How to manage your offshore team

Most high growth companies will eventually look to expand interstate or internationally to grow their market. However, scaling your operations into another location also requires scaling your team and culture. So, what should you know before you take the leap?

In a recent Lunch Series, we hosted cloud technology specialists Josie and Stewart from Rapid Circle to discuss how companies can maximise the value and output of teams who might be situated across the globe. The Rapid Circle team consists of approximately 150 staff across Holland, India and Australia.

These were a few of our key takeaways.

Research your location

Before setting up operations in international markets, Rapid Circle researched each location extensively, from airports, universities and main towns, to where other similar technology businesses were located.

Understanding the local culture, systems and values are all important factors to attracting and retaining great employees.

Traffic conditions also played a factor — would this be an area that would be accessible to future employees? Would it be a location that you or your team would like to visit? It’s also worth considering flexible working arrangements (i.e. developing a working from home policy) for employees who might need to travel a couple of hours a day just to get into work.

Find great talent

Good team recruitment includes gaining an understanding of any job landscape and identifying where there is a density of talent — where are the best universities, education centres and research institutions located?

Could it be worth engaging a recruitment firm to assist with building your team, instead of reinventing the process? Rapid Circle identified the top 5 universities in each expansion region to help the company filter through thousands of technical job applications when there were dozens of roles open.

Over communicate

If you’re planning on building a team overseas, your local team needs to be on board with your offshoring strategy. The Rapid Circle team identified that they made it a point to be extremely transparent about the process, clarify expectations and open a direct line to the leadership team in order to address any questions or concerns.

As a company grows in size, a lack of communication leads to poor team cohesion and can create unnecessary friction. Everyone should be on the same page.

When it comes to onboarding your new team members, your leadership team should aim to over-communicate and ensure your entire team (local and offshore) is in full alignment with your company vision, mission and strategy.

As COO, I frequently refer to our company values and OKRs in team meetings, 1-on-1s or when I need to make an important decision. While it can feel like you’re being repetitive, the more you repeat a message, the more it will begin trickling throughout the organisation and ensure everyone is on the same page.

Good communication fosters buy-in from your team and builds team rapport. (Read more about that here).

Create connections across your team

As your company grows, it can often be the case that employees (especially those located offshore) feel disengaged or isolated from your team on ground. Be sure to include them in your operating rhythm, including weekly meetings, monthly check-ins and whiteboarding sessions. In addition, make sure you that you include them in any milestone achievements, celebrations or to talk about big wins (even if it happens virtually)!

Regardless of where team members are situated around the globe, Rapid Circle has a real-time 24/7 video stream in a conference room so that team members can walk into a room ‘for a meeting’ or bounce ideas with another person across the globe. In addition, they have a virtual ‘water cooler’ channel on Slack, where team members can discuss non-work-related topics (i.e. personal achievements, pictures of family, pets, and hobbies). Providing opportunities for your team to voice their ideas at work (and having a platform to share their interests outside the office) can be a great way to build team rapport, regardless of geographical boundaries.

While massive growth and expansion can be extremely appealing, your leadership team should be intentional and methodical about how they implement their offshoring strategy and bring your team along the journey, so that you can scale your business the right way.