Learn why communication is important for working with an offshore team and discover 5 tips for seamless communication with your remote team members.
In this blog, we will discuss:
- Why is Clear Communication Vital in Remote Collaborations?
- Here are Some Tips to Master Offshore Team Collaboration
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Final Thoughts
Key Takeaways
- Strong, clear, and consistent communication is crucial in building a successful and effective offshoring team.
- Effective communication will help the offshore teams to work in an organized manner, and it will naturally create trust between the team members.
- Team integration is vital for a better working atmosphere. The teams are able to work productively, collaborate seamlessly. This can actually give you the feeling of togetherness, which can help you fight against the time zone hurdles and locations efficiently.
- Enable your team to work effectively by creating a standard operating procedure (SOP) that sets out what you expect from each task.
Companies are now shifting to work with outsourcing companies to save on labor costs and maximize their efficiency. However, working with offshore teams requires strict supervision, high collaboration, and clear communication.
In this blog, we will discuss the challenges that you may face while outsourcing and how you can solve them by implementing communications strategies.
Also read: Why Outsourcing Customer Service is the Smartest Move for Growing Your Business
Why is Clear Communication Vital in Remote Collaborations?
Strong, clear, and consistent communication is crucial in building a successful and effective offshoring team.
Lack of collaboration will decrease quality of work over time while this will also affect the whole team and the ability to accomplish the organization goals in the fastest possible manner.
Effective communication will help the offshore teams to work in an organized manner, and it will naturally create trust between the team members — a type of trust that is imperative while working offshore in order to better work together and have a productive global team.
If you manage to at least make trust stable with good communication, the commitment towards work comes, and that commitment is where it will take your offshore team to become competent and effective.
Statistics show that 86% of employees blame lack of communication for workplace failure. While poor communication create havoc on a business, it will not only make costly mistakes but also reduces efficiency and productiveness of a business.
Failed communication leads to incomplete projects, unhappy customers, and low-performing employees. Such is time and money loss and damages to name and shame for companies. The most critical aspect of avoiding these failures is to ensure constant and good communication between the two teams — the offshore team and the onshore team owning the offshore function.
Also read: Top 5 Tools Every Remote Team Needs for Effective Communication and Productivity
Here are Some Tips to Master Offshore Team Collaboration
You need super-efficient strategies in place to make sure that your offshoring team is working together.
Here are some of the tips to help you manage your outsourced teams:
Create Clear Work Instructions/Procedures
If you are working with an offshore team, communicating clear work instructions is critical. Be specific in documentations under each task so as not to create any doubt or confusion.
Enable your team to work effectively by creating a standard operating procedure (SOP) that sets out what you expect from each task. If a lot of emails are exchanged over the working protocols, these can be simplified using work protocols.
Also read: Mastering Remote Delegation: 5 Proven Strategies for a Stress-Free Workflow
Boost Team Integration
Team integration is vital for a better working atmosphere. The teams are able to work productively, collaborate seamlessly. This can actually give you the feeling of togetherness, which can help you fight against the time zone hurdles and locations efficiently.
Onboarding Process
With a cross functional team, you can ensure an effective offshore development team. All these teams will work towards one objective only. You are preparing for a seamless onboarding process, wherein there is a feeling of integration amongst the team members right at the start. There needs to be a process that acclimates them to the culture and the norms of the team. Provide them with the necessary guidance and resources but make the rules unmistakable and succinct.
Cultural Sensitivity Awareness
Build cross cultural sensitivity and awareness in the team members. This would help them cherish the diversity of cultures and practices. It is also a way to acknowledge the diversity and unite the existing members. Cross-functional collaboration: Required when, team members are working in different parts of the project. An example would be, if the development and QA teams work together then it ensures the development of the topmost quality in a short span of time.
Also read: In-House vs. Outsourcing: Which One is More Effective for Your Business?
Common Goals and Objectives
Having a shared goal helps to unite the entire team that can be from different locations and cultural settings. You can instill a sense of common goal among team members as well. To keep the momentum going with the team, you should go back to your objectives and use the milestones as a way to cheer your team.
Feedback and Recognition
Create a feedback and recognition system as a critical component. All you need to know is that continuous feedback and recognition of efforts makes the journey great, and you need to foster these among a big group of your team members.
Make the Most Out of Working in Different Time Zones
House sync meetings on a regular basis during the overlapping hours. This can help with discussion on project progress and check on goal alignment. It can also help address the concerns any of the team members may have.
Working across different time zones is difficult but if you make it work, then you can achieve maximum productivity. This is because you can keep your workflow going and get all the tasks done quickly.
Therefore, doing the work 24/7 makes the team more productive and powerful.
Also read: 8 Ways a Social Media Virtual Assistant Can Transform Your Online Presence
Implement Follow-The-Sun Model
This is a genius model in which work continuously happens around the project for 24/7. The moment the project is developed by the offshore team they submit it for feedback. When the local team gets to work on the corrections, it will share it with the offshore team which will be awake by then. This constant flow of feedback and work will help to minimize bottlenecks while keeping the maximum speed of progress.
Overlap Work Hours to Maximize Efficiency
Add us a few hours where those two groups will be able to connect. Layering will be better equipped for making decisions and getting on with discussions faster. It also aids in simplifying what’s left to deal with urgently.
Team Sync Meetings
Hold house sync meetings very regularly and frequent in these overlapping hours. It will help in making discussions on where the project is going and how goals are attuned. This could also help overcome any apprehensions of the team members.
Also read: 5 Essential Tips for Hiring the Best Virtual Assistant for Your Business
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
We have answered the most frequently asked questions for your guidance and assistance.
Can’t find the information you’re looking for? Feel free to contact us – we’re here to help!
- Are there any cost benefits of outsourcing global talent from OWL TPS?
Yes, you can save up to 70% in labor cost by outsourcing your administrative tasks. Outsourcing companies recruit professional resources from geographical regions with low cost of living, which makes them affordable compared to in-house employees.
- What are the communication tools that you can use to communicate and collaborate with your offshore team members?
There are many communication software that allow you to communicate with your remote team members, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, oom, and more.
You can find more information here.
- How can I partner with an ideal outsourcing company?
First, we recommend identifying your needs and requirements. List them down and then search for companies on the internet. Short list the ones with good reviews and hire the one that fits the best as per your needs.
Also read: Overcoming Recruitment Challenges with Remote Hiring
Final Thoughts
Developing offshore–communication is the key and requires a strategic approach. You have to clearly define the roles and responsibilities, be clear in the communication, and complete the agile methodologies.
Utilize the time zone difference to be productive while maintaining a seamless partnership. This collaboration allows you to speed and improve the process by which your projects are completed.
Partner with OWL TPS and unleash your business potential for success!
Through our offshore partnerships we open new areas and strengthen existing operations providing you with the support needed for success.
As one of the preferred outsourcing companies in the US, we will help you assemble and maintain a team working solely for you and acting as an extended arm of your organisation.
Contact us now and empower your core employees so they can focus on high-value tasks to drive growth and success.
