5 Amazing Tips to Embrace the ‘New Normal’ and Efficiently Collaborate with Your Remote Team

According to a survey conducted by GitLabs in March 2020:

• 86% of employees believe that remote work is here to stay

• 43% of employees prefer working in an all-remote environment

• 25% of employees are already working in an all-remote environment, following their native time zones

• 12% of employees are working in remote teams synced, following a time zone mandated by their companies.

Remote work has become the “new normal” after COVID-19 shook the world in early 2020. In August 2020, Atlassian announced that their employees can choose to work from wherever they want. Besides, several other tech giants worldwide, including Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Slack, Hitachi, Fujitsu, and Siemens, have made similar announcements in 2020 about going remote.

Several big & small organizations globally are embracing the “new normal” owing to the several benefits it offers, including access to a large talent pool, work-life balance, saves the hussles involved in commuting, improved productivity, and others.

Besides, several tech startups in the U.S. are availing the services of offshore development companies in countries like India, China, the Philippines, Ukraine, Singapore, and others, which have emerged as major offshoring destinations. Besides, remote work is also gaining widespread popularity due to increasing city traffic, good internet connectivity, growing digital literacy, and high adoption of messaging, video call solutions, & project management solutions.

Here, let us look at 5 amazing tips that will help you embrace the “new normal” and enable effective collaborations among teams. However, before diving deep into that, let’s get the basics right.

The Basics

When going remote on your own or with an offshore software development company, you will have to fulfil these basic requirements of your employees:

• A good internet connection

• The necessary hardware & software

• IT support that can be availed remotely

• Well-defined processes to eliminate the need for employees’ physical presence.

Design a remote transition plan

Once you get the basics right, the first step is to develop short-term and long-term transition plans based on the number of employees, number of offices, tools & infrastructure required, and the efficiency of communication practices, among others. To speed up this process, several organizations across the globe consider finding an offshore software development partner. While doing so, you will have to gauge the cultural & technical maturity of your partner company.

Remote leadership

The second step is to start right at the top of the hierarchy. This will send across a clear message to your employees that the company is going remote. However, going remote may initially pose various challenges to your workforce. The remote leadership should be able to communicate these nuances efficiently and provide effective solutions. It is also crucial to document these challenges and solutions for future references.

Remote infrastructure

You will have to ensure that for your offshore development partner has, the following components in place:

• The right software & hardware tools

• Efficient communication tools

• A handbook that is always kept current

• Security audit ensuring that there are no loopholes.

Communication guidelines

Asking specific questions to offshore team members individually encourages them to be proactive during team meetings. To ensure that your team members don’t feel left out, you will have to encourage informal communications among team members. Corporate communication and human resource professionals will have to get involved and communicate the culture and values to your team members and your offshore development partner.

Be more result-driven

It is impossible to gauge whether your employees are doing what they are supposed to do during remote work. Also, results are what truly matter to your organization rather than the time invested by your employee. Instead of going for one of those screen monitoring software programs that will lower your workforce morale, you should gauge the performance of your offshore employees based on these parameters instead:

• Are the tasks being completed in a timely & efficient manner?

• Is it serving your organizational goals?

Conclusion

For employees who are used to working in a collocated workspace, going remote will involve making several modifications in their working style. Hence, you will have to keep experimenting with making it work best for your startup. Good luck!