5 Ways to Build an Effective Offshore Team
Updated: May 28, 2020
You have a great idea. You made it tangible and passed the proof of concept. Now business is picking up and you realize that you need to start thinking about getting more hands to help you with the growing amount of work to be done. You need to do it but don't know exactly how to go about it. Hiring people to help in your growing business can be a relief, but it can quickly turn into a nightmare if you don't know how to do it. Here are five ways on how you can turn offshore staffing to a fun and exciting milestone in your business:
1. Make a list of the things that you need to accomplish
Just like this blog post, it's important to start things by listing down the things that you need to do so that you can grow your business. Having a list will keep you organized and will give you a clear picture of your tasks ahead. Start with a clear goal: what do you want to achieve in 'x' number of years? From there, list down the all the steps needed for you to achieve your goal. It doesn't have to be detailed yet--you just need to set yourself up to succeed. Once you've made your initial list, try to create a sub-list for each item. 'How am I going to do that?', 'Who do I need to help me?'... these are the questions that you should be asking next.
2. Identify which specific roles you need at this time
Depending on what stage you are in your business, you will have different needs and goals. For start-ups, this could be running your first Facebook campaign or generating your first few leads. For business owners that are further along, they may need virtual assistants who could help them fulfill their administrative tasks so they could go back to managing their business. As your business grows, you can't do everything by yourself. Eventually you'll have to start looking into hiring personnel with specific skills and tasks to help you manage and expand your business. It helps to go back to the list that you created and check which tasks need specific roles. Do you need to create a social media campaign to generate more leads for your service or buyers for your products? Then you would probably need a Social Media Manager who can do those campaigns for you as well as handle your social media pages so you could engage with your customers and gather precious feedback from them. Do you need to manage your schedule and send thousands of emails weekly to your contacts to keep them warm? You'll probably need a virtual assistant to help keep your day-to-day tasks running so you could go ahead and meet those customers that you've been needing to negotiate deals with. If there are gaps in your business that you can't fulfill whether due to time constraints or skills gap, you can always look into hiring someone who can complement you well and fulfill those tasks.
3. Partner with an offshore staffing company who can build you an offshore team specific to your needs
Finding an offshore staffing company to source your manpower needs can be stressful. You'll need a company that would understand your business well and see to it that they get the best possible team to fit your requirements. Furthermore, you'll need a company that will let you still take control of your team to whichever direction you want your business to be headed.
1625Tech is an offshore staffing company that can do just that. Before you set-up your offshore team, the 1625Tech Management Team will schedule calls with you to understand your business and your management style so they could be in the best position possible to find the right people for you. Once this has been established, they will find candidates with the skills set necessary for your needs and will conduct the initial interviews. Once the pool has been screened, they will send you the qualified applicants' profiles and CVs and YOU will conduct the final interview and select who will join your offshore team. You will be in control from the hiring process, training, and management of your offshore team. Once your offshore team is complete, a Team Leader will be assigned to your team and will be in charge of ensuring that your team is productive and meeting the targets that you have set for your team.
4. Be specific in listing down team targets so your offshore team leader can help you in pushing your team
Your team leader's sole responsibility is to ensure that your team is working to hit your targets and growing your business. As such, you have to be specific on the roles of each and every one of your offshore staff and come up with clear targets for all of them. For example, when drafting targets for your social media manager, don't just come up with a target that says 'Handle Facebook page and answer questions about our service'. You can be as specific as 'I need you to come up with campaigns that will give is 3,000+ engagements per week, and a 15% click through rate'. In the case of a Virtual Assistant, you can ask them to provide you with '500 leads per week', or 'send out 100 personalized emails per day to the customer list'. This will allow your Team Leader to guide the team and ensure that your targets are met. Your Team Leader will provide you with weekly updates on what your team has fulfilled for the past week as well as what they will focus on for the current week.
5. Build a good team culture to increase productivity and maintain a positive digital workplace
Your team will work day-in and day-out to help you grow your business. But don't forget that they are humans as well on the other side of your screen who can get burned-out. Don't forget to interact with your offshore team and ask them about their personal lives. Schedule a virtual happy hour with your team and congratulate them for a job well done in the past month. Talk with your team leader and see how you can reward team members who have exceeded your targets. These are just some of the few things that you can do to keep your offshore team engaged and ultimately boost productivity!