5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Leverage Remote Teams There will soon be more software developers outside the US than here. Hiring remotely is a necessity.
By Serenity Gibbons Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Leveraging remote workers can provide many benefits to companies. In a world where remote work is the future of industry, understanding how to utilize these remote teams is vital.
Here are five ways to do just that:
1. Make your entire team remote.
There are billion dollar companies, such as Automatic and GitHub, which do not operate out of a physical office. While having a centralized office is traditional in the business world, there is really no reason with today's modern technology, that your company needs an office. In fact, not having one saves money, gives you (and your employees) the freedom to work anywhere, saves transportation costs (and the environment), saves you from a daily commute, etc.
Remote working is proven to do everything from boost the happiness of workers to increase productivity levels. With all the benefits of ditching your office space and operating online, there's really no reason not to give a completely remote team a try.
Related: We Acquired a Company With Remote Employees. Here's What We Learned.
2. Augment your local team.
If you must have a local team, consider augmenting them with your remote workers. By having remote workers and your local team work together, the local team will be able to get a lot more done, therefore delivering higher value for your customers. In a sense, you would be using your remote workers as specialists to provide additional help to the local team, increasing productivity. This is a great way to utilize the global, remote talent at your fingertips.
Related: 4 Reasons Why Smart Companies Are Going Remote
3. Create additional projects, unable to be completed locally.
Every manager has projects that they would like to complete, but never quite get the time to, due to more pressing matters. When it comes to these assignments, it's a great idea to turn them over to the remote team. This way, you are using your remote team to complete a task that may positively impact your company, but is unable, for whatever reason, to be taken on by the local team.
Using outside resources to complete additional tasks also prevents the internal team from becoming distracted by a project that doesn't pertain directly to their work. Furthermore, using remote teams for these assignments cuts down on funds that need to be delegated to those working on them, as remote hires are typically cheaper than regular employees.
Related: Distributed Teams Are Disrupting Tech. Here's How to Join Them.
4. Discover hidden geniuses around the world.
By opening yourself up to hiring workers from talent pools all over the world, you have the opportunity to work with a vast number of people- many of whom, you would have never come into contact with under normal circumstances. Bringing these workers into your company, allows you to uncover geniuses from every country -- not just the United States.
In fact, when it comes to the tech industry, much of the world's talent now lies outside the U.S. For instance, there will soon be more software developers outside the country than there are in it. Hiring remotely is a necessity to ensure that you have the best talent at your company.
5. Increase creativity.
As a CEO or manager, your role is to increase innovation, as well as profitability, and research shows that increasing diversity in business really does boost both of these.
Hiring remote workers from around the world enables you to work with people from different backgrounds, who have different mindsets. By allowing these workers to exercise their creativity, you may find yourself with new solutions and ideas that someone from the U.S. would have never thought of. Jonathan Siddharth said "At Turing, it is our belief that remote teams are the future of work. Great talent lies all around the globe- you just have to seek it out.
Turing provides elite, pre-vetted engineers to companies within the Silicon Valley. Using machine learning to optimize management, we enable companies to rapidly scale their teams. Out of all the engineers who apply to find work through our services, we only accept the top one percent, valuing quality over quantity."
