As more and more businesses start warming up to new ways of working, remote teams are becoming widespread. Needless to say, hiring remote teams is one of the best business decisions a leader can take today to keep pace with the changing corporate world.
However, establishing remote teams also presents some peculiar difficulties. To ensure that you hire talented workers, engage extensively in their training, and actively seek to boost their morale, you must plan smartly.
So, what does it take to build a productive remote team? Broadly, employers may ensure the following to build a productive remote working setup:
A proven and effective hiring process
Open communication channels
Productivity-boosting incentives
A mechanism to measure and monitor progress
Hiring the right employees
When you plan to hire remote employees, often the recruitment process will likely be remote as well. So you’ll need to adopt a different strategy than you would for employing regular employees. First of all, since your employees will be working alone for the majority of the day, recruiting self-motivated individuals is a wonderful skill set to look for. You can also look for employees who have already worked in a remote setup and are comfortable working and collaborating with remote teams.
It often also becomes important for the business to hire individuals that don’t require to be trained extensively and can demonstrate proven expertise in the field for which they are being employed. Employers can test candidates by asking open-ended as well as specific questions to test both their attitude as well as aptitude.
Time-zone of your employees is another point to factor in. If you need to have in-person team meetings, target your geographical locations accordingly. On the other hand, if you’re looking to expand your team in a way that your business stays active 24×7, you can look at locations in time zones complementary to yours- this can also be based on where your client is located.
For instance, we hire the right people to fulfil your business needs at the right time. Send us the tech team brief, and based on your requirements, our team will recommend the most suitable profiles. Once we receive a favourable response, our staff will present the profiles most compatible with the role.
Deciding your hiring model structure
One of the numerous benefits of remote hiring is to be able to choose staff members according to a project. You can choose to hire part-time employees, freelancers, full-time employees or mix and match in a contract-based setup.
Decide the perks and benefits you wish to offer while also freezing the pay structure, schedule and modes. You can always take external assistance to help you manage the entire human resource planning for remote work.
Based on the skills you need, the number of employees needed, and the length of the project, iView labs may assist you in finding the ideal tech team, and we’ll take care of the rest.
Getting the tools right
Your business can employ a variety of remote work tools, in addition to MS Teams, Slack, and Zoom, to make these alternate work arrangements successful. For an added layer of security, you can also get dedicated white-labelled solutions customized for your business.
To make remote-work easier, employers must also make sure that necessary tools, such as project management, time monitoring, and communication, are available to employees. Also, set sprint meetings to check on daily, weekly, monthly progress as and when required- having a SCRUM master could be quite effective in this case.
And while you pick the right tools from those available in the market, also ensure you don’t overwhelm your employees with too many of these products. Security and privacy issues must also be taken care of with due diligence. The tools should work in assisting employees make their tasks easier and should not serve as an obstacle to speed and productivity.
Maintaining high engagement levels
Remote employees are more prone to feeling isolated from the rest of the organisation. The impact of this issue on the business may be significantly greater if the entire team works remotely. Disconnected feelings can impact productivity and can lead to higher attrition rates, consequently impacting both top and bottom line.
As a result, a business needs to invest in the right processes for engagement. Additionally managers, and human resources can take proactive measures to guarantee that workers are actively engaged, such as:
Holding team meetings weekly or bi-weekly;
Check-in with each employee one-on-one, especially those who live alone;
Participating in enjoyable activities such as virtual games, quizzes or anything else that may foster a sense of teamwork.
Rewarding milestones or sending a written note of appreciation to employees.
A system to monitor and track progress
As previously stated, implementing tracking tools is one method of holding employees accountable for respecting workplace standards. Building an integrated app that allows you to assign as well as track work can go a long way in building the right remote working culture. It should be easy for the higher as well as middle management to visualize progress towards a goal, set milestones and assess team and individual performance. This will lead to a streamlined and transparent way of working with business leaders feeling in control even when the organisation is scattered across geographies.
If you are looking for a Technology Talent partner, we at iView Labs will be happy to help. Just fill in this easy form to get in touch with us with your queries and needs. You can also write to us at info@iviewlabs.com and sales@iviewlabs.com.