A Step-by-Step Approach to Working Effectively with Offshore Teams

Companies all over the world rely on offshore teams to manage different areas of their businesses. With today’s methods and technologies, outsourced firms function as fully fledged in-house teams, participating in the most difficult tasks and initiatives of their clients’ businesses. 

Businesses the world over are constantly on the lookout for ways to improve their strategy, boost productivity, reduce costs and come up with more efficient solutions for various processes. Outsourcing to offshore teams is one of the main ways to achieve all of this and more.

 

 

Steps to Working Effectively With Offshore Teams

We’ve outlined a few simple steps to help you work more effectively with your offshore team. Take a look below:

Explain Your Goals and Expectations in Detail

Without explaining the purpose of the project to the offshore staff, you risk getting into trouble.

For instance, you wish to assign work to an offshore team for custom software development. If you don’t communicate the motivation behind the product development project, the final product or application may fall short of stakeholder expectations.

Your offshore staff might not be fully aware of the objectives you hope to accomplish with that product. Tell them what the product’s goal is, what functionality you want, who you’re selling it to, i.e., your target market, and when you anticipate it to be produced and delivered to avoid this hassle. This strategy will enable offshore developers to think creatively, operate efficiently, and provide the ideal product all at once.

Enlighten Offshore Teams on the Bigger Picture

Your team should be informed on the product’s vision, values, and roadmap. The team will invest in your product and use creativity to reach your goals if you share your product vision with them. When product managers and owners are developing and sharing a product image, they will take an active part in the session. As a result, the team will be more productive and contribute to fresh ideas, guaranteeing that the finished product meets your company’s objectives.

Foster a Collaborative Working Environment

When working with an offshore team, real-time communication can be difficult, therefore you’ll need to use project management and communication tools. Utilize project management tools like Slack, Jira, Trello, Skype, etc. to track your project’s progress and facilitate communication. With the help of these tools, you can interact with the team members and foster a stronger sense of belonging.

Recognize the Benefit of Overlapping Hours

Time zone differences are one of the main difficulties when dealing with offshore development teams. However, employing overlapping hours will help you to lessen this difficulty. When in-house and offshore teams are working at the same time, those hours are called overlapping hours. For example, the beginning of the shift in one nation may coincide with the end in another.

One or both teams’ shift schedules can be changed to create more overlapping hours. Continuous development, or the fact that work is still being done while your staff in one location is resting, is a benefit of time zone disparities.

Embrace Individual Cultures as a Learning Opportunity

Understanding the culture of your offshore crew is more useful than you might imagine. You can discover more about their nation, its history, and its culture online or directly from team members. Learn about their workplace culture in addition to their local culture. You can get an indication of how they will approach your project from this. Additionally, strive to educate your offshore workforce about your culture.

Effective communication and collaboration between your in-house team and your offshore workforce will be made simple once both teams are aware of one another’s cultures. This will lessen the likelihood of friction between the two teams and help prevent professional blunders.

Do Whatever You Can to Avoid Micromanagement

Employee annoyance is the price you pay for micromanaging your offshore staff while sitting in your office. Micromanagement is regarded as a bad habit that eventually destroys trust between an employer and their workforce. This loss of trust can have serious repercussions, including decreased productivity and employee turnover.

Team members that are micromanaged believe they lack freedom and autonomy. They are unable to think creatively and innovatively as a result. For instance, if you delegate the building of websites to a web development team and then begin micromanaging the team members, this will have a detrimental effect by stifling their ingenuity and innovation. The end result will be a website with bad user experience and terrible design.

See Your Offshore Team as Your Partner

Consider the offshore team that the outsourcing firm provides as a business partner. It makes sense that your offshore crew will work more for you if you treat them on an equal footing with yourself. They will voluntarily want to work additional hours that overlap with yours, and they might even rearrange their shift to accommodate your schedule.

Recognize the effort your offshore team members made to complete your project. Get to know the team members and establish a connection with them. This will strengthen your bond with the group and foster a positive work atmosphere. All of this ultimately results in a product of higher quality.

Noon Dalton’s Offshore Virtual Teams are the Answer

Given our experience of more than ten years, Noon Dalton is certain that our outsourcing firm is the ideal solution for any organization of any size. When working with us, you’ll benefit from affordable costs, effective and efficient time management, and growth opportunities. With us you’ll never have to worry about recruitment or training. Our teams are built to fit seamlessly into your company based solely on your needs and expectations.

Reach out to us today and we’ll help you figure out how an offshore team can help you grow your business in leaps and bounds.