Work's future is now here, so it's now remote. By embracing the potential of effectively managing remote teams, businesses can unlock the secrets to growth: unprecedented productivity levels, attracting top talent, and achieving success in our evolving business landscape.
However, a unique challenge is to hire remote software developers and requires an entirely new perspective on the role of leadership and collaboration.
In the absence of traditional workplaces, managers have to adjust their management style to promote connection, trust, and involvement in a virtual space. This requires an embrace of technology and efficient communication. Overall, remote management is more easily done than said.
We've shared our top tips to efficiently Hire Remote Developers. We hope to give you the skills and understanding to master the complexities of managing remote teams and take advantage of the opportunities ahead.
What does a Remote Team Mean?
Remote teams are organizations of employees who telecommute from different places across different countries, cities, or even entire continents. Although remote teams have existed for quite a while, they began to become more prominent once digital work tools, applications, and ecosystems came into existence. Nowadays, a large portion of the workforce worldwide is composed of remote groups. This is particularly true for companies working in the field of information.
Some time ago, companies began slowly implementing digitization. By utilizing cloud computing and flexible systems already in place, they're capable of adapting quickly to today's shift inadvertently to remote work arrangements.
When it comes to providing opportunities to work remotely, famous companies like Shopify and Twitter are leading the way. Others are following in their footsteps due to the benefits online workplaces can provide. The benefits for employees include greater convenience regarding the time they travel and the flexibility of working hours. For companies, there's a possibility of reducing costs such as leasing and hiring.
Hire dedicated remote developers can provide a myriad of benefits to enterprises and employees. If your transition towards digitalization is still just beginning, you will likely face many difficulties. Even with the latest technology at your fingertips, your group and you will have to overcome challenges with the changing processes and procedures that come with remote work.
When employees adapt to a new working environment, their efficiency and productivity may decline. They will need crucial skills in remote work and adapt to different workplace platforms. They also need to adapt to new ways of collaboration and communication. Furthermore, the line between personal and work gets blurred, creating stress.
Managing new remote employees presents a considerable challenge. However, if handled correctly, Hire Remote Developers who are just as productive and efficient as their office counterparts.
Read About: Top Skills Should Know When Hire Remote Developers
Best Practices for Remote Employee Management
The two major issues of managing remote employees are evident; let's jump right into the best practices that can help you overcome the difficulties.
Prioritize Visibility and Transparency
If you can't go down the hall to inquire about a colleague's details, it's even more important to make them visible through digital tools.
Better visibility comes partly from the experiences of agile teams in software development. It helps individuals perform more independently as they are equipped with the information they need to make choices. Employees who have better visibility feel more confident about their work and are able to do more.
In contrast, when teams working remotely face information silos, the costs could quickly increase when team members struggle to access the information they require to function. If team members cannot access the information they need and cannot pivot and change to change, they can end up wasting time and resources.
In this manner, transparency and visibility affect the actual functioning of remote teams and their culture.
Avoid Micromanaging
The command-and-control method could be a remnant of 20th-century factory-inspired managerial theory. However, it's still in use and well in numerous organizations today. The micromanagement this creates can be detrimental to remote teams, as employees are compelled to switch contexts more frequently and feel an absence of autonomy.
In remote locations, it is possible for people to be waiting to be told what to do next. If managers aren't able to physically observe the people who are waiting for instructions, many people will waste their time.
Micromanaging is also a poor management approach and is less effective when carried out remotely. Some managers depend on monitoring software, but it usually causes more damage than good. In the end, managers always spend resources on micromanaging, but they aren't devoted to encouraging and motivating employees to be more productive.
Understand Your Stakeholders
This is among the difficulties in managing remote employees and employees who aren't remote simultaneously. However, a clear understanding of your stakeholders and what they want is the foundation for tackling many of the other issues listed.
One of your key stakeholders as a manager should include your staff members. Inattention to the needs of remote workers can be a recipe for disaster. To do this, you must go beyond just thinking about them and incorporate these into the planning process using feedback to iterate and enhance over time.
Enable and Empower
Over the last few decades, that type of control and command leadership has been gradually replaced by servant leadership. This is based on the notion that team leaders' job is to help and empower, believing that if they are provided with the appropriate tools and knowledge, the team members are able to do their job.
This is especially important to hire skilled remote developers as the absence of an office may allow you to quickly disconnect from work because you need the right tools, authority, or confidence to finish the task.
