Despite the fact that nearshoring means cooperating on the short distance, still, this distance might appear as the core client’s pain. The tendency for offshoring, nearshoring, hiring freelance workers and dedicated software development teams is rapidly gaining momentum all over the globe. Along with fears such as language, culture, and time differences, companies are also afraid of missing out the communication, which is crucial towards establishing trustworthiness with strangers. For the nearshoring model, the key aspects that are taken into consideration are leadership and team management since clients are given control and performance maintenance of their remote development teams. If the question of proper communication bothers you and puts you on hold of using nearshoring services for custom software development needs, we will shed the light on this matter by illustrating 5 approaches to how nearshoring services deal with this.
Try to Hear, not Listen
Communication between people is not only about talking and talking, but it’s also about listening, and, most important – hearing! Before digging into working with software development engineers, you should really understand that there are people on the other side of the screen, not robots or machines. They have life challenges, bad moods, occasional irritations that sometimes may undermine their motivation and work mode. Since you don’t have an opportunity to talk to them during lunch to hear them out, break the distance bridge by finding a personal approach. This does not necessarily mean conducting physiotherapy sessions – show them that you understand them and accept their personal issue which can happen to anybody from time to time. Hearing your remote employees does not refer only to personal issues, but also to working initiatives – give them the freedom to express their opinion, offer ideas, and possible implementations. Developers see your project from the inside, so they probably have something to offer.
Gestures and Mimics Make a Difference – Schedule Video Calls
In a virtual world, every person once faced a misunderstanding of taking a joke seriously or vice versa – made a joke from a serious conversation. Welcome to the modern way of talking – messengers, where emotions, feelings, gestures, and mimics can only be felt from emojis. It is usually really convenient to text your spouse on the way back home to tell them when you arrive; however, in the business world, texting may become a real threat to your relations between distributed teams.
Make a rule for yourself to feel secure and sure of every operation happening to your project – daily video calls, preferably morning ones. Seeing your employees will considerably ease your worries since, while talking, you will see their behavior, eyes, hear the tone of voice and other aspects that are common in real-life conversations. Moreover, live talking will save your time as you will close all inquiries that were in your mind right away.
Give Feedbacks, Ask Questions, Request Reports – Be Always Involved
Usually, projects do not last for 2-3 months; it is a long and laborious process, with all life-cycles, challenges, issues, and changes. So another way of so-called working communication is keeping in touch with the processes your team deals with. For maintaining order and consistency from the technical point of view – your CTO (Chief Technical Officer) should receive daily/weekly/monthly reports to make adjustments, resolve the issues, and make sure that everything is in line with the plan. But don’t overdo your control as it might have the consequences.
Your Success is in Their Hands – Reward Them
Not a single person on Earth can work without being rewarding. The verbal appraisal shows your employee recognition, value towards their performance, and trust in what they do. Starting each meeting or call with little introduction summing up the good points performed last week by your team, will, with no doubts, boost their motivation and self-esteem. Some companies also practice email notifications with letters that inform other employees on the success brought by a specific developer. Such an approach pleases the developer as well as motivates others. As soon as motivation is ‘inserted’, the next thing you get – efficiency, loyalty, quality, and the desired end result. The appraisal can also be given through salary raise: consider reviewing developers’ salaries every half a year based on their performance, achievements, and overall working behavior.
Never Travel to Your Team? – Do It
Yes, developers who work under nearshoring usually have comfortable and nice offices with all corresponding equipment, coffee and snacks, and other services that the nearshoring agency provides. However, since they work for you, develop your project, and contribute to the prosperity of your company, they need to see you. So the following recommendation on how to keep in touch with your dedicated developers is to organize business trips. These visits should not only be aimed at holding business-related meetings with the nearshoring company representatives. You better spot your developers in the office place for discussing working matters but in order to show your personal willingness to get to know with your employees – go out. The informal environment will be positively reflected on developers, and, as soon as you find a personal approach to each of them – the outcome will be forthcoming.
Finding a proper way might be a complicated matter even with in-house employees and it takes more time and effort to maintain reliable and trustworthy relations with remote development teams. In any case, it should not appear the most crucial concern if you apply a simple and wise approach. People need to feel valued and appreciated that’s why your key aim is to consider establishing human-based relations. Organize daily video calls, reward, and come to their country to discuss business operations as well as spend outdoor time with the team – YOUR team.
