Geographical boundaries are no longer a hindrance in today’s tech driven world. The borderless transformation is impacting how businesses operate, as they can harness innovation from anywhere across the globe.
Organizations are looking at remote workforce distributed across the globe largely because it allows them to scale. Diverse perspectives, skill levels and working hours provide businesses with access to incredible talent and viewpoints that, on a more local scale, would be impossible to attain. Once more, this gives companies the opportunity to achieve growth of a magnitude that would be otherwise unattainable.
This blog focuses on the more recent and sudden shift to global teams, exploring the reasons and possible strategies.
How Scaling Global Tech Teams Became a Necessity: The Shift from Local to Global
The IT, data analytics and engineering industries have been reported to be affected the most by the lack of qualified personnel globally, with over 69% of employers claiming it is hard to fill positions in those sectors. This shortage of properly skilled workers may be one of the reasons for why organizations have been actively searching for talent beyond their local areas. The same report also states that remote work rose by 159% since 2005, and a significant portion of that increase did occur over the past decade.
A major contributor to this dramatic increase was the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many organizations to adopt remote work setups and rethink their hiring strategies.
As a result of this development, firms are starting to adopt cross border employment as a compelling and profitable strategy. More interestingly, the snaphunt report shows that 97.6% of people working from home wanted to keep this arrangement for the duration of their careers for at least part of their working life. Thus, all things considered, it is a great development for employees and employers alike!
As a result of these variables, companies are taking advantage of the possibility for remote work and globalization. Organizations can now source talent globally instead of purely relying on local talent. With geographically distributed teams, companies are able to address the complex demands of global markets, operate 24 hours, and remain efficient and competitive in today’s continuously changing environment.
Global change from local to global work allows greater opportunities to address the needs of people from different parts of the world.
Bridging Borders: Key Strategies for Global Tech Teamwork
In pursuit of business growth, companies are tapping into global sourcing talent, however, with its own set of hurdles. From going through a lack of communication, cultural differences, and even having technology issues, these challenges present themselves as the global world wants to operate on a singular strategy.
Additionally, while constructing these global teams, the following points should be kept in mind.
1) Define Your Goals
Each organization, before undergoing the initiative of employing a global team, needs to articulate common understand objectives for their business and how employing a global team assists in them achieving these objectives. Whether it’s accessing new market, offering customer, or accelerating product development, its important these hiring aims fit in the broader strategy of the firm.
Each team member, no matter where they will be located physically, should make clear for themselves the projects goals, tasks they will be responsible for, as well as the company’s vision so that everyone is on the same page and can be held responsible.
2) Investing in Training and Development
Focusing on onboarding and training is essential in promoting collaboration between global tech teams. A structured onboarding program is vital for new members to appreciate the company’s culture, targets, and working processes to ensure smooth assimilation into the team. Regular training and upskilling leave the employees with the tools necessary to keep pace with changing technologies and cross-cultural dynamics. By embracing these initiatives, organizations improve productivity as well as create a cohesive team that can communicate, collaborate, and innovate across borders.
3) Leverage The Right Tools
Having the correct technology not only enhances working systems and enables remote work but also assures the safeguarding of information. Scheduling and deadline calendars, instant messaging tools, and file storage in servers facilitate effortless cooperation regardless of location and time. With the use of documents, video conferencing, and task management technologies, teams can enhance communication, transparency, and responsibility.
75% leaders believe that their teams harnessing AI have better collaboration. Another report shows that, the use of online collaboration platforms surged by an astonishing 322% during 2020 and in 2021, 79% of workers around the globe rely on digital collaboration tools for their work.
4) Cultural Diversity
Cultural diversity is the key element towards successful global collaborative efforts in technology. Providing a respectful environment towards different cultures promotes unique perspectives, ideas, and solutions.
A report published by McKinsey shows that companies with diverse teams are 33% more likely to outperform their peers on profitability!
5) Cross-Cultural Training & Sensitivity
For a multicultural team to be successful, there should be a certain level of cultural intelligence which can be gained through proper cross-cultural training.
By recognizing and appreciating other people’s cultures, new solutions can be discovered, and more collaboration can take place. For example, Google and Airbnb have invested considerably in diversity training and programs aimed at improving cultural competence which subsequently enhanced employee satisfaction and reduced the turnover rate by 20% (source: Mckinsey). Such data demonstrates that when workers feel supported and appreciated, they become more engaged, loyal, and productive.
6) Building Trust with Relationships:
The trust and relationships have to be established to achieve success within these global tech teams. Investing in relationships and building a unified sense of purpose within the organization can strengthen the teams across borders through enhanced collaboration, increased productivity, and improved success in the long run. Frequent team check-ins, virtual coffee chats, and entertaining team building activities really assist in enhancing relationships and fostering a sense of community. Supporting this study, 2020 study from Harvard Business Review showed that teams that reported the highest levels of trust proved to be 32% more productive.
7) Flexible Work Practices
These global tech teams that are spread across various time zones can only be managed effectively with flexible work practices. Companies must employ flexi-hours, enabling remote work and employing asynchronous communication methods to allow their teams to work without geographical hindrances.
This service not only improves productivity but work-life balance as well resulting in employees being more engaged and motivated. As per Zoom, 71% of respondents in the leadership role reported happiness and satisfaction with their employees due to hybrid and remote work options.
Stride Digital Will Help You Integrate Tech Staffing Effortlessly Around The Globe.
The global acceptance of working remotely has shown that an employee can perform well even outside the cubical walls. This facilitates the breaking of geographical barriers and helps companies employ top talent from anywhere in the world, without limitations.
Stride Digital simplifies the global tech staffing process, empowering businesses to enhance collaboration and innovation. As an IT consulting, solutions and staffing firm, Stride Digital brings together the best tech talent and top tech clients in the world. Whether it is via team extension, offshore development centers or staff augmentation, Stride get companies the right people for the right job. Along with tech skill verifier and specialized recruitment, we offer unmatched speed to acquire those hard-to-find skills that companies need to remain competitive, efficient, and excellent in the ever-changing market.We cross geographical borders so businesses can access the full range of opportunities.
Join Stride Digital today and go international!
www.stridedigitalpartners.com
