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Your go-to guide for globally distributed teams

Posted on September 20, 2022October 21, 2022 by shanthamurthy

Post-Pandemic, workplaces are a far cry from what they used to be. The paradigm shifted and companies had to adapt to survive. The best solution? Remote working. Given that firms were obliged to adopt this approach, many of them assumed that remote working would be, first and foremost, a transitory solution, and second, would impede productivity. That if employees did not come to work every day, deadlines would be missed and expectations would not be met. Distributed teams, however, changed all that.

Research tells us that individuals who work from home waste 10 minutes less each day, work one extra day per week, and are 47% more efficient. Furthermore, 70% of individuals who worked from their homes during the epidemic indicate that virtual meetings are much less tense in 2021, and 64% now favor hybrid conferences.

Given all that, businesses all across the world are rapidly adopting this new work paradigm, driven by needs and evolving employee preferences. Studies show that 99% of employees wish to work remotely for at least some time in their careers.

Globally distributed teams are the new black.

But, what is distributed work?

A distributed team consists of people working from multiple geographical locations, be it offices, headquarters sites, private homes, or in the field. It does not prevent on-site teams but rather denotes that personnel is spread across various sites rather than at a single physical office.

WFH (Work-from-home) vs WFA (Work-from-anywhere)

Work-from-home employees are those whose primary place of employment is their home office. Working from home usually refers to a specific individual, but working in distributed teams is a company-wide approach that includes many – or all – people. WFA is fairly similar to WFH, with the only difference being that teams are now location-independent. Employees are still working remotely and are vital parts of your business whether they want to work at the office, from home, at a neighborhood café, or from any other part of the world.

Remote work v Distributed work

Remote work refers to an individual worker’s actual location when compared to the main office. A distributed workforce, on the other hand, is the discipline that a whole business follows to allow people to work from multiple places.

Furthermore, hiring for distributed teams give employers access to a larger talent pool, and gives employees more opportunities for professional progression and mobility.

Emerging models of distributed work

GICs (Global In-House Centres), GDCs (Global Development Centres), and GTCs (Global Technology Centres) do more than only in-house internal IT and operational tasks. They have transitioned into Global Capability Centres (GCCs), acting as a crucial component of company strategy and goals. Today, GCCs drive process and efficiency gains for many multinational businesses. Moreover, GCCs develop new capabilities, direct cross-functional projects, and launch new services and products based on ideas created within these centers.

There are certain factors that you need to keep in mind when hiring for a GCC, like:

Managing expectations – New hires in GCCs are likely not aware of company norms and practices, so give them time to acclimate.
Role requirements – Carefully define exactly what you want your new hire to do, even if it isn’t aligned with the job title. That’ll get you hires who know what is expected of them.
Maintain company culture – This is hard to do when everyone is offline – but if a GCC feels like it’s an HQ, they’re motivated to perform better.
Take your time – When hiring for a GCC, the talent pool available is enormous. Don’t rush if you think you found the right fit, there could be someone better waiting for you!

So why should you choose distributed work?

Whether you’re a multinational company or a rapidly expanding startup – a distributed workforce offers multiple benefits to organizations of all sizes.

Unlock a global talent pool

The availability of crucial talent was cited as their greatest difficulty by 80% of tech CEOs. Hiring across a global pool of talent enables organizations to access highly skilled talent at an extremely competitive cost. Superior talent can be up to 8X as efficient as typical workers, as per McKinsey & Co. Organisations can access and hire the top workers on the market, wherever they may be, by thinking beyond location-dependent teams.

Work 24/7

Employees work from wherever they are thanks to a global workforce. Businesses that need coverage around-the-clock can distribute these tasks throughout time zones so that someone is constantly working. To reduce costs, offices can be situated in less costly places. Improved work-life balance could also be advantageous to employees.

Getting work done at any given time is a huge benefit, especially for companies that don’t have as large a workforce as their rival MNCs.

