June 29, 2021
Without a doubt, working remotely has its perks! Even before the pandemic, remote work was a benefit requested by many employees that have now seen wider adoption. According to a recent survey by Upwork, managers expect that 26.7% of their team will be working remotely in 2021. Although employees will gradually return to the office, a majority of the team will remain remote for the near future. Top companies like Twitter, Shopify, and Dropbox have announced they will be moving to permanent work from home, demonstrating a paradigm shift in businesses. In a PWC survey conducted in June and July of 2020 of 669 CEOs, 78% agree that remote collaboration is here to stay for the long run as illustrated by the survey results below. Employees appreciate the flexibility that comes with working remotely but it is very essential for overseas companies to identify the best practices for managing these teams.
We have made this article to help guide teams looking to manage their remote workforces in the US as our aim at Alariss is to help support both employers and employees build remote collaboration successfully. When managing a remote overseas team in the US, use these best practices mentioned below to help support your workforce:
In the remote world, having effective technology is key to building out successful virtual teams. Employers should ensure that the team has access to compatible, fast, streamlined, secure, and efficient technology when managing remote employees. This will help ensure that communication is streamlined and will help increase efficiency across the global team. As we can see from Cisco’s example of managing remote teams; Lorrisa Hortan, VP, advocates for the usage of reliable applications to support real-time, high-quality virtual collaboration. When managing her team, she relies heavily on Webex Desk pro along with her laptop, hotspot, and iPhone to complete her daily functions during working hours. According to Consolidated Technologies, some essential technologies for managing remote employees include:
On the other hand, some challenges may arise with these new technologies in place- Based on Harvard Business Review, there have been challenges concerning the lack of face-to-face supervision with both managers and employees; as the supervisors worry employees may not perform at their best capacity. There have been instances whereby new remote hires struggle with accessing information more readily. For example, if you are onboarding new employees to your remote team, it will be efficient to lay out all the resources or knowledge-based articles necessary for the team for troubleshooting various issues in the future.
It is also important to note that not everything has to be a meeting. There are various tools like loom that can help record short videos for your various teams. This is an effective and rapid way to send feedback to your team on assigned projects without having to schedule a general meeting which helps preserve employee/employer time needed for other tasks.
With millions of teams moving remotely in the US, the world of work has drastically changed resulting in more attention to employees’ wellbeing and belonging. It is important for overseas teams to develop a more flexible and employee-oriented work culture during this time by implementing regular check-in with employees and expanding employee health, safety, and wellness programs as well. We understand it may be challenging to offer regular and immediate feedback to a remote team; that’s why it will be beneficial to create one-on-one check-in meetings between managers and employees to provide constructive feedback more regularly. Most importantly, employers should check-in on employees’ health and wellbeing while working remotely. An article by Gartner says that “96% of HR leaders are more concerned about employees’ well-being today than before the pandemic”. This goes to show how essential regular check-ins are for employees and how important it is for employers to listen to employees’ needs.
Building a remote overseas team means collaborating across diverse teams and across different time zones, meaning work hours need to be carefully regulated in terms of the timezone the business is currently running in. For instance, if you are a tech company in Nigeria looking to build a team in the US, you would need to take into consideration the 5 hours difference when scheduling meetings with team leaders and employees. So, in this instance, moving the workday ahead or behind a couple of hours may be beneficial for live collaboration and contribution among teammates. Nafsa’s article says that once the work schedule is properly designed, it will help expand operation coverage beyond the traditional business days without requiring employees to work overtime. Who wouldn’t love to work fluidly across regions?
Although the whole transition to remote work may not be the most ideal situation for everyone, there are many ways to make it easy. So when managing your remote team, it will be very beneficial to keep these best practices in mind. Of course, if you are looking to implement these best practises for managing your remote teams, Alariss Global is here to help, please book a time to discuss how: www.alariss.com/book-demo
