The notion of ‘survival of the fittest’ implies that only the people who keep adapting to the changing environment (fittest), will be able to survive and flourish. In the similar context, the business owners today need to learn a spectrum of skills to manage their remote teams as the trend of outsourcing is growing rapidly. So, if you are also planning to hire virtual staff in India, you must know how to adopt an efficient approach to keep your offshore employees motivated, result-driven and reliable. This can help you make the most of your call to hire offshore staff. Here are the top five leadership skills required for managing remote teams, certified by the industry experts:
1. Comprehensive hiring procedure
First thing first! Being meticulous while hiring virtual staff in India is very important. During the process of scanning resumes or interviewing, you must assess the profiles for their communication, self-management and organizational skills. You can also give them a trial assignment to be doubly sure of their experience and proficiency. If you succeed in hiring the right resources to complete your remote team, you are already halfway there.
2. Building a culture of trust
When you go ahead to hire virtual staff in India, building a culture of communication and trust serves as a sturdy foundation for a successful business model. To nurture your relationship with your remote team so that its members feel more connected with you, try to have more employee interactions and regular chat engagements. This bond of empathy and camaraderie will help the outsourced team to strive extra hard for uncompromised quality and quantity.
3. Communicating expectations clearly
As you go ahead to hire virtual staff in India, remember to always convey your work expectations clearly. For this, you can strictly define the objectives of the work assigned to them and also, the key results expected from that particular piece of work. This will not only motivate the remote team members to work towards a common purpose, but will also help you measure their work progress in a better way.
4. Workflow management tools
The importance of keeping everybody in sync and standardizing work processes further increases in case you are going to hire offshore staff. To ensure that your workflow guidelines are recognized and followed, you must decide upon a workflow management tool so that all your employees have an insight to each other’s Key Responsibility Areas (KRAs). Here are three of the most popular tools for your reference:
a) Teamwork Projects – An ideal project management tool, it ensures that no tasks are left undone by keeping an online record of everyone’s KRAs.
b) Quip – Featuring an efficient collaboration system, it creates a platform for you to see and comment on whatever document your remote employees are working on.
c) Huddle – Focussing on collaboration around uploaded files, it is another well-known project management tool.
5. Exposing team productivity
One of the best ways to boost your remote team’s productivity is to regularly acknowledge it; all you need to do is reflect on the everyday work done by your team of virtual employees. This will not only help you in building an environment supporting healthy teamwork, but will also make the employees feel accountable and contribute their best to the organization.
Every budding business owner who steps ahead to hire virtual staff in India, is earnestly rooting for his organization’s speedy growth and success. By following the above-mentioned management practices, you can easily be accessible to your remote employees and create a constructive casual environment for them to put their best foot forth. When you decide to hire offshore staff, do not forget that empowering your virtual employees is important but at the same time, enabling them to take ownership of their work is the need of the hour. So, before putting your boat out for this big sail, bring out your leadership side so that you can inspire a supportive work culture and enhanced productivity.
