Hiring remote developers allows you to maximize your cost-efficiency while leveraging global talent. It comes with many benefits, but also with some serious responsibilities: since your developers might be working from different countries and perhaps even different time zones, it’s up to you to keep in touch with them and to make sure they feel connected to their team.
Frequent communication will also ensure they stay engaged, motivated, and productive, so you must learn to communicate with remote developers. Here are seven tips for you.
Use the right communication and collaboration tools
After you hire remote developers, you must use the right communication and collaboration tools. If you’re unfamiliar with such tools, ask your developers which ones they prefer. Many remote developers use platforms such as Slack, GitHub, and Trello, but tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet are also popular. Each team member should have access to your tools to communicate with your remote developers.
Be clear on your goals and expectations from the start
Frequent communication with your team will ensure everyone is on the same page and can collaborate more efficiently. But you must be clear on your goals and expectations for everything to go smoothly.
Present your project’s goals and timelines, deliverables, and proposed milestones. Everyone on your team must understand what you expect from them and which tasks they must focus on. You should also clarify that you will communicate with your team regularly for check-ins and updates.
Encourage honest and open communication
Remote developers enjoy working with a team that encourages honest and open communication. Ensure everyone feels comfortable sharing their ideas, opinions, and concerns with the team. Please encourage them to ask questions, give honest feedback, and be sure to provide them with feedback. This will help you create a positive team culture and build trust with your remote developers.
Don’t occasionally engage in casual conversations with your developers and celebrate their achievements and milestones. Your team will be more productive if everyone genuinely enjoys working on this project together.
Make sure your messages get to the point
Whenever you have something to say to your team, make sure your message is direct and gets to the point. Avoid giving unnecessary details or going on a tangent when you’re explaining something important. Avoid using acronyms or technical terms unless you know everyone on your team understands and uses them.
Don’t hesitate to share screenshots, diagrams, or other visuals if you need to clarify something. You aim to ensure that all your remote developers can quickly understand what you’re talking about and what you expect them to do about it.
Provide constructive feedback
Whenever you’re in charge of a team, giving them constructive feedback regularly is important. This is especially important when all the team members are working remotely. When providing feedback to developers, be specific about what they did well and what they think they should improve.
Use simple language that gets to the point and consider providing examples to clarify what you’re saying and help prevent misunderstandings. Remember that giving constructive feedback will help your remote developers stay engaged and motivated as they work on completing their different tasks.
Schedule regular check-ins and progress reviews
You can’t simply communicate with your remote developers at the start and end of your project. You need to schedule regular check-ins with them to ensure everyone is on the same page and that any issue or concern can be addressed quickly.
Depending on the complexity of your project, you should check in with your team daily, weekly, or once every two weeks. You should also conduct regular progress reviews to evaluate the completed tasks and help the project stay on schedule.
Be sure to document everything
Finally, when communicating with remote developers, remember to document everything. Keep track of all conversations, project updates, progress reviews, and decisions. Even when you do your best to communicate clearly, misunderstandings can still occur, and documenting everything can help you solve various issues.
Fortunately, the communication and collaboration platform you use to stay in touch with your remote developers should make it easy to document your project updates and save your chat logs.
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