Is an office a notion that belongs in the past? Well, the fact that 45 percent of US employees are working from their homes sure seems to indicate so. Still, it is undeniable that a traditional office has some advantages when compared to working from home. First of all, everyone is at work at the same time. Second, communication is much easier. Finally, it is much easier to organize everyone when they are at the shout-range. However, it would be absurd to claim that such a thing couldn’t be achieved in virtual environment. This is why more and more businesses operate on the model of remote teams. Here are few things you should know about it as well as why your business desperately needs them.
Similar to Outsourcing
One of the first things that comes to mind when talking about building a remote team is the notion of outsourcing. Why? Well, for a simple reason that you have some people remote from you (often in a different country or continent) working for you. According to people from NSM Engineering, company experienced in nearshoring, the greatest difference between outsourcing and hiring a remote team is lineup composition. When you make a remote team, you are supposed to make an internal structure yourself. On the other hand, by outsourcing (or in this case nearshoring) you get an already existent team to do your work. The latter one is especially useful if you don’t have the luxury of time before your team becomes compatible enough.
No Geographical Restriction
One of the greatest advantages that companies located in remote areas on the world face is a small talent pool. What this means is that they are restricted only to hiring those living in your vicinity or those willing to relocate to your headquarters. By building a remote team, you will be able to focus on finding the best person for the job. In other words, you will be able to use relevant metrics, like how qualified someone is or how good is someone at their job instead of thinking about where they are from. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how this kind of hiring policy may make your productivity skyrocket.
More Diversity
When speaking about more diversity in teams, we are not only reflecting on the idea of political correctness. In fact, having a diverse team brings numerous practical advantages. People coming from different backgrounds usually have dissimilar approaches to the same problem, which only means that there is a greater chance of one of them reaching a solution. Furthermore, it is impossible to learn from someone good at the exact same set of skills you already excel at. This is why hiring a diverse group of people benefits every individual in the group, as well as your business.
Software Management
This idea of remote teams seems so simple that one must wonder- why hasn’t anyone come up with it sooner? The answer to this is quite simple as well- even if there were some similar ideas in the past, there were no technical means to make it happen. Luckily, in the era of internet and applications you can pay your employees via PayPal, organize them through remote team management apps and facilitate their communication through Skype. While these digital tools make working together all over the globe so easy, without them the very idea of remote teams would not be possible.
Conclusion
In the end, although no one can claim with 100 percent surety that your remote team idea will work, there is no such guarantee in the office either. It all depends on your skills as a manager and how systematically you manage to approach to this entire situation. On the bright side, those who pass this little test have much to look forward to.
