Our today’s topic is how to manage remote teams. This may seem to be obvious, but it actually differs from managing a team in-house. Particularly, we are going to discuss the aspects that you will want to keep in mind as a manager of a remote team to avoid challenges and delays in progress. I would like to start with defining a remote team to emphasize how it differs from an in-house one. So remote team members live in different locations across the world and have diverse cultural backgrounds. These two factors play the biggest role in how collaboration in a remote team takes place. If you’re still thinking: “Why bother?” and doubt transitioning to remote teams, let us remind you of the benefits of working with teams remotely: -Access to huge talent pools -Increased productivity -Reduced expenses -Lower employee turnover rate -No commuting needed -No bureaucracy -Huge upside But to be rewarded with the listed advantages, you have to establish proper collaboration. So let’s move on to how you can do it. There are several factors we find vital in managing a remote team that you need to keep in mind. Here they are: 1. Language 2. Culture fit 3. Team availability 4. Setting deadlines 5. Communication 6. Managing salaries We’re going to consider each of them separately next. Starting with the language factor, it can be a serious barrier to proper task completion. You want to choose candidates that are fluent or close to fluent in English so that you can assign tasks without any trouble as well as discuss them with the subordinates. Another option you can consider is hiring someone who speaks the language you or the majority of the team speaks, which will work if you’re hiring in neighboring states, for example. In any case, you need to ensure that language won’t be the barrier to communication in your team. The second factor you need to consider as a manager of a remote team is employees’ culture fit. Since the world is becoming more global & interconnected, you have to accommodate people of different cultures in your team. So as a manager, prepare to acknowledge the differences between cultural backgrounds & personalities of your team members and be respectful of different ways & styles of communication throughout the entire project. A good way to ensure that everyone’s culture fits in the team is to choose people with traits of character and values that are suitable for the entire team according to your vision, such as based on the OCEAN strategy. Taking care of this in the very beginning will help you to avoid challenges in your further collaboration.

1. How to Manage
Remote Teams?
New York
Team Extension

2. A remote team:
● consists of members that are not in the
same geographical area
● is multicultural
What is a Remote Team?

3. 02 03
05 06
01
Access to huge
talent pools
04
Increased
productivity
Reduced
Expenses
Lower employee
turnover rate
03
No bureaucracyNo commuting
needed
Huge upside
Why Choose a Remote Team?

4. How to Manage a Remote Team?
SETTING
DEADLINES
COMMUNICATIONCULTURE
FIT
TEAM
AVAILABILITY
LANGUAGE MANAGING
SALARIES
Access to huge talent pools

5. #1 Language
Choose candidates that are fluent or close to
fluent in English to avoid language barrier.
You can also look for someone who speaks the
language you/the majority of the team speaks
if you’re hiring in neighboring states.

6. #2 Culture fit
The world is becoming more global &
interconnected - accommodating other
cultures should become the norm. Therefore,
● acknowledge the differences between
cultural backgrounds & personalities of
your team members
● be respectful of different ways & styles of
communication
But, choose people with traits of character &
values suitable for the entire team (i.e.
according to the OCEAN strategy) if you feel a
challenge might occur.

7. #3 Team availability
At the outset, the company hiring the remote
team needs to establish clear expectations about
holidays and overall culture, matching candidates
to them.
Therefore, preferably choose someone that shares
your culture. If not, then make sure the culture
does not affect the working process & progress.
Different holiday calendars can lead to holiday
overlaps and limit team availability, stopping
progress for weeks.

8. #4 Setting deadlines
1. Always inform about what’s coming next in
one’s workload - introduce tasks in advance,
share your plans for the nearest future, set
priorities right.
2. Be clear on the urgency of the task, don’t
underestimate its importance.
3. Don’t order but guide: communicate to clarify
misunderstandings before starting to work on
a task, figure out whether the deadline is
suitable.
Aim to find common ground in anything to achieve
successful collaboration.

9. #5 Communication
1. Use different channels of
communication for different tasks:
emails, Slack, Skype, Trello.
2. Make sure everyone’s available to
contact.
3. Hold meetings regularly.
4. Combine work-related discussions and
chats for fun.

10. #6 Managing salaries
1. Investigate local laws and taxation
regulations.
2. Choose the currency (usually USD
equivalent to local money).
3. Discuss collaboration form: project-based
or full-time.
4. Agree on the payment day(s).
5. Hire a local payment partner if needed.