Webinar recap part 3 – The 3-step implementation plan for building remote teams

This is the third of 3 recap blogs for our recent webinar, “How to expand your IT organization with top remote developers“. 

In this webinar, Søren Rosenmeier, CEO of Right People Group, and Allan Noer, Chief Technology Officer of Agreena discussed: 

• Remote work organization models
• Needs of remote development teams
• Key learnings from building remote teams
• Implementing remote teams

Part 1 covered remote work organization models and the needs of remote development teams. 

In Part 2, we recapped Allan Noer’s sharing of the key learnings from building remote teams. 

In this third recap blog, we look at Søren’s 3-step implementation plan for building remote teams. 

3-step for implementing the Remote Teams model 

The preparation phase

We recommend teaming up with an expert to asses your own remote maturity and working on the weaknesses. You can hire an expert to work with you or consult with someone in your network who has experience in building remote teams. 

We recommend asking yourself some questions and answering them from the perspective of your remote team members. Some of the questions you can ask are:  

How are you culturally different? Think about attitudes towards hierarchies and what productivity means

Can you run all your communications in English? Using one language prevents miscommunication issues and encourages inclusiveness. As English is widely spoken in businesses around the world, we recommend using English. 

How many time zones can you work across? It makes a big difference whether you have a 2-hour or an 8-hour time difference between teams. Think about what you can work with in terms of scheduling meetings. 

What are the GDPR implications? You may have less control and visibility of data security when employees and contractors work from home. Having strong remote access security policies can help safeguard GDPR-protected personal and confidential information. 

What problems do you face when employees work remotely? Examine the difficulties and solutions because problems will only be magnified when you have remote team members. 

What are the perspectives of key employees? Involving them in the decision making process can prevent misunderstandings and problems in the future. 

Do you have everything you need? Evaluate your organization against the “Hierarchy of needs for remote development”. 

The design and document phase

There are 3 sub-stages within this phase, which are to create a recruitment and quality assurance process, design an onboarding process, and document relevant processes. The documents that you will want to create in this phase are: 

Your recruitment and quality assurance process. Think thoroughly about how much you are willing to spend no this stage of the process, and how you intend to ensure that you are hiring the right people for your remote team. 

Your onboarding process. This covers how your remote team will get access to the everything that your in-office employees have so that they can do their work effectively. It also covers how you ensure your remote team members are just as included as part of your company. 

Collaboration tools. List the tools you use and when you would use them. 

Your culture and values. The contents of this document should be used as early as the selection process, during onboarding, and throughout your training process. 

Processes and best practices. This doesn’t have to be too detailed. Start with the essentials and then build from there. 

The go phase 

This phase involves hiring your remote developers, adjusting your processes to create an effective hybrid work environment and evaluating and improving your processes.  

Some tips when your remote work model is implemented are: 

Ensure equal attention to remote team members. Try to have both professional and social conversations with them as equally as you do with in-office members of your team. 

Learn from experienced remote workers. Take lessons from how things were done in their previous remote practices. 

Communicate fast. Address any issues with remote workers quickly, clearly, and diplomatically.