Top Ways to Make Your Offshore Development Teams Highly Productive

Are your offshore development teams struggling to deliver the desired outcome? Then this article is for you. Here you will learn more ways to make your offshore development teams highly productive.

Whether your team is working on office premises or working for you beyond your office boundary, productivity is the core result that everyone demands. You will be astonished to know that, as per many research studies, it has been found that offshore or remote teams are more productive than onsite teams. 

To support this statement Researchers have found that the reason for offshore team productivity relies on many factors. Let’s find out.

What Makes the Offshore Team More Productive?

Though every new piece of research reveals new reasons to support their statement that a remote team is more productive than an onsite team, we have chosen the common reasons among their studies below.  

• They are free from surrounding distractions.
• This remote team found enough time to spend with their families.
• The offshore team handled their work well and had fun doing it.
• There were more areas of flexibility in the work of the remote team. 
• They save a lot of time traveling. Which is one of the main causes of fatigue. So, they enjoy freshness. 

But the next question arises does this offshore team always remain productive?

It is very difficult to say completely yes or completely no to this statement. Yes, the offshore team is indeed more productive as compared to the onsite team.

Furthermore, businesses benefited from their remote workers since they were able to establish their offices offshore for pennies on the dollar. Moreover, they can utilize their talents at very affordable prices. Additionally, they are exempt from paying the offshore team’s remuneration and other expenses. After not spending at all, they are still able to avail themselves of the best expertise for their business.  

However, productivity does not stay constant throughout the year. Businesses have to implement changes from time to time so that their teams remain productive all the time.

What can you do to keep offshore development teams productive?

IKEA, a global retail powerhouse, showcased the true potential of offshore development teams by embarking on an ambitious project to enhance IT solutions across its stores. This collaboration led to the remarkable installation of 12,000 POS systems in 300 stores across 25 countries from 2014 to 2015, demonstrating how offshore teams can deliver large-scale projects with high efficiency and cost savings. The success of this initiative naturally raises a critical question: What unique approaches did IKEA employ to achieve such significant outcomes?

Maintaining productivity in your offshore development team is crucial, and there are numerous strategies to achieve this. However, focusing on a handful of practical tips can significantly enhance your team’s performance. Stay tuned as we uncover these strategies, aiming to help you ensure your offshore team continues to work at an optimal level.

1. Treat Your Offshore team as you treat your onshore team

Often, we set up our mentality that the team that is not working in your office premises is performing fewer jobs and is different from your onsite team. 

Well, this is not true. Your offshore team also works equally as your internal team does. Keeping in mind that the onsite team is more productive can ruin the confidence level of the offshore team. Which will impact their productivity.

Allow them to express their thoughts, and share their ideas with freedom of speech. To accomplish this, provide them with pens and diaries bearing your company’s logo, as well as access to your official newsletter.

Engage them in a cordial discussion and ask them if they have any difficulty handling their existing project. Ask them if the offshore development team has any ideas to easily streamline their project without compromising productivity.

This will make them feel that they are also an integral part of your organization and will do everything to provide their best for your company.  

2. Give your offshore team a helping hand in the form of a Manager or Team Lead

When your offshore team begins working on the projects that have been assigned to them, they might have a lot of questions, concerns, suggestions, and the like about these new projects. In this case, they will not approach the director or manager directly. Here, the team lead or manager role comes into play.

The hired manager or team lead has all the details of related projects and can resolve all the queries of your offshore team. The manager or team lead you hired has access to all relevant project information, so they can answer any questions your offshore team may have.

Manager/TL can organize daily standup calls with their offshore team to ask them about the daily progress of the project. Daily interaction will not only help you keep track of the project tracking but also give you timely reports of any issue prevailing in the project, and at this time, the manager or team lead will resolve the issue at earlier stages and will keep contributing to seamless project completion. 

Before assigning a team lead or manager, bear in mind that the individual who will oversee and support your offshore team needs to possess great professional acumen, outstanding communication skills, and a substantial amount of team leadership experience.

Furthermore, consider that the assigned manager should not delve into the micromanaging tasks. It might affect the productivity of the offshore development team.  

Apart from that, managers should be hired from both ends, i.e., from the offshore team as well as from the onshore team. so that there will not be any more chances of clashes. And the teams’ productivity will not be impacted.

3. Streamline Offshore Teamwork with Advanced Software

We people are the ones who enjoy the digital age of technology. Today, we can interact with anyone across the globe with just three clicks, taps, or swipes. 

It is possible to reduce the gap between your onshore and offshore teams with a variety of tools, including Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Trello, Slack, Asana, Zoom, and others that are available on the market. 

To interact and collaborate with your team requires only better internet connectivity, a smart device or gadget, a good knowledge of your project, determination, team collaboration, dedication, good exposure to team handling, and a cooperative nature.  

If you possess all these prerequisites, then congratulations! You are ready to deliver the world’s best project without any hassle and at a reasonable price.

4. Organize team-building activities to revive Offshore Team Productivity

Sometimes, the teams get bored by performing the same tasks again and again. It will also be exceedingly difficult to express your ideas, pose questions, and generally engage with everyone when you are new.

In this case, it will be good to start with some ice-breaking games that will give you a chance to interact in a virtual mode. Yes, it could be a bit difficult to host the games for your remote team. But you can start or arrange a few team building activities and games for them. Contrarily, you can reward them on their birthdays, or special occasions. You can allow them to enjoy their festivals or organize a free lunch for them.

Furthermore, provide them with opportunities for group activities, workshops, or office parties as a way to show their appreciation. They will remain happy and engaged as a result of this breaking up the monotony. Additionally, it will facilitate their excellent rapport-building. Not only that, but it can also increase revenue and employee retention.

5. Transparent Communication to avoid any Miscommunication

The foundation of every conversation is communication. So, in order to prevent misunderstandings, it needs to be precise, effective, and have a clear ascent. Communication does not know the onshore and offshore teams. It is the only key to giving and accepting commands. 

It is important to ensure that you and your team have sufficient knowledge of both the country where your onsite team is based and the country where your newly hired offshore team will be working for you. As a company, you may encounter difficulties occasionally due to linguistic differences in the country where you have established your offshore office.

This will shield you from any misunderstanding of business requirements and create an atmosphere that encourages effective teamwork and communication. It is preferable to communicate via virtual calls initially to prevent any misunderstandings and to make it simple to assess the output of your offshore team.

Tools like Slack and Jira can aid in this process, facilitating direct messaging, video conferencing, and efficient project management​

So, the above are a few hands-on ways to make your offshore development teams highly productive.

Worth reading: – Offshore Development Center – What is ODC 2024

Do You Also Want to Establish an Effective and Successful Offshore Development Center? 

The above are a few hands-on ways to make your offshore development teams highly productive. These guidelines will assist you in effectively leading the team and securing their daily contribution at work.

Reach out to us for further information on assembling an offshore team that is both highly motivated and committed, and which can significantly enhance your profitability.

Regardless of your industry, we at Invedus, boasting over seven years of expertise in this domain, are equipped to assist you in leveraging the advantages of utilizing offshore teams to their fullest potential.