How To Hire And Manage Remote Employees -Efficient Outsourcing Guide

Thanks to Technological advancements, outsourcing is no longer a strategy exclusive to big corporations. Hiring remote employees is now cherished by small businesses and entrepreneurs alike as it comes with amazing benefits such as profitability, scalability and quick turnaround time.

In this article, we’ll share our extensive expertise on how to manage remote employees and help our readers maximize their outsourcing potential. So first thing first, What is a remote employee?

What is a remote employee?

A remote employee is someone who works away from the physical premises of a business, utilising virtual methods to communicate, complete tasks, and fulfil projects.

A remote employee is an individual who carries out their role online, often working from a distant location or outside the employer’s country.

You can recruit remote workers as staff members forming virtual teams or choose self-employed professionals. Small business owners and startups frequently outsource tasks to self-employed individuals when unable to hire full-time employees.

The limitless scope of outsourcing services has now made this the preferred choice of businesses when hiring an employee. Virtual Assistant, IT Development, 3D modelling and even Medical processes are now being outsourced, all thanks to a global pool of talent available at the click of a button.

Finding the right outsourcing model

With a wide array of options available in the market, it is extremely important to understand which outsourcing model works best. The big question is how to hire remote employees?

Research suggests that businesses that choose to hire dedicated remote employees over a freelancer benefit greatly when it comes to productivity, quality and timely completion of objectives.

Freelancers take on multiple projects at once and are usually motivated by capital gains which evidently affects both the quality and punctuality.

Using key metrics such as cost, data security, market reputation and quality of candidates to compare different outsourcing businesses, you can minimize the risks involved and almost certainly find a service best tailored to your business requirements.

For more details check out common types of outsourcing models

Outsourcing Model	Description
Onshore outsourcing	The outsourcing service provider is located in the same country as the client. This model provides close proximity and cultural alignment, but may not be the most cost-effective option.
Nearshore outsourcing	The outsourcing service provider is located in a nearby country, often in the same region or time zone. This model provides some cost savings while still maintaining cultural similarities.
Offshore outsourcing	The outsourcing service provider is located in a distant country, often with significant time zone differences. This model provides the greatest cost savings, but may have challenges with language barriers and cultural differences.
Captive outsourcing	The client sets up their own offshore development center or subsidiary in a foreign country. This model provides greater control and customization, but requires significant investment and resources.
Cloud outsourcing	The outsourcing service is provided through cloud computing technology, allowing for flexible and scalable solutions. This model is often used for IT services and can be onshore, nearshore, or offshore.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)	The outsourcing of specific business processes such as customer service, HR, or finance and accounting. This model is often used for non-core business functions and can be onshore, nearshore, or offshore.
Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO)	The outsourcing of high-level knowledge processes such as research and development, data analysis, and consulting services. This model requires specialized expertise and is often offshore.

common types of outsourcing models

How to hire the right remote employee?

With free services such as Invedus Outsourcing, hiring virtual employees has never been easier. Simply send your requirements using a query form and start interviewing hundreds of suitable candidates in as little as 7 days without spending a single dime.

Criteria for selecting the right employee should always include manageable working hours and an acceptable level of communication skills along with the job-specific skillset, this ensures a fail-safe against any loss of work efficiency due to the language barrier and time difference across geographical boundaries.

Training

Training an efficient virtual employee is extremely easy and requires minimum to no effort at all, companies such as Invedus Outsourcing provide all the necessary facilities such as Video conferencing, direct international phone lines and computer monitoring software.

Using these provisions effectively you can monitor learner engagement and dedicate some time towards personalized one-to-one training sessions, these sessions allow the employee to ask questions and discuss ideas freely.

It is also extremely important that your virtual employees are introduced to the key members of their team during the training period, as it helps them develop a positive relation with their colleagues and enhances their knowledge of the company culture and values.

Managing effective communication with a remote employees

Collaboration and Engagement are the two-key metrics of efficient communication when it comes to one and/or a team of remote employees. Due to cost constraints, freelancers are usually ill-equipped, they lack the required infrastructure and modern channels of communication such as video conferencing, direct international phone lines, live computer monitoring etc.

This is where having a dedicated team of remote employees pays off, they work from a managed office and have access to meeting rooms, direct phone lines, monitoring tools, team management tools such as Slack to name a few.

Working from a managed office also comes with benefits such as minimum risks of interruption (compared to a freelancer working from home), power back up for seamlessly continuous communication channels, Project managers and Team leads for monitoring engagement and performance, which is perhaps the most important of them all.

Tracking Progress

Laying out clear expectations, vision and strategy is the first step towards meeting objectives. This ensures that the entire team is working in the same direction, towards a shared goal that is well defined and clearly understood by all: this dramatically increases the chances of success and encourages collaboration within the team.

Collaboration between team members across the globe was a challenge that has now been bridged by technology, the same technology has made it much simpler for employees to work closely together and overcome challenges, find solutions to complex problems and help each other to meet deadlines: this strategy should actively be encouraged in order to meet objectives within a given deadline.

The power of traditional one-to-ones and regular meetings had been time-tested and has a great record when it comes to tracking progress efficiently. Besides building rapport, having regular conversations with each team member separately can bring to light individual challenges and gaps that are often missed in a team meeting.

These individual conversations have also proved to be an effective strategy in keeping the employees motivated and dedicated to the timely completion of objectives.

Feedback & Recognition

Both physical and remote employees cherish their personal development and yet constructive feedback is often something that is overlooked when it comes to virtual employees: a missed opportunity that is crucial in keeping individuals motivated.

Employees who exceed expectations should be rewarded in similar ways as the physical employees, in order to keep the parity of equality. Having a monetary bonus structure is surprisingly cheap and can increase productivity significantly with minimum effort.

As Anne Mulcahy once said “Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.”

At Invedus, we are delighted to offer 24/7 support to address any questions or concerns you may have. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at INFO@INVEDUS.COM