BEST PRACTICES OF OFFSHORE STAFFING
Remote staffing is a new way of working. Just like capital, technology, enterprise, even talents are globally accessible. Entigrity has revolutionized the accounting community with its remote staffing solution and helped accounting firms access global talent. Our deep domain expertise and industry experience list the best practices for working with a remote staff that gives best results.
There is no alternative to your assessment; hence, it is highly recommended to interview an individual through video and online tests to check for knowledge and experience. Apart from the real-time interaction with the candidate you can also examine the body language, facial expressions, communication skills, and personality in video interviews. . It helps you know the candidate better, decide who would be the best fit, and finally have the best person on the job. Not just that, it also helps you determine the potential longevity of the particular staff in your firm.
Because of the time zone difference, the staff will accomplish the task even while you were not at the office, and when you get back to work, you will eventually see that most of the tasks are completed. At Entigrity, we always recommend having three to four hours of overlap and regular online meetings in that duration, as it all depends on how well you understand each other’s work. Your office keeps on working even while you are asleep. As a usual practice of working with remote staff, you can assign the task before leaving the office and check in the morning how the job has been performed overnight.
The overlap time is the best and sometimes the only time to communicate with your remote staff in a whole day and can be used to convey the task assignments with them. You can also review and discuss the previous day’s work during this time. The real-time communication during the overlap hours is the opportunity to discuss work in detail and provide a fair chance to the staff to obtain the desired output. We always advise our clients to keep at least 3 to 4 hours of overlap time with their remote team. It will allow them to communicate, discuss and review the workflow in real-time.
You will have to explain to the remote staff the nature of tasks they have to perform, brief about clients, their nature of business, their way of work and their expectations. The briefing might also include the frequency of the reports sent. Efficient collaboration with the staff is necessary to understand better how they function and utilize their potential to an optimum. A better understanding of the work will make the staff more productive. It will ultimately be beneficial to your workflows and processes carried out efficiently.
Regular communication with the staff keeps them motivated to perform better. Staying in continuous touch with the remote staff also keeps you informed about the status/progress of the assigned task. It also helps things get reconciled and resolved as and when they occur. It keeps away the shocks of encountering long avoided errors in work due to periodic reviews. Hence, one less reason to worry in the long term and a motivated team working under you.
Chatting with someone in real-time is much more interactive, and less waiting around. In essence, it feels like you’re having a real, human conversation with somebody. Chat is a seamless way of communication and resolving queries in real-time, getting immediate feedback on the subject. Chat keeps everything on the record and also hints at what’s important. It can be an effective tool to exchange work-related messages in real-time and get things done at relatively shorter waiting.
As your remote staff evolves, they become more efficient at their tasks, becoming an integral part of the firm. Like any other staff, a remote staff too gets productive with time and inculcates the ability to do their work besides managing a few more people under them. Hence, hiring remote staff is a long-term solution and not a one-time or short-term adventure. Your investment in remote staff for the long term is a win-win situation for both the employer and the staff. Issues are resolved faster with their own hired staff, while third-party vendors could exaggerate their capabilities. Why outsource when you can employ your resource.
It is always better to retain an efficient staff rather than get a new person, resulting in a costly mistake.
An outgoing staff leaves behind:Long-term employees have considerable knowledge of the company’s culture and its services. Consequently, they understand what works and what doesn’t. Performing the task day after day develops a solid knowledge base, resulting in higher productivity as fewer mistakes are made.
Skype is a convenient and effective mode of conveying your instructions to your remote staff; it gives you the liberty to verbally and formally mention everything and allows sharing of files. Likewise, using CRM Document Management System, Workflow, and Management System work as tools to enhance productivity by helping you and your whole team track ongoing, upcoming, and closed tasks. One can also post the latest updates phase by phase as the project progresses. So an excellent method to contribute to productivity.
Educate your remote staff about your company and how you do things. So they can adjust to your company and learn how to perform in their role. It is necessary to allow them some breathing time to figure out their responsibilities independently as giving them some comfort to settle down will motivate them to increase productivity.