Therefore, avoid the temptation to control and supervise your team members. Instead, concentrate on giving those in your group the equipment they require and the freedom to discover the most efficient way to use these tools. This creates a sense of accountability and autonomy that is essential for the success of remote teams.
Prioritize More Effectively
The ability to empower and manage remote workers relies on prioritizing. Suppose everyone knows which priorities should be followed by some visualization tool. In that case, everyone in the team can adjust and shift their focus if they encounter obstructions.
This results in better team members who spend less time waiting around to hear the next priority and a more unified culture of trust and autonomy. However, aside from clearly and quickly understanding what priorities are being set, there's also the problem of deciding what those priorities ought to be initially.
Prioritization can be accomplished via stack ranking MoSCoW or prioritization poker. However, the most important thing more than any particular system you employ is having an organized system that you have in the beginning. Clearly and thoughtfully defining the way you rank your priorities and the factors that drive those decisions (ideally providing value to your customers) is what results in an effective system of prioritization that can be helpful while you hire experienced remote developer.
Ensure Your Estimation Is Accurate
While prioritization and estimation may be considered two distinct best practices in remote work, they are inextricably linked. Effective prioritization is not possible without a precise estimation of the quantity of work that will be needed.
Remember that, regardless of whether you're overseeing remote or in-office employees, humans could be more proficient at estimating how much work an undertaking will take. To overcome that issue, you need to adopt an approach that is more organized and will help reduce human apprehension.
A highly effective strategy is playing a game known as planning poker, which has been shown to increase estimation in scientific research significantly. Like prioritization, what is most important is not the specific method or tool you employ but the time you spend developing over time.
Build Trust by Leading by Empathy.
Leading by example is one of the most effective methods to create an efficient culture when managing remote teams. Modeling the behavior you wish to see in your team members by modeling yourself will always make more sense than investing in more training.
By empathizing with team members, paying attention to their concerns, and addressing them with a serious attitude, you can develop the type of psychological security that efficient teams are built on. This sense of security allows people to be more open with suggestions for improvement or processes that must be modified and, more generally, provides information managers can utilize to complete their jobs more efficiently.
When employees face difficulties, instead of looking for blame or consequences, try to find the root of the issue that caused them and then figure out the best way to make adjustments to prevent them from happening again. In the end, if an employee fails to do something because they don't have the capabilities, knowledge, or authority to perform the job correctly, blaming them will not make any difference.
Ensure Policies and Processes Are Clear
One of the major problems with managing remote employees is encouraging efficient autonomy and effectiveness. One of the most important aspects to ensure this happens is making sure that guidelines and processes are clearly defined for everyone. This helps avoid the issue to hire skilled remote software developers and not knowing what they should do or having to wait for clarifications regarding the next steps.
The best way to do this is to ensure the information is readily available. This could take the form of a corporate website that includes all pertinent rules and regulations or employing some of the software that helps manage remote employees, which allows you to quickly list out actions within a task-management system.
It's not easy to complete in one go. You must regularly collect feedback from the team to identify areas where there could be an absence of clarity that is disrupting work.
Don't Forget About Face-to-Face Meetings
Studies after studies have shown that face-to-face interactions result in greater relationships and better communication. However, when teams work remotely, especially with different time zones, it's easy to forgo face-to-face meetings in favor of email or asynchronous updates, such as Slack.
While everything doesn't have to be a Zoom call, tools for face-time like this can be crucial in creating the team culture and helping individuals better understand their coworkers.
Think about strategic ways to make the most of everyone's time, not put them under too much pressure with meetings, and still ensure that enough meetings take place. This could be done through daily standups or spending an hour per week talking with everyone privately on a phone call.
Get Feedback Regularly
Although this topic was previously mentioned, it's crucial in managing remote employees and warrants more detail. It's not uncommon for remote workers to feel disconnected from their team. A remote team can easily ignore feedback that can be quickly delivered in a regular office.
Remote managers must be vigilant in requesting feedback. This could be done through an event like a retrospective or regular one-on-ones. Keep in mind that not everyone is at ease sharing their details in a more open situation like an all-hands meeting or retrospective. It's, therefore, important to provide other ways of sharing feedback.
