According to a 2020 survey performed by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, an estimated 9 million Americans live abroad. And while many move countries for work, a growing number of these ex-pats are also continuing to work for organizations in the U.S. while living elsewhere. Canada, too, is seeing a huge surge of workers entering the country as “digital nomads.” In fact, working remote and asynchronously is becoming increasingly popular worldwide for its great worker benefits. After all, why wait to finish working to travel when you could travel while working? Finding efficient ways to manage remote teams abroad, however, is often easier said than done.
But just because there are challenges that come with working remote doesn’t mean remote work isn’t worth it. In order for remote, async work to be sustainable, you’ll simply need to pave the way for a path of least resistance.
Let’s talk about what this looks like in remote, async work, especially for team members working for your organization internationally.
Top Ways to Manage Remote Teams Abroad
For many managers, sufficiently supporting remote workers often falls by the wayside. But because remote workers are statistically less likely to feel engaged in an organization than their local counterparts, not investing in remote, async management processes can lead to losing those remote workers.
And the reality is, you probably hired that worker even though they’re far away and perhaps even in another timezone because they have the specific skills or training that you’re looking for. Maybe, in fact, no one in the same country as your organization measures up to this employee.
So, ensuring they feel engaged and adequately supported can be absolutely crucial for your organization’s success. Here are some of our top ways to manage your remote team members working abroad.
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Compromising on and Establishing Async Working Hours
When hiring an employee who will be working remote (and perhaps asynchronously) long-term, you’ll want to establish some ground rules for some transparency and clarity on expectations.
If, for a certain and legitimate reason, you need your employee to have some overlapping synchronous hours with others within the organization, make this clear from the very first step: the job ad posting.
As well, reiterate expected working hours and why these are important to you and the organization in interviews and before offering the job officially. This way, your employee(s) will know exactly what they’re signing up for.
And of course, you may have to limit who you consider as a candidate if these candidates must be able to meet with you remotely at certain times of the day. So, if you don’t want to limit your options too much, reconsider what demands you have for remote working hours and make compromises wherever possible.
If you don’t need them to meet synchronously with you often, make sure this is clear, and crucially, trust that your employees will complete their work in the times they find work for them.
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Ensuring Workers Can Be Independent
One of the most frustrating and detrimental aspects of an async remote worker’s day can be depending on coworkers and managers outside their timezone.
Where communication might take no time at all in an office setting, online, asynchronous communication could take days to weeks from start to finish.
To help employees avoid these obstacles during the day, you’ll need to establish a path of least resistance. This might look like creating a password management tool to ensure all employees have access to all online tools any time, rather than having to ask for passwords or wait on others to log in for them.
This might also look like using a task management tool like Asana to ensure all workers are on the same figurative page when working collaboratively on a project at different times of day.
The goal here is to allow workers to be as independent as possible, so their processes aren’t slowed down by others.
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Supporting Teams with Top Async Communication Tools
In addition to implementing task management platforms, all the best managers have a most frequently used method of asynchronous communication. Oftentimes, email proves to be too slow and clunky to facilitate regular communication. So, instead, many teams use platforms such as Teams for the chat function, as well as Discord or Slack.
The latter are especially useful for funnelling specific conversations and subjects to the right team members.
With the above stated, every team differs based on their needs and abilities to communicate with one another. So, experiment and find what works best for everyone.
As long as the platform is consistently used throughout the organization and allows for asynchronous communication, there really is no right or wrong solution.
More Ways to Improve Remote, Async Teams
Of course, you as a manager will inherently have a greater responsibility than anyone else to ensure all team members—remote and local—continue to find their work engaging and fulfilling. But at the same time, this doesn’t mean this is only up to you and you alone.
Remember to use your teams. Distribute some of this remote management to other team members by offering bonuses or other perks for incentive.
For example, if you have an employee who would do well with a leadership role, incentivize them to support you by being the head of meetings within their timezone.
These leaders can be in charge of organizing and running meetings as necessary. And this can go for both work and non-work related meetings.
Let’s say the organization is having a summer team bonding event for those living in the city in which the organization is based. The leaders of remote groups, then, can organize another similar or adjacent event that is more accessible for those in the remote location, whether this is also in-person but elsewhere or online in a timezone that works better for those abroad.
This way, everyone can feel included and equally as engaged while with the company, even when working abroad.
Do you have any advice we missed in this blog? Feel free to share it on the link to this blog our LinkedIn page here. Let’s keep the conversation going!
