How Business Owners Can Create a Fully Remote Team

Technological advances mean that it is never been easier to create a fully remote team. Using cloud computing, video conferencing, and online collaboration tools mean that virtual offices are easy to set up and maintain. One of the benefits of building a remote team is that you can cut down on expenses and get access to a wider range of talent.

Of course, creating remote teams has its own challenges. You may have to deal with communication problems, working over different time zones, or find it difficult to track employee performance. However, in many cases, the benefits of building and maintaining a remote team outweigh the problems.

Before we look at how you as an industry leader can create a fully remote team, let's look at some of its benefits.

Benefits of having a remote team

The most obvious benefit of outsourcing many or all of your company’s tasks to remote workers is cost savings. However, there are many more advantages that a remote team brings.

Wider access to talent

You can look to employ the best talent from around the world, not just from your local town or area. The extra savings you enjoy can be used to hire highly-skilled professionals or you can funnel savings back into product development or boosting customer satisfaction.

Remote teams are more flexible

Managing a remote team gives you a greater amount of flexibility when it comes to a creating working environment for your team. Remote employees can choose their preferred place of work and, in many cases, this helps boost productivity.

How to create a remote team to boost productivity

What are the necessary steps to build an effective remote team that will increase your company’s productivity?

1. Hire professionals with a proven track record

The success of your remote team depends on getting the right professionals for the job. Because working remotely has its own challenges for employees, it's important to look for freelancers who have experience in managing their own affairs and working remotely.

There are a number of ways that you can meet the challenge of hiring the right professionals for a remote team.

First, you should set up a live discussion interview if possible. This will help you gauge the attitude and competence of your potential employee. Video interviews can be just as effective as interviews in person.

Second, it is good to give them one or two tests to check their competency. Some freelancer sites offer quizzes and tools to help test workers’ abilities. You can also send them a small task to perform which would be similar to the work they will do.

2. Create a culture for your remote team

The success and effectiveness of any team depend on the value and characteristics of the company. Creating an organisational culture for a team who has never met one another can be one of the biggest challenges of a remote team.

The most important way to create a cohesive team culture remotely is to clearly define your company’s values. Team members should be aware of what is expected of them and how they should deal with customers. You also need to maintain honest and respectful communication with all of your team.

3. Use the right tools for your remote team

Working across different countries, time zones and cultures require using the right tools to help manage your team effectively.

Depending on your circumstances, there are a number of tools you can use. Here are some of the most popular remote team tools.

• Trello. This is a great tool to manage projects between different remote workers. It is very easy to organise projects to assign tasks, track progress, and optimize workflow. The visual interface gives everyone a bird’s eye view of the whole project.
• Skype. This is one of the most popular video conferencing systems that you can use for business. The free version allows for connections up to 10 users which is probably sufficient for most small and medium-sized businesses.
• Google Drive (G Suite). Google drive for businesses called G Suite is a cost-effective way to share files, documents, videos, and more. This also allows remote workers to collaborate on projects. You can also protect certain information from being mistakenly shared outside of your domain.
• Time Doctor. This is a time-tracking tool that helps to effectively manage your employees’ time and track their efficiency.
• LastPass. If you need to share logins to remote team members, then LastPass is a great solution that takes care of security. You can generate and store secure passwords and share them with your team. Passwords are automatically entered into login fields without revealing them to the freelancer or employee.