Ukrainians are actually pretty close to other Western cultures. As practice shows, it’s quite comfortable for many countries to work with Ukrainian IT developers. However, building trust and cohesion between developers located in different world corners may be as hard as sailing the sea in an eggshell. Therefore, for a healthy and strong working ecosystem in the company, working on relevant relations between engineers is crucial.
Managers should anticipate the challenges of building a remote team, and SD Solutions is here to cover partners in this sphere. So, we created tips for managing a remote team successfully.
Make a remote developer loyal and involved
Like developers everywhere else, developers in Ukraine are much more involved in the product if they’re invested in it personally, if they really believe in what they’re doing. Development goes much better when people are involved in the company routine psychologically, not just coding and getting their payment once a month.
Solution
The interview with a candidate plays an important role here. It’s about personal desires and expectations. In that way, to get trust between the company’s management and developers:
Do not escape interviewing candidates and show them your interest.
Make sure developers are interested in product and long-termed cooperation.
Give them the understanding of their possible career growth and opportunities.
Make sure that your remote team sees personal opportunities in the project.
Be clear of your expectations for their work.
Provide regular one-to-one as well as team talks.
Create your own company culture together. Team buildings, business trips, and events will become its foundation.
Create a welcome book, where not just rules, but values of the company are declared clearly.
Build trust inside the team
Due to the research Google conducted recently, team’s productivity correlates directly to the level of psychological comfort and trust level among teammates. Therefore, it’s vital to pay attention to internal relations in a team, especially if it’s remote. Unlike in the office, where everyone goes to a kitchen to talk rather than to eat, people who work remotely tend to avoid online discussions whenever it’s possible. The fewer people communicate, the less they believe in each other’s experiences and skills. It may stop them from discussing important divisions, asking for advice. Moreover, newbies may doubt if asking questions is a good idea, as other developers might think about their incompetence.
Solution
For all newbies, assign a mentor or “buddy” who will help them to adapt and feel welcomed.
Be sure managers answer the team’s questions timely.
Establish communication channels in advance and set rules for them, for instance, use corporate massager with “in office/out of office” statuses or “It was not discussed if it’s not emailed” law. Choose what is the best for your team, but it has to be clear for everyone.
Establish reporting structure beforehand. It might be weekly performance check or daily meetings. Whatever is best for you, regularity is key.
Organize offline team buildings, events. If your team is international, try to arrange business trips to reinforce the ties of team spirit.
Encourage teams to develop their human communications. The information must be exchanged not only in SCRUM meetings.
Don’t overcommunicate, it may cause the feeling of overmonitoring.
Covering different time-zone correctly
As long as Ukraine is located in the center of Europe, our developers are in the same time-zone with most of our clients. With no doubts, it’s very convenient. Although different time-zones might seem difficult, the right management won’t let the development slow down.
Solution
To use time-zone differences wisely:
Pick the time suitable for all developers and made a timetable of the working hours of each worker.
Respect the teammate’s rest time.
Organize daily meetings at the time available for everyone.
Create a place where developers may leave the questions and propositions for those who’ll work lately and answer them without interrupting their rest time.
Dividing tasks wisely
When it comes to remote teams, managers can’t just leave things to slide. Sometimes initiative people take more tasks than they can get through. And other ones can’t get involved in the project as much as they want to.
Solution
Do not let workers be self-centered. You might try to combine people into notional duets, like a newbie and leader. Don’t let developers be snowed under millions of tasks, show them they may work together and help each other.
Share main goals and plans with all team members. Let the developers understand what amount of work all team does and what their personal input is.
Track work and productivity by using weekly or monthly statistics. Discussing repeatable issues and questions will reduce the misunderstandings occurrence and won’t let your team waste their time.
So, can the remote mode bring success?
After you built your own working ecosystem and set up communication, you have to maintain all of that. Managing a remote team may be difficult, but modern problems require modern solutions. Remember, although a remote team is slightly different from your usual office one, the matter is not where people give and resolve tasks, but how they do it.