Increase your productivity

Working from home enhanced productivity by 13%, according to a Stanford study. Businesses can save money on various resources and boost productivity by giving employees access to the tools and technologies that enable distributed working. Motivated workers can complete more work in less time, in addition to being more disciplined.

Diversify your org

You’re able to hire people from a variety of origins, perspectives, and cultures when you have a skill base that extends well outside your workplace. You might use this to fulfill your company’s responsibilities to diversity, equality, and inclusion (DE&I).

Greater gender diversity on executive teams was associated with 25% higher profitability, according to a McKinsey examination of how diversity matters. Higher ethnic diversity was associated with a 36% higher likelihood of profitability.

Optimize your expenses

The annual cost of office space per employee is, on average, $18,000. An organization’s main office footprint can be significantly reduced using a globally distributed staff. Cost factors for businesses include overhead expenses for things like office space, internet, power, water, and more. Decentralization and lower IT expenses are also made possible when businesses move applications off-site to the cloud.

Prepare for challenges

Just like with anything, a globally distributed workforce doesn’t come without its fair share of challenges. What’s important is how you prepare to face and overcome these.

Employee disconnect

There are many possibilities for interaction between coworkers in the office. These seemingly little moments of connection—moments that we didn’t pay much consideration to—help to improve team dynamics, foster a sense of community, and spark cooperation among groups and group members.

In these circumstances, what is often done in person should be done online. Your distributed team needs to connect with each other to better gel with each other. It helps them work better together.

Lack of company culture

Culture must be preserved in the age of computer displays. It’s crucial to provide opportunities for interactions that are unrelated to business. It enables employees to get to know one another better, fostering closer bonds and a more cohesive distributed team.

In assessing employment possibilities, 57% of job searchers across all professional levels consider culture as essential as salary. To build and reinforce business culture, managers and leadership would have to recreate certain events throughout every employee’s tenure at work.

Inertial productivity

Lack of face-to-face interaction may have a detrimental effect on morale and productivity. Most workers like their coworkers’ company, whether they are collaborating in a meeting room or unwinding with them at an event on a Friday after a productive week.

While workers themselves claimed that this method of working boosted productivity, businesses may encounter difficulties on its process level.

Communication

A distributed team has to communicate with deliberate purpose. Clear regulations that specify the appropriate cadence and optimal mediums for various forms of communication are beneficial. To respect people’s time, you could make a rule that, unless it’s an exigency, no one is anticipated to reply to messages submitted after business hours.

When there are no proper conversation channels, employees become less friendly and trusting of each other. This leads to disruption of workflow dynamics and even conflicts and arguments.

By making sure that each employee of the distributed team feels respected, heard, and supported, you can boost engagement. Keep in mind that working remotely often gets lonely.

Ready for your global workforce? Here’s how to manage it

Management of a distributed workforce brings additional difficulties. For a firm to succeed going forward, it is essential to sustain staff productivity and attention to work-related duties.

Collaboration and communication, whether on a Zoom conference, through a Slack channel, or by exchanging Google documents, are the lifeblood of any remote team.

Effective onboarding

Since they were formerly uncommon, remote workers are now a significant portion of the workforce. In actuality, since 2005, there has been a 159% growth in the number of persons who work remotely. There has been a change in how businesses onboard new employees as a result of a growing population working remotely. It’s time to change onboarding and turn it employee-focused since efficient onboarding increases retention.

Here’s how you can smoothen your onboarding process:

Get employees online – The only way remote employees connect with their teams is through the web. Get them acclimatized to your tech and practices.
Send welcome packages – Send them a welcome present, organize a virtual lunch on their first day, and inquire about what will help them succeed the most in their new position. This makes the employees feel at home instantly.
Virtualize offline experiences – Bring to life all of the little thoughtful touches that staff members often encounter at work.
Prioritize basics – The employee isn’t omniscient. Carefully elucidate your way of doing things, and get them on the same page.
Don’t be too serious – One of the key things is the first 90 days for a fresh hire’s integration into a company. The transition from engagement to assimilation should be made by allowing time for socializing and learning.

