Optimizing the Productivity of Your Offshore Team

One of the challenges for any organization is how to optimize the productivity of their employees. Obviously the better the productivity the more chance your business will be successful.In general, employees are most productive when they clearly understand their tasks, when they feel appreciated, and when they can get help and feedback as necessary. While the pandemic years have normalized working together when not co-located, there are still some unique challenges when working with an offshore team. Let's take a look at some common ones and ways to mitigate them.

Communication

While I have yet to experience a team where there is too much communication, it is even more challenging in the case of an offshore team. Adding to the usual communication roadblocks you now also have to factor in language issues, cultural issues, time, and distance. 

• Language Issues: No matter how they speak English, you are still likely dealing with a non-native speaker. There will usually be a range of proficiency levels across the offshore team as well. Some ideas that have worked for me:
  • Send An Initial Email: Outline what you are planning to discuss 
  • Avoid Idiomatic Expressions: Idiomatic expressions will probably cause confusion for non-native speakers. Plain English is preferable to rhetorical flourishes. I like to think I have an extensive vocabulary, but I tone it down when working with non-native speakers
  • Consider Chat: If you become concerned that you are not being understood, consider writing your comments in a chat window. Non-native English speakers often understand written communication better than verbal. Verbal communication can be affected by regional accents, slang expressions, or just moving too quickly for effective comprehension. Chat also allows them to run through a translation tool, if needed.
  • Have a Translator: Ideally someone on your local team speaks the language of your offshore team, and you can use them to explain items that are causing confusion. Otherwise, for important clarifications, add the most fluent English speaker on the offshore team to your meetings. This can be tricky, as all members of the offshore team will probably wish to appear that they can understand everything, and you don’t want to put them on the defensive or hurt their pride. But if you have any doubts, politely insist that the most fluent person be present.
  • Follow Up: After a meeting with them, send an email summarizing your discussion. This helps keep both parties on the same page.

• Cultural Differences: Since your offshore team is in a different country, they will have a different cultural background. Sometimes there are only subtle differences but often they can be quite significant. 
• Learn About the Culture: Read a little bit about the country before you start talking to your offshore team. A little knowledge will help you establish a connection when you speak with them. They will also feel respected if you know something about their country and culture.
• Learn About Them: Ask them about themselves, their families and their hobbies. Also how their day is going and if there is anything new with them. Use your initial conversations as a way to learn more about their broader communication style and values.
• Show Respect: Make sure not to give the impression that our culture and our ways are superior to theirs, or anywhere else. 
• Have a Thick Skin: Some cultures are just more blunt than others. Where we might say something “still has some issues” they might say “it doesn’t work” or it is “bad”. Don’t take offense easily and try to remember they are just communicating with you the same way they speak to each other.
• Take Advantage of Holidays: Find out what the holiday schedule is in their country. If there is not much overlap, plan to leverage their availability on days when your domestic staff is on holiday.
• Time Differences: One of the biggest challenges with offshore teams is the time difference between you. 
• Negotiate Working Hours Up-Front: It is really important to have overlap when both your domestic team and your offshore team are available and working. Ideally you would have at least 4 hours when both teams are available. This means you will probably have to negotiate and set expectations as to when the offshore team is available, and how much they will shift their workday to accommodate you.
• Daily Handover: Whenever there is collaborative work being done on a task, there should be a daily handover meeting where the offshore team explains what progress was made and any issues they discovered.
• Daily Status: Similarly, it may not be possible to have a handover call when your offshore team begins their day, but they should get a status email from your local team outlining progress and issues.
• Set Expectations for Availability: Both your local team and your offshore team need to accept that they will have to answer questions outside of normal working hours. You’re not asking that they give up hours of their free time, but a quick 5-10 minute interaction can provide clarity that is the difference between a productive day and a wasted day. You want to avoid a situation where only one round of communication happens in a 24 hour cycle. That is frustrating for everyone.

• Distance: The physical distance from the location of your business from your offshore team is another obstacle . It will be up to you to build a bridge between your teams, and get the most out of the arrangement. To create buy-in, make them feel like valued members of your organization.
• Include them in events and activities: All company meetings should be remotely accessible and your offshore team should be invited. Recognize their accomplishments and milestones (work anniversary, birthday, birth of a child) like you do for your local team. If you’re buying company t-shirts for your local team, buying them for your offshore team as well will make a big impression.
• Provide access to resources: They should be provided the same development environment as your local team. This will eliminate one big cause of integration issues. It will also make it easier to trouble-shoot the inevitable DevOps issues that arise during a project, because everyone will be doing the same thing.
• Schedule check-ins: Having a regular, designated time to meet with your offshore team also helps to make them feel like important members of your group. This is also a good time to reinforce and re-emphasize development processes and also to solicit feedback from them. You may find there are simple things the local team can do which will make the offshore team more productive. 

Clarity of Requirements

Having a clear understanding of their work requirements is critical for the performance of your offshore team. Anything less will only cause delays and frustration for both of you.

• Requirements must be clear: Spend as much time as needed until you are satisfied that the requirements of the task are fully understood. Revisit and re-emphasize them regularly.
• Set clear objectives: Outline specific, measurable goals for their role. They should have a clear understanding of what their work needs to accomplish, and how you will evaluate their efforts. 
• Describe the Big Picture: Engineers always provide better work when they understand the big picture and how their work fits into the greater product. Resist the temptation to just tell them what they need to do and nothing more.
• Involve them in decision-making: Hand-in-hand with open communication, seek their input on projects and strategies. 
• Give them critical tasks: If the work given to the offshore team is all simple, junior-level work, they will not feel their contributions are as important. Making them feel important means giving them critical tasks, as well.

Feedback - Measure and Improve

Regularly assess your efforts for optimum performance and make improvements as needed.

• Monitor performance: Anything you wish to improve should be tracked. Performance, engagement, and job satisfaction are important metrics to be on top of.
• Adjust your approach: Use the insights you gain to refine your strategies and strengthen your relationships.
• Gather feedback: Have regular check-ins for feedback, as well as anonymous exit surveys for when the project is over. Even if you don't retain the contractors for further projects, they can still provide valuable insights to your company going forward. 
• Acknowledge their contributions: Highlight their achievements to the whole company, and give credit where it’s due.Provide bonuses or awards for exceptional work.
• Offer long-term opportunities: If your offshore team is successful, indicate that you would like to continue to employ them. They already know how to work with your local team, and that will only improve over time. Plus, a feeling of belonging will make them more motivated and emotionally invested in your company’s success.
• Invest in their development: Provide opportunities for skill development, such as training programs or access to online courses. This shows that you’re invested in their growth.

Conclusion

Optimizing the performance of your offshore team requires Communication, Clarity of Requirements, and two-way Feedback. By understanding cultural differences, setting clear expectations, building trust, and fostering a sense of belonging, you can ensure that your offshore team is effective and fully integrated with your local team. Everyone wants to feel that their work is recognized and appreciated.

At ITG, our leadership has been managing off-shore teams since 2010, and we have experience addressing and resolving all the pitfalls mentioned above. Please contact us if you need help with your off-shore needs.