5 Crucial Practices for Managing Nearshore Teams Follow these five best practices for managing nearshore teams, including tips for communication, building trust and fostering collaboration.
By Pedro A. Barboglio Murra Edited by Micah Zimmerman
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The rise of nearshore teams has been one of the most significant shifts in how businesses operate in the past few years, as companies increasingly look for ways to become more productive and get top talent.
This article will explore five best practices for managing nearshore teams, including tips for communication, building trust and fostering collaboration.
1. Build trust with your nearshore team
Trust is one of the most important things you must establish with your nearshore team. They need to feel engaged and know they are part of the company. This can be built by demonstrating a commitment to the team members, taking time to listen to their feedback and including them in team projects.
All your remote team must know the company's vision and purpose. I recommend sharing the team's goals, priorities, and values with them and allowing them to provide their input; they need to know that the company values them.
By having a shared vision, everyone will be on the same page, working towards the same objectives and taking ownership of their work; be as transparent as you can, this way all members will feel valued and included, and they will be more invested in the success of the company.
2. Emphasize communication and foster collaboration
Communication and collaboration are critical for managing a nearshore team successfully; you should always establish clear communication channels. Having the proper tools and fostering a sense of community is essential to promote collaboration.
Creating a collaborative environment must come from the CEO, which should ensure that its team feels they are in a safe environment where they can express themselves, show their point of view, and foster a culture of teamwork. Setting up regular team meetings, individual check-ins, and virtual office hours is essential to ensure everyone is on the same page. I also recommend off-work collaboration, which would help employees get to know each other better in an informal "virtual" environment; for example, it can be one yoga or cooking class they can attend remotely and have a fun time together.
To facilitate collaboration, leveraging technology to bring team members together is essential. This includes using collaboration tools that enable real-time communication, project management, video conferencing and team-building activities.
Related: Six Tactics To Improve Collaboration For Remote Teams
3. Recognize and reward your nearshore team
Recognizing and rewarding your nearshore team is critical to motivating and engaging your remote team. This is essential as, according to Zippia, 69% of employees report working harder if they felt better appreciated at work, and 37% consider recognition the most important factor for job satisfaction. Recognitions and rewards also promote a sense of ownership, helping retain top talent.
There are many ways to recognize and reward team members, including public recognition, bonuses and promotions; there are even online platforms focused on recognizing and rewarding your team. I recommend doing this in public, adding a personal touch and always remembering to explain in detail why the employee is being recognized or rewarded.
Related: How to Recognize Burnout in Your Employees
4. Setting clear expectations
Clear expectations are essential when managing a nearshore team. They must know the team's goals, project timelines, and individual responsibilities to ensure everyone is on the same page. Setting clear expectations also means establishing a work schedule that works for everyone. When expectations are unclear, team members may become confused or make assumptions about their expectations, leading to miscommunication and potentially missed deadlines or subpar work.
Your team must know exactly what is expected of them and their work. For example, what to do if they hit a bump with one of their projects. Some tips for setting clear expectations are defining clear goals and objectives, communicating the expectations early and often and providing clear guidelines and procedures.
Related: Set Yourself Up for Success By Setting Expectations
5. Provide feedback
Like any other employee, your nearshore team needs to hear your feedback; this can include providing feedback on individual performance, team performance, and project progress. This helps them feel more appreciated and improves their performance. According to Oak, 75% of employees believe that feedback is valuable, and 65% of employees said that they wanted more feedback. Don't wait for the quarterly employee review; constructive performance feedback should be said when the action that prompts the feedback happens. Constructively give feedback, as this is essential to improve performance.
You might be asking why I have not included anything to do with cultural awareness or sensitivity in the best practices of managing your nearshore team. I have not included them as with nearshore teams, being in a neighboring country, the culture is similar. If I were talking about offshoring, this would have been included and prioritizing cultural understanding would have been one of the top best practices.
Having a nearshore team is an excellent strategy wildly used by many USA Companies to become more productive. This approach has become increasingly popular among US companies due to its many advantages like cost savings, proximity, time zone and cultural similarities to the USA, accessing a broader pool of talent, risk mitigation and providing companies with greater flexibility and scalability.
All companies should explore if nearshoring can be a strategy that would work for them, but like everything, it is essential to keep in mind that it must be done correctly, have the proper tools in place and consider the best practices for managing their nearshore team that we have mentioned in the article.