Use your resources

Utilize the array of tools and services at your disposal to efficiently interact and cooperate with members of your distributed team. Consider employing other solutions to streamline program administration, communication, and document sharing in combination with videoconferencing systems so that remote members of the team can effortlessly interact and collaborate despite physical separation.

Encourage transparency

Clarity and consistency are essential for effective communication. It’s crucial to explain expectations, duties, and objectives before a distributed team starts working so that everyone is aware of their roles.

When functioning with independent talent, information sharing becomes even more essential. Independent professionals are accustomed to launching into projects and scaling up rapidly, but they might not be aware of the information presented at internal meetings or the specifics of the industry.

Twitter, one of the world’s largest social media organizations, has clear views on how to communicate in distributed teams. Twitter is known to have one of the most successful distributed models in the world, and they frequently talk about it on their blog!

Work asynchronously

The idea behind asynchronous work is straightforward: Use your resources as efficiently as you can, record everything, hand the project over to the next person, and then go on to something else.

Companies that operate asynchronously ought to have a low-context culture. This indicates that communication is clear and concise. By providing further background, uncertainty is eliminated and the chance of misinterpretation is reduced. Crystal clear understanding between team members is crucial, especially for a distributed team.

Gitlab has over 1800 employees spread across 60 countries and is a pioneer in asynchronous work. They detailed their turbulent but steadfast route to building a good distributed team in The Remote Manifesto.

The future is distributed – your workforce should be too!

The issues of today cannot be solved with yesterday’s answers. Workers and enterprises are liberated from constraints imposed by being confined to a single place by distributed teams & remote workforces. The years 2020 and 2021 have amply demonstrated the insufficiency of the old, centralized workforce in a contemporary, hyper-productive economy.

If you’re stuck to the formal and traditional structure of working strictly in-office – you’re missing out on driving forward revenue, productivity, and stature. Business as usual is no longer acceptable and employees are ready to leave companies with rigid working practices. Want a piece? Talent500 takes care of all your global workforce needs.

With AI-powered algorithms and vetted professionals, we provide you with the best talent along with an insight into how to manage your teams to get the best out of them. To know what more we can do for you, you can request a consultation.

Globally distributed teams are the future. Get global, or get going!

8 tips for managing a globally distributed team

Posted on September 16, 2022 by temp

It’s 2022, and there is no denying that there are numerous benefits to having a distributed workforce. From access to a wide pool of highly skilled talent, to a direct reduction in operational costs – going global is a good idea for companies of all sizes.

However, managing a global workforce is not without its challenges. The lack of in-person communication can often lead to disconnects within the team, making team members feel alienated and unappreciated. Add to that the difficulties of working with multiple time zones and cultural backgrounds, and you know that leading a distributed team is no child’s play. Even the most seasoned of managers are bound to face difficulties.

Thankfully, a combination of the right people, processes and tools can help managers of distributed teams tackle any difficulty and lead their distributed tech teams to growth and productivity.

Hire the right people

The first step towards managing global teams is to choose the right team members. Remember that you will no longer be able to stroll over to a team member’s desk to check-in on their progress. When recruiting for your distributed team, try to look for people who are

Self starters: A key component of being an effective remote worker is self-sufficiency and the ability to take on projects without needing constant management and oversight. Self starters are professionals who want to learn new skills and take on new challenges without being told what to do by their managers or bosses.
Effective communicators: Whether it’s during the stages of planning and ideation, or execution and implementation, clear communication maximizes productivity and reduces turnaround time.
Problem solvers: Members of your team will often be required to adopt new technology or improvise a quick solution to ensure smooth functioning. Look for candidates who show creative and strategic thinking.
Good at time management: The stop and start nature of remote work demands extreme punctuality and time management. It is important to find individuals who will be able to understand which tasks are necessary and prioritise those.

Set effective goals

The transition to location independent work, although necessary, may not always be easy. It is natural for team members to struggle with initial uncertainty and confusion, and the best way to lead global virtual teams is by setting the right goals and expectations.

