will be your main communication language) and the level of self-starting capabilities.
When you consider setting up remote teams one of the reason is to reduce cost. But you also need to keep the quality high. When you are hiring a team, hire one very experienced, senior level developer. Pay him/her well, you don’t have to make money from this resource. Next to this resource you will hire 3 to 4 junior resources who will be managed and mentored by this person where the margins are better.
3. Management
The leader needs to get three key messages across:
- Who we are
- What we do
- I’m there for you!!!
This is the most important part of remote teams since the members are at different locations. How do your manage them, how do you motivate them, how do you build trust?
Do what you expect from your team. Do you expect them to call you for updates, call them, do you want them to do video calls with each other, do video calls with them.
Never assume anything! Ask questions, make sure you are on the same page. When someone in The Netherlands says when they will get it done, they are saying that they will do it, but this can mean in another country that they will do their best. No guarantees!
You have to manage your team by results and let them free. That’s why it is important to hire self starters even if their experience is less then an other candidate. You have to trust them to deliver and they will. You can do a daily check-in to see if they need any help or a weekly check-in/review depending on the project.
Another way to create trust is to appreciate them. Show them your appreciation, you cannot see all your team members together so make sure that all your team members acknowledge this. Show empathy, different location will have different issues.
Every meeting, which should be a video call, give your team members 5 to 10 minutes time for a (watercooler) social chat, initiate this yourself. This will create a stronger relationship between them. It is also good to have a bi-weekly social video call between the team member. By using video calls everyone checking-in should use their own device even if they are in the same location. This will create a equal situation between all the team members and they will feel valued the same way. Give each member time to speak and start with the ones who talk less during the meetings, make them feel comfortable.
Make sure that everybody knows who is responsible for what, leave no room for confusion by having the person confirm what you asked or said. Since everyone is at a different locations it is key to have them meet each other in real life every 6 or 12 months.
4. Tools and Way of Working (documentation)
When onboarding set specific goals and expectations. Tell them how you meet online, that you expect them to check-in every, let’s say morning. Invite everyone to events and meetings. They will be aware of what is going on within the organisation and make them feel part of it.
Be flexible and give flexibility to your team. Keep track of the goals and not the hours worked. It is possible that the goals are not reached, check why this happened and look for solutions. Always give feedback and show your appreciation.
During meetings when you have time difference, take this into account. 10am for your will mean something else to your team elsewhere of the world. Your energy levels will be high since it is morning for you, but for your team it can mean that it is 8pm and the energy is low after a long day of working or 6am they had get up at 5am to join the meeting.
Have a good meeting etiquette, make sure everyone is present and not doing something else next to the meeting. Make sure phones are put away and nobody is typing mail.
5. Finishing projects
When you finish a project, make time to evaluate it detail. What went well during the project and what can be improved. Be open en let everyone speak their mind. Give the example yourself.And celebrate successes with your team!
