Managing Remote Teams: Interesting Stats and Facts
Although many people weren’t familiar with working remotely until the pandemic, the tech industry has been using remote software development teams for years with a great deal of success. With today’s technology software, developers can work from anywhere in the world online. Managing a remote software development team is different than handling an in-house team so if you are looking to make the switch you will need to adapt your management style.
Here are a few interesting facts regarding managing remote teams:
- Small businesses are twice as likely as larger companies to hire full-time remote workers
- 18% of people work remotely full-time
- 75% of remote workers prefer a remote mode because there are fewer distractions
- 20% of workers identify communication as an obstacle to working remotely
- 74% of companies plan to shift some of their employees to remote working permanently
- Remote workers are 35-40% more productive than their counterparts
- 77% of workers claim to be more productive when working remotely
Common Challenges When Working with Remote Developers
Using remote development teams offers a lot of advantages to companies. However, there are also some challenges that come with managing a remote team.
Here are some of the common remote team challenges you are likely to encounter:
- Communication. Communication can provide some difficulties when you hire remote development team. Different time zones and working hours can prove to be a hindrance to good communication. When you aren’t dealing with somebody face to face there is also a lack of visual cues that we often use that help us understand others.
- Low level of engagement and morale. One of the biggest problems for remote workers is loneliness and morale. They don’t feel fully engaged with the company which can lead to dissatisfaction and low morale. Leading remote teams effectively will include scheduling periodic meetings with team members to make them feel valued and provide an opportunity to give feedback on their work performance.
- Hybrid team problems. Hybrid teams, where part of the team is in the office and part is working remotely, can develop problems. The remote workers may not receive the latest updates or be included in important meeting which not only results in poorer performance but leads to the remote team feeling excluded.
- Developing trust. Trust can sometimes be an issue between remote managers and their team. Managers are concerned that team members may not be putting the work in, while members of the team will be concerned about a variety of issues ranging from getting paid for their work, to deadlines and the scope of their job. Part of how to run a successful software product team is to gain their trust by being transparent about project expectations, working hours, rates and other factors.
- Monitoring work and productivity. When you work in the same office it is relatively easy to track the productivity of team members but this is not the case with remote team management. It can be difficult to determine what the team has accomplished, which team members are producing the most and who is underperforming. You also need to avoid burnout in team members who find it difficult to disengage at the end of the work day.
Overcoming Challenges of Managing Remote Software Dev Teams: 10 Proven Strategies
Knowing how to manage an offshore development team effectively will improve productivity and efficiency while keeping your team happy and motivated. Managing a remote IT team definitely presents some challenges but there are a variety of strategies that you can use to overcome them. Here are 10 remote teams best practices and strategies.
1. Determine a team structure
Know how to structure a startup development team to best suit your purpose. Do you want a generalist web development team structure where every team member performs multiple duties or a specialist structure where each developer focuses on only a specific part of a project? You will need to establish team size, types of developers you need and the role of each.
2. Set goals and objectives
When hiring dedicated development team remotely, each team member should be informed of what their role is and their place in the research and development team structure. They need to know what their specific objectives are and the indicators that goals have been met. Make sure that everything is provided in writing and that every developer clearly understands what it is you expect from them.
3. Regular meetings
Regular meetings are part of communication best practices for remote teams. It will keep you updated on progress as well as keeping team members aligned with each other. A team member will frequently need the input of another developer in order to complete their own tasks and a daily meeting is a good way for the whole team to share information and updates on related tasks. This will also enable you to identify and resolve any potential issues before they develop into a bigger problem.
4. Deal with time zones
If you manage distributed team in another time zone, interacting with them live can be done during overlapping work hours, sometimes referred to as the golden hours. For example, if you are in New York (UTC-5) and you have a dedicated development team Ukraine-based (UTC+2) there is a time difference of 7 hours. If you and your team both begin work at 9 AM and are on an 8 hour working day there is 1 hour a day – 9 AM – 10 AM for you and 4 PM – 5 PM for your team when you can interact live. This is the time to hold meetings and discussions. If it happens that you have a team in India (UTC+5) then there are no overlapping hours. In these cases you will have to rely more on written reports, messaging, and other methods of communication. You will want to make sure there is a communication channel that the team can use to reach you at any time in case of an emergency.
5. Track time and productivity
There are time tracking software tools you can use to monitor the hours your team is working but that isn’t always the best way to measure productivity. A better choice may be to establish some KPI metrics that you can use to evaluate productivity. Tracking the basic metrics of productivity allows you to see the team’s progress in numbers and understand the capabilities of each team member. It also lets each employee see for themselves any issues they may have so they can work to correct them.
6. Allow team members some flexibility
Your remote team member will appreciate it if you allow them some flexibility in their working hours. A Flexjobs survey showed that 76% of people would be more loyal to their employers if they had flexible work options. Allowing flexibility can improve morale as well as employee retention. However, don’t allow so much freedom that you find it impossible to get your team together for meetings.
7. Avoid micromanagement
Part of knowing how to manage a remote development team is being aware of when you should step back and let your developers do their job. Provide your team with the instructions they need and get regular updates to stay on top of things but be careful not to become over-controlling as it will make your team less effective.
8. Create a workplace culture
It is important while managing a remote team that you provide a vision of team culture that matches that of your company. One way on how to build a strong culture with a remote team is to share your company’s mission and values as well as its vision for the future. Let your team know how the company is doing and how their contributions help. Instilling a sense of culture helps increase the commitment and productivity of team members.
9. Encourage some social interaction between team members
Your team members will interact with each other on a daily basis but generally it will be all work-related. In-person social activities can be difficult to do when you have team members in different cities or even different countries. However, remote team bonding activities are still possible online. Some team-building ideas for remote teams might include a virtual movie night, playing online games or having a virtual lunch together. Software team building will build connections between team members as well as help boost team morale and foster a sense of team culture.
10. Show your appreciation
Make sure to let members of your team know they are appreciated. This can go a long way towards motivating remote teams. In meetings, make a point of praising those who have performed well. Conversely, avoid criticism in public. Having some kind of reward or incentive system in place is another way how to make remote teams work harder and stay motivated.
Following remote teams best practices like the above will help you meet and overcome the challenges of managing a remote team.
Collaboration Tools for Remote Development Teams
If you are building a remote engineering team you will need the right tools. Here are the collaboration tools you will need for remote development teams.
- Video conferencing tools. Your team may be remote but you can still have good face to face communications with the right video conferencing tool. Two of the most popular video conferencing tools are Zoom and Skype. Skype allows individual communications as well as conferences and comes pre-installed on Windows computers. Zoom has more features in its paid plans but its free version limits group meeting to 40 minutes.
- Communication management. Slack is usually the preferred communication tool to manage instant messaging between members of remote development teams. It has a fast chat room and multiple options for creating different channels for projects. You can also integrate a variety of other tools and applications with Slack including Skype and Zoom for conferencing, Google Drive and Dropbox for storage and file sharing and Google Docs for writing and editing documents online in real-time.
- Task management tools. Another type of collaboration tool is task management software which helps you and your team by organizing and prioritizing related tasks. Jira and Trello are two of the more popular task management tools.
Working with a remote development team can definitely be beneficial for your business. With a remote team, you will have access to a much larger talent pool. In addition, a well-managed remote software development team can reduce your expenses and increase productivity.