Set effective long-term and short-term goals, and communicate these clearly with your team members to get buy-in. Setting objectives for specific periods of time – weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly, is a great way to help distributed teams keep on pace. Having a common written standard will make it easier for your team to follow these goals.

Develop a working structure

One of the most important parts of setting up a physical office is setting up the necessary infrastructure, from electricity and civic amenities, to work desks, conference rooms, telephones and Wi-Fi routers. Setting up your distributed office is no different – with the slight difference of putting in place the right working structure and tools that will help your team.

Establish a working structure that clarifies each aspect of daily functioning, like the tools that you will be using, the different methods of communication, working hours and availability, vacation and leave policy.

One of the best ways to augment the performance of your team is by supplying them with the right tools and procedures. Put in place an effective work structure by demarcating communication channels, formulating standard operating procedures and documenting everything. GitLab’s Remote Manifesto is a great example of how an effective working structure can help distributed teams function like a well oiled machine.

Champion asynchronous communication

Working with multiple time zones is a problem inherent to managing distributed teams. Asynchronous communication solves this by enabling every member of your team to work according to their own schedules. By eliminating the pressure to respond immediately and reducing interruptions, it leads to increased productivity and an increased level of control over the workday.

However, extracting the complete potential of asynchronous communication requires a little bit of homework. To begin with, team leaders must ensure that all relevant details are stored at a central place, available to every stakeholder in the project. Similarly, channels of communication should be divided into synchronous and asynchronous according to urgency and importance.

Empower local leaders

As the leader of a distributed team, it is important to understand that your team members are working from multiple geographical locations, which is bound to result in differences of cultural backgrounds and time zones. This is especially true for large multinational companies having bases in multiple countries.

In such cases, taking the help of local leaders across various locations can help you effectively manage multiple distributed teams. Empowering regional leaders helps establish a strong local foundation, creating a hierarchy of leadership when working with multiple international teams. Today, companies like Airbnb, Walmart and Target are establishing their global capability centres (GCCs) as independent, fully-functional units within themselves with the help of strong local leadership. Empowering regional leaders to facilitate the daily operations helps global leaders concentrate on the bigger picture.

Listen & iterate

The importance of effective, two-way communication cannot be overemphasized when it comes to distributed teams. Working in co-located offices meant that managers had visual cues on how their team members were feeling; in the absence of the same, they now need to work harder to gauge the pulse of the team.

Be it through 1:1 meetings, weekly brainstorming sessions, surveys or just general check-ins, leaders of distributed teams must continuously seek feedback and look for ways to implement it. From setting goals and deciding project timelines, to the adoption of new operating procedures and tools – when employees feel heard, it has a direct impact on their levels of engagement and satisfaction.

Include rituals and Ceremonies

According to this survey by Buffer, the top two challenges faced by remote workers include “barriers to communication & collaboration” and “loneliness”. For employees at co-located offices, occasions like birthdays and cultural celebrations are often the times when a large chunk of bonds are formed. For globally distributed teams, this occurs through shared rituals, practices and ceremonies.

Shared team rituals help foster trust between team members and make them feel like they are part of something special. Fun Friday activities, virtual happy hours, or any other such team bonding rituals are crucial to forming interpersonal bonds and directly impact team dynamics. Managers can start with something as simple as a monthly team lunch where all members share the same menu.

Recognize your team members

82% of employees consider recognition as an important part of their happiness at work. Rewarding and recognizing your team members is a good idea universally, and this applies squarely to dispersed teams as well. The lack of interpersonal interaction is often the biggest challenge faced by most distributed teams. Having a culture of appreciation helps employees feel valued, directly impacting employee engagement and consequently, retention.

While verbal recognition is a good start, team leaders today have access to a wide range of recognition softwares and applications created specifically for globally distributed teams. Applications like Nectar, Bonusly and HeyTaco can be integrated directly with Slack.

Worldwide, the percentage of people working remotely has risen from 17% in 2019 to 32% in 2021. Additionally, 73% of all departments are expected to have remote workers by 2028. Regardless of the industry you’re in, leading global teams is an essential skill-set for all managers today.

