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Especially in our industry (and the online affiliate marketing world as a whole) more and more companies operate with team members that work remotely from the main office. Although working with a virtual team can be highly beneficial for a company (especially when the organization is compiled of a diverse and knowledgeable group) it can also present challenges.
So, what are some tips for effectively managing & leading a team you don’t see face to face everyday?
Specifically, anyone have advice for the best ways to communicate with each other, workflow processes, etc.?
Major companies such as 37Signals (creators of Basecamp and Highrise) have done this very successfully for years. We have also done this ourselves.
The keys (imho) are the following:
1) OK to outsource to foreign countries, but always pay above market rate so you can secure the best talent. Even at above market rate, you’ll save loads.
2) Test the actual people you hire, just as you would test a full-time, in-house employee. You’d be surprised how many employers find out AFTER they hire a virtual employee that he/she can’t even speak the required language properly.
3) Set really clear expectations and manage against those expectations weekly.
Warrens makes really good points.
Management of remote staff can be made so much easier by making use of tools out there to delegate work, monitor productivity and communicate with your staff. I find that email is not enough, and with staff, while its nice to have people who can work autonomously – schedule weekly meetings.
For me, I use skype, emails, use basecamphq.com to communicate and monitor productivity.
And then on a “lower” level – I use a todo list program to track my own progress and completion rate of things I do during the week. I used to think this was a waste of time and tedious, but you find that its a great motivator at the end of the week when you see how much, or little work you have done.
The programs / websites I use are :
- basecamphq.com to monitor and delegate work.
- IMs – skype.com … no need to say anything here!
- Emails – not to assign work, just to communicate points of interest and notifications, let basecamphq.com be your central work delegator.
- Task Management At Its Best With Wunderlist | 6Wunderkinder – my task list which i update on my mobile devices – they all sync together via the website. Best to do list I have come across.
I’m sure some of you will disagree, but I would recommend using workers from your own country, or at least someone you can arrange to meet periodically.
We had a couple of employees in other countries, whom we chose because the salary level at their respective countries is way lower than my own country. We carefully selected them and indeed they were both very professional and qualified for their tasks but then there were a lot of little differences that were wearing us off… First of all there was the time difference that was sometimes hard to handle, and different holidays that resulted in non-parallel off-days, infrastructure issues (one of them had regular power-shortages because that’s how it is over there…) and stuff like that. Also, since those guys work exclusively on remote-status, you could never be sure which current “employer” is higher on their priority list.
In order to offset the difference in salaries, we decided to go with students in our own country and work with them on remote basis. People who would take less money but are often more talented, intelligent & motivated because they are eager to prove themselves and also they appreciate the benefits of being able to work from their own home/dorm and integrate the job with their study time. Finally, since they don’t have too much free time they are not likely to take other similar projects/jobs.
That way we paid only little more than the cheapest end of the scale, while enjoying a dedicated staff who are easily manageable but are available for face-to-face meetings when we felt it was necessary.
Thanks for sharing your experience- great insight!
You make some excellent points. It sounds like you were perhaps working with consultants and/or an outsourced team? That really can be difficult, because as you said, you never know if there are other clients the team is working with that may be a “higher” priority over your account. Truthfully, it makes it so much easier & efficient to work virtual team members that are solely dedicated to your company. In the long run, it’s for more beneficial for the company’s deadlines, goals and even revenue.
For those that are working with remote consultants and/or team members that are in different countries and/or time zones, any tips you can provide that can help manage communication? What have you done to make this sort of working relationship successful?
Hi,
While an affiliate, I also have all this issues, but with time and research it becomes easier to manage your team.
I also use a project management platform, but not Basecamp anymore. Recently I changed for a new one (Podio.com), much more appropriate to your own customization, since you can build your own app.
Give it a look, you will see the advantages, and also the support team is always available to heard suggestions from you, in order to improve the platform to your way.
Just my two cents
Cheers,
Marco M
MDPoker.ptIn terms of communications I’d say IMs and Skype? And if you need to present visually to each other remotely I’d say Webex perhaps?