Invest in Better Onboarding
Hire Remote Developers who require a distinctive method for onboarding that will ensure their success. If you're lucky, you've invested significantly in creating an environment conducive to remote work. However, poor onboarding could cause a gradual erosion of the culture by not integrating new employees into the. So what can you do?
Begin by identifying mentors who will be in close contact with new hires so they don't feel isolated and lonely as they settle in. It's important to note that this should not be a manager, but an individual who can offer real-world advice on the kind of expectations that the new employee will be expecting.
In the next step, ensure the new employee gets plenty of informal and formal opportunities to meet their new colleagues throughout the initial days and weeks. This helps them understand their colleagues and makes them genuinely aware of the culture they will be entering.
Also, be clear about everything from expectations to procedures. Note what aspects of your working procedures are informal or unspoken, and ensure these can be clearly explained. It could be an excellent occasion to seek feedback from an outsider on these processes to determine what may be unclear or needs improvement.
Also Read: Complete Process of How to Hire Remote Developers in 2024
Benefits of Having a Successful Remote Team
When we think about the advantages remote-based management can bring, your broader reach to source the best talent outside your area might be the first thing that comes to mind.
However, if your team members are working remotely (or you're considering offering new positions to remote team members), you may be wondering if it's worth it.
The answer is "yes."
As more companies opt to work remotely, data coming into the system shows several significant advantages for managers. Here are some of them:
You could draw top talent from all over the world.
While you're limited to those in your area of demographics of traditional workplaces, you can reach a wider audience using remote work.
However, the perks of remote work aren't only about potential employees' locations. According to the Buffer 2022 State of Remote Work, nearly 97% of workers would like to work remotely a portion of the time and would recommend it to other people.
In addition, remote work is considered an incentive in itself. When polled, 77% of respondents said that remote work was the second most important incentive and benefit.
Remote work saves lots of time and costs for organizations.
A typical company can save around $11,000 per year in overhead expenses for each team member who works from home instead of an office.
Also, you'll save on the cost of turnover, given that an average of 44% employees know someone who's left (or intends to quit) an employment position due to the absence of remote working options, and 79% of respondents claimed they would feel more committed to their employer in the event of remote work.
Certain employees were so excited about remote work that they were willing to accept pay cuts of up to 20% and even forfeit their vacation time if they could work from home.
Forms a Flexible Work Schedule for Team Members
We've previously discussed how team members prefer flexible schedules due to the improved work-life balance and lower commuting expenses. However, employers sometimes don't realize the benefits they can gain when they embrace flexible work.
Flexible work can be a desirable method of retaining and recruiting. As employees move through different phases of their lives, they may require some flexibility to stay at the top of their game. Flex work is a great way to do that.
Flexible working hours are also linked to less stress and increased engagement in employees' well-being, productivity, and stress. This can benefit businesses through increased productivity, less absenteeism, and reduced healthcare costs.
If you own an office in a physical location, multiple staff working from different hours means less demand on office space and other equipment, which can further reduce the cost of your overheads.
Flexible work schedules can also bring financial benefits, such as allowing more part-time workers or witnessing the results of working more efficiently.
Remote Teams are More Productive and Efficient
Although the majority of data about the productivity of remote teams is self-reported, the figures provide a clear picture: hire dedicated remote developers who believe they're becoming more efficient and productive.
In a recent Stanford University professor's survey, Nicholas Bloom discovered that 9 percent of remote workers said they were more efficient when they worked from home than at work. When the survey was conducted in summer 2022, this number was less than five percent.
According to FlexJob's research, nearly 96% of the respondents claimed they'd be as or more productive when working from home than they would be in the traditional office.
One caveat? The ability to increase efficiency and productivity for a remote workforce depends on having the appropriate infrastructure and procedures put in place, including project management software or simple-to-read remote work guidelines.
Read Also: Where and How To Hire Software Developers for Remote Work on US Projects in 2024
Conclusion
While you hire experienced remote software developers, it is a thrilling experience with exciting opportunities and challenges! What can you do to foster a sense of belonging and connection to your team even though a distance separates you? What can you do to combine the need for organization and direction while enjoying the flexibility and independence that remote work offers? How do you ensure you and your employees take good care of themselves and maintain the ideal work-life balance?
These are the questions managers of remote teams need to consider when navigating this new, exciting, and challenging world. By prioritizing collaboration, communication, trust, and time management and using technology and data to guide decisions, you can guide yourself, your team, and your teammates to succeed!
