Like creatives and musicians, web developers often prefer to work on their own. Even with a technical background, they have different working schedules and methods to produce their magic. But one thing is for sure; they love to work from home.
As weird as it sounds, remote web developers are more productive. With the global pandemic and the way technology keeps evolving, remote work has turned into one of the best solutions for companies. Especially with the exponential demand for tech roles, remote positions will be more competitive for most web developers and software engineers.
If you want to hire a remote developer and still have doubts about remote teams, here are ten secrets you might be missing!
1. Forget What You Know About Remote Teams
During this pandemic, remote work felt like a weird addition for most companies due to the radical daily routine change. Even before the global crisis took place, remote positions were exponentially increasing. Virtual teams were already the best option for most companies and employees looking to improve their work-life balance.
The digital world keeps changing constantly, and hiring a developer who can work remotely can allow companies to keep up with these changes. Big tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter will continue working remotely even in the post-covid era!
2. Remote Company ≠ Company without Culture
A remote company doesn’t mean a company without culture. How you create a sense of belonging within a business depends on your values and how you transmit them to your employees. More than providing team-building activities, you create a company culture when you establish a work environment in which employees feel connected and protected.
Especially with remote developers, you need an environment to work together and stay productive. When remote, you can always promote regular contacts to catch up on weekly activities and keep your overall goal in mind.
3. Virtual Team ≠ Isolation
Who said that working in a virtual team means isolation? Loneliness and isolation are among the main concerns of virtual teams and, in the long run, can lead to lower productivity and increased stress. However, working from home doesn’t mean working alone.
Part of your team-building strategies is to make sure no one feels forgotten, especially your remote developers. How can you do this?
- Have the right communication channels and collaborative tools.
- Make time to connect with your team members in an informal virtual environment – with virtual water coolers and other team-building activities.
- Have weekly meetings to catch up with everyone’s tasks.
4. Cultural Diversity ≠ Lack of Communication
Another concern related to remote work is cultural diversity. Maybe your team is located in the U.S., and your developers are on the other side of the world. Language barriers and different backgrounds can create misunderstandings and frictions in the team.
Lack of communication in a team doesn’t depend on employees’ origins or remote settings. It depends on the internal dynamics of each team. If you build a strong company culture and ensure communication between your employees, cultural differences will be a strength rather than a weakness. Remote or not, encouraging diversity and different mindsets will fuel your team’s productivity with new ideas and constructive discussions.
5. Working from home ≠ Working from bed
One of the most popular stereotypes when it comes to hiring a remote developer is the picture of someone in PJs working in a bed with coffee and snacks all over the place. Or the image of someone working on the beach with a margarita and a fancy laptop. The truth be told, most remote developers have their own working space at home.
Working from home means working without disturbance, rather than from bed. Being remote helps to keep the focus on big projects and speed up the delivery process. Maintaining regular and interactive meetings with the team will remove the boredom while working from home.
6. Remote Work ≠ Endless Hours
Remote employees have more flexibility than on-site employees during a working day. However, this freedom is a double-edged sword, because in some cases, it makes teams work for longer hours.
The trick to a healthy work-life balance for your web developers is to encourage them to work at the most productive hours but always have limits. If they choose to work at night, great, but always remind them the importance of resting and having time for themselves, even if that means that they sleep during the day and work during the night.
7. Monitoring ≠ Surveillance
Especially at the beginning of the pandemic, many managers tried to find ways to monitor their employees working from home. If your goal is boosting your remote developers’ productivity, workplace surveillance is not the answer. Trust will work better if you are creating a strong company culture.
A good developer is a good developer, whether they are remote or in-house. Instead of constantly asking them how the X project is going, look for results. When it comes to remote workers, it’s always better to judge productivity based on outputs than on trying to spy them over a screen.
8. Track Team Tasks ≠ Micromanaging
The first thing you can do is being transparent. Instead of micromanaging and spying on your team, create shared documentation to track collective efforts and make everyone aware of what is happening. Documenting is key to being transparent and showing trust to your team, and ensuring a good organization even in different locations and time zones.
9. Different Time Zones ≠ Unsynchronized Work
When hiring remote developers, time zones are something you need to consider. But time zones don’t mean unsynchronized work. You can widen your talent pool and ensure a 24/7 service. Just make sure to organize things to synchronize teamwork despite time differences – as we said, documenting team tasks is totally possible!
10. Last but Not Least, Leading Remote Team ≠ Boredom and Routine
Does leading a remote team mean sending messages and live 24/7 behind a screen? No!
Of course, you need to be there for your team but working remotely is also about having the right team to work by your side and creating the best culture for your company. The difference with onsite work is that working virtually allows you to work in the environment that works best for you and your team members. And yes, managing remote developers is a challenge, but it also comes with great benefits that make it all worth it.
Everyone Wants to Work Remotely
Hiring a remote web developer is not a piece of cake. If you give them the option of working remotely, most of them won’t refuse. Why? Because everyone wants to work remotely!
To come back to our first point, 73% of tech professionals think that working from home is a necessary feature for their job. Remote developers and programmers are pioneers, but they aren’t the only ones anymore.
In a recent FlexJobs survey, 65% of employees prefer to be full-time remote workers post-pandemic, and 31% would prefer a hybrid remote work environment. Adding up, that’s 96% of respondents would rather work from home.
Numbers don’t stop here. From the same survey, 27% of employees would rather take a 10% to 20% pay cut to stay remote. Plus, 81% feel more loyal to their employer when they can work from home with a flexible schedule.
2020 wasn’t easy for anyone. Yet, remote workers report a Workforce Happiness Index of 75 out of 100, while their office companions around 71. Remote employees are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs (57%) than office-based employees (50%).
This satisfaction impacts productivity and teamwork. Among performance-based remote work statistics in 2020, 27% of employers recorded an increase in productivity, while 67% didn’t miss targets since employees went remote during the pandemic.
Especially if you are looking for a developer, it sounds like you can’t get away without remote work! .
