Setting up a remote project team. Here’s what you need to keep in mind

When you need to set up a remote team, simply finding the right people is not enough. It takes fine tuning, accommodation and care to make team work smooth and effective and build a supportive and open environment.
Chances are your remote team of freelancers is made up of foreigners that come from different backgrounds. This means that there will be time differences, varying levels of competence and skills. So, it is crucial that communication is right and everyone’s on the same page.
We’ve previously made a short guide on how and where to find freelancers here. In this article, let’s talk about how to build a remote team of freelancers and forge a strong and performing group.

Foundations of a successful remote team

Self -motivation

Every member of your team is supposed to be able to work on their own. So an essential step in initial meetings is to figure out if they have self-motivation to keep them working in isolation. Pay attention to how active the candidate is in an interview, if they show initiative and how they deal with unconventional interview questions.

Remote workers with enough self-motivation do not require constant control. They will make a perfect foundation for a powerful remote team.

Onboarding

A new team member is likely to have an obscure understanding of the team as a whole and its projects. If onboarding is poorly organized, short and uninformative, the newcomer won’t know what to do and where to begin. As a consequence, there may not feel particularly inclined to stay and commit to a company that doesn’t value them enough to just show around.

Corporate culture

The environment in which your on-site and remote teams operate has a direct impact on how they work. To make your team work effectively and in unison, let team members take control and make their own decisions. Let people exchange information, feedback and decisions made as well as challenges faced. It is important to acknowledge remote workers’ input by openly and publicly praising them. While mistakes and wrong steps should not be punished or shamed, they must be taken into account if they occur on a regular basis.

How to calculate efficiency of a remote worker

There are three key characteristics that make an employee effective and efficient – self-discipline, communication and learning ability.

  • .Self-discipline shows a worker’s capability to work unsupervised by a higher standing manager. A worker is responsible for their performance. The team lead sees how effective a worker is in interim results and team meetings.
  • Communication is one’s skill to speak to other people to deliver or find out information. It is easily checked through how they speak in work chats and meetups. In addition to these sources, it is also reasonable to request feedback from workers if they feel tuned in and if finding information is easy for them.
  • Learning ability is an ability to receive, analyze, and apply new information to work. Over the course of projects, there may be a necessity to teach workers new skills. The better remote team members learn, the more effective their work and contributions will be.

Finding out if your remote team has these three necessary characteristics is easy. You can give them a task and evaluate how fast and effectively it is completed. A clear and realistic motivation system should be offered as well. It will also help if you occasionally remind your team what is the Big Goal you are all working for.

It is easy to build your dream team with EasyBusy. In this freelance marketplace you will find verified and reliable freelancers from any area and pay them seamlessly with any bank card and in any currency.