At Talent500, we understand that the transition to location independent working is a multi-layered process involving numerous stakeholders and factors. Our team of experts and network of highly skilled professionals are here to help you build your global team in over 50 countries. Ready to take the first step? Set up a consultation with our team here.

Tackle the Great Attrition by leveraging a globally distributed workforce

Posted on April 29, 2022July 11, 2022 by naveen

At the height of the pandemic, there were record breaking numbers of people quitting their jobs. According to research firm Gartner, the attrition rate rose from 10% in 2020 to 20% in 2021. Some IT service providers were battling even higher attrition rates of up to 30%. One of the most talked about items in combating the Great Attrition is adopting a globally distributed workforce.

This ‘new normal’ way of having a global workforce has its advantages.

Increased employee productivity

One of the most understated benefits of adopting a distributed working model is its impact in increasing overall productivity. 99% of managers say their employees who are given flexible work options are more productive; additionally, 45% of remote employees believe they can work smarter (deliver much more with fewer resources).

Note: As long as you invest in the right tools for communication, collaboration, project management, and specific for your business, you are likely to see increased employee productivity in the global distributed working model.

Access to talent anywhere in the world

According to Gartner, businesses think that talent shortage is the most significant barrier to the adoption of 64% of emerging technology. When restricted by geography, finding the right talent to fill the gaps in your organization, especially technical roles, can be a challenge. Distributed working model gives you the option of hiring from anywhere in the world and can be a very effective option for technical/specialized skills, saving time, money, and effort on training.

Note: Before entering a new market, it is important to do research to determine the right hiring strategy for your goals, and to fully understand the local employment market and pertaining laws.

Less costly

With fewer overheads like rent, furniture, electricity, cleaning and maintenance, and other costs, a distributed company can turn out to be more cost efficient than the traditional in-office working model. One study found that if a company allowed an employee to work from home just half of the time, it would save on average $11,000 per employee.

Note: There could be hidden costs associated with distributed working and the most critical of them being security – 73% of IT workers believe that remote workers especially pose a greater security threat.

Great diversity

Diversity matters because a diverse group of employees can produce more innovative ideas. When done right, diversity is a massive flex. Not only does diversity impact the bottom line, studies show us that 83% executives state that a diverse workforce improves their company’s ability to capture and retain a diverse client. Studies also show us that 85% of large global enterprises believe diversity is crucial to fostering innovation in the workplace. When you have different views, opinions, and thoughts at the table, you have more creative problem solving and a better understanding of customers.

Note: When dealing with a distributed team, it could be a challenge to ensure that diversity is followed up with equity and inclusion, through all levels of management.

Improved retention

No company wants to lose good talent, and employee retention ranks as top priority for organizations across industries. The pandemic showed us that people who were forced to come in to work every day, preferred to move to another company who offered flexible working options. Distributed work models offer employees the flexibility they are looking for in terms of location and hours and can reduce absenteeism, tardiness, and associated costs.

Note: Employee behavior trends are seeing major changes since the pandemic. Staying in sync with the latest on what employees want from their workplace can go a long way in improving retention.

Focus on mental health and overall well being

One of the best things of a distributed working model is that employees do not feel the pressure of daily commute or of being bound by fixed working hours. Employees can now choose to work according to their timely preference, barring scheduled meetings. They now have the option of focusing on their personal well being and have more freedom to plan their day based around their mental health.

Note: Organizations need to provide employees with access to mental health programs and initiatives to show that they truly care for an employee’s mental wellbeing. Only talking about it isn’t enough.

It is no secret that a happier employee is a more productive employee, and perks and benefits like flexibility in how, when, and where they choose to work definitely adds to their happiness quotient. Finding, building, and managing a distributed workforce doesn’t need to be daunting. Our team of experts and network of highly skilled professionals are here to help you build your global team in over 50 countries. Ready to take the first step? Set up a consultation with our team here.