How Startups Can Keep Their Remote Development Teams Productive in 2024

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, remote working is here to stay in 2024, and without a doubt, previous years went down in history as the most trying year for several businesses, mostly startups, as they try to transition their regular team into remote teams. 2020 was a year to learn how to work remotely and unite employees through technology, however, there are still some problems to solve.

According to a survey by Buffer  99% of people enjoy working remotely, but this does not take away the fact that it takes a slightly different approach to manage a remote development team. Startups have to be intentional and take everything into consideration when it comes to improving the productivity of their remote teams.

And since every aspect of software development needs to be vetted by several expert teams before being released, companies need to know exactly how to maximize the productivity of these remote teams so they can meet their goals.

But, in order to maximize productivity, startups must first recognize the many problems associated with working remotely.

Problems Associated With Remote Working

As a startup entering remote working, bear in mind that some of your high-performing team members may experience a decline in productivity, mostly when they aren’t trained on how to handle their tasks while working remotely.

And just like everything business-related, working remotely comes with several challenges, and some of them are:

• Difficulty coordinating and managing projects.
• Trouble encountered with remote communication and collaboration.
• Difficulty maximizing and tracking productivity.
• Remote teams scattered around in different time zones.
• Language and cultural differences between teams.
• Strain building inter/intra team trust.
• Increased Loneliness and Boredom.
• Trouble unplugging after work.

Knowing what exact challenges your remote development team might face, both individually and as a group, would go a long way in helping you keep your team productive and motivated.

How to Keep Your Remote Team Productive

We’ve found that the best way to guarantee the productivity of your team is to tackle all the challenges involved in remote working. 

So, these are some steps we recommend you follow to ensure that your development team performs at their optimum capacity.

🔸 Outsourcing and Crowdsourcing

As your business grows, one of the best ways to increase your remote team’s productivity is to augment its efforts through online outsourcing and crowdsourcing. 

Outsourcing involves assigning a specific job to an organized agency while crowdsourcing involves assigning a job to several individuals.

You can outsource and crowdsource almost everything, even naming a business!

Basically, with outsourcing, you deal with another remote team, but with crowdsourcing, you deal with several individuals working remotely, and depending on what your remote development team needs, you can choose either of them.

Outsourcing and crowdsourcing on YouTeam offer your startup the opportunity to gather great ideas, data, and professional opinions from lots of experienced software and app developers.

🔸 Strengthen Communication and Collaboration

One problem inexperienced startups face with their remote teams is poor communication, and in some ways, weak communication and collaboration often show up in delayed communication and slow transfer of data between team members. One of the most popular ways is to use email when it comes to team communication due to its security and professionalism. When it comes to this, it’s important to do an email blacklist removal from time to time to ensure no emails will get into spam and that your team can have seamless communication. As a business owner, the best way to handle cracks in the communication web of your remote team is to:

Use Tech Tools

Tools like Skype, Zoom, and Google Meet are great online tools that can help you achieve quick coordinated communication with your remote teams. Also, don’t hesitate to use time tracking software like Clockify to monitor their productivity.

Check-In Regularly

You could either choose to communicate with them individually, for crowdsourced teams, or collectively, for outsourced teams. Whichever way you choose, endeavor to set up a weekly agenda, and speak with your remote team daily. Not only would you be checking-in on them, but you’d also equally motivate them. Also, mastering in calendar management will help streamline scheduling and optimize team efficiency.

And if they’re in different time zones, then specify a specific time for a conference meeting.

Brainstorm Together

What better way to build collaboration than brainstorming as a group. Brainstorming is a great method of building inter/intra team trust and can hasten idea generation and execution.

Upskill With Online Training

Effective communication does not come naturally to many people. Enrolling your remote team onto online training courses is a great way to build skills and improve the quality of communication between employees.

🔸 Motivate Through Appreciation and Encouragement

As a manager, you should understand that motivation goes a long way in enhancing the productivity of your team.

Everyone loves a little, ‘thank you,’ now and then, and even small work anniversary gifts can make a significant impact. One way to show your appreciation and encourage motivation is by celebrating your team’s birthdays. A funny happy birthday video is a great way to honor a team member and make them feel special on their special day. By creating a funny and entertaining video, you can make their birthday memorable and bring the team closer together.

It’s been proven that workers who’re underappreciated have lower productivity than appreciated ones, so take the time to appreciate their efforts with kind words. The more genuine your appreciation is, the more they’ll trust and communicate better with you, helping your startup both in the short and long-run.

🔸 Keep Focus

Managing your remote team properly is crucial to the growth and survival of your startup so endeavor that your team members avoid multitasking and focus on achieving one goal a day because multitasking can reduce their productivity by 40% and eliminating distractions can also save them the 23 minutes it takes to attain the same level of productivity they had before they became distracted.

With all these at your fingertips, your startup would definitely encounter a quick boost in productivity.