Remote jobs and digital workplaces are becoming a norm after the pandemic. Most global companies are encouraging their employees to work in their personal spaces. Digital work arrangements are likely to increase the productivity and performance of professionals like translators, and writers. However, when it comes to global enterprise localization, companies have to work with remote translators from around the world.
Remote workplaces are still a new concept, and it will take some time for corporations to adjust to it. Team management is emerging as a huge challenge for top language service providers that have to ensure seamless collaboration between their remote and in-house teams.
Read this article to learn about the best practices businesses can adopt to effectively manage their remote localization teams.
How to Build a Successful Remote Team for Global Enterprise Localization?
Establishing Clear Communication Channels
If you have translators and professional linguists working at remote locations, you need to build proper communication channels for them. Gaps in communication among your localization teams can cause frequent conflicts and miscommunication issues. Poor communication also leads to poor team performance, mistakes, and delays. For effective management of remote teams, you must have proper communication tools and channels developed to ensure seamless communication workflow. You can use third-party apps, such as Slack, Zoom, or Skype to establish an organized communication flow among internal and external team members.
Building Trust and Collaboration
Sometimes when you have your team scattered around the globe, they never really get the chance to break the ice and build professional relations. It is the responsibility of a premium language services provider agency to ensure collaboration and teamwork. Moreover, building trust is also important, so your localization teams feel free to reach out to each other whenever needed. It will also help you create a positive work environment that eventually leads to higher job satisfaction.
Providing Clear Guidelines and Instructions
Long-distant jobs mostly have issues regarding lack of clarity and project understanding. Referring to the previous two points, if your communication channels are not effective, it will result in unclear guidelines and a poor understanding of project goals. So, it’s important for the project managers to deliver their task instructions clearly to remote team members with end goals. It’ll allow your team to be mindful of what’s expected from them, and how they are contributing to the project. You can also use videos, and screenshots to convey the task requirements and guidelines clearly to your team.
Managing Expectations and Deadlines
Your remote teams should have a clear idea about when the task is due; otherwise, you can expect frequent delays and missed deadlines. You can send remote teams regular project updates and progress reports so they get a clear sense of project objectives. It will allow your team to effectively manage their task deadlines and expectations. Moreover, you must promote a problem-solving environment where they can work together to meet deadlines and deliver work on time.
Celebrating Success and Learning from Failures
Everyone likes recognition and appreciation. Just like your in-house teams, you must celebrate the victories of remote employees as well. It will make them feel a part of your company. Simply send an appreciation email to the employee and mention their achievements in a Zoom meeting session.
Providing Access to Resources and Tools
Your team’s global enterprise localization team should have access to all the resources and tools that they may need to fulfill their job responsibilities. You can use cloud-based tools that are easily accessible for remote workers as well. It will allow them to seamlessly collaborate with the in-house team and make the most of all the available resources. You can also provide them with some basic training and arrange workshops if they are not already familiar with the tools and technologies that you are using.
Building a Safe Online Environment
In the end, it is important for top language service providers to provide a safe and secure digital environment to their remote teams. Make sure your cloud-based TMS follows advanced security measures to keep the data and conversations happening between team members confidential. It will allow your team to feel free to share ideas and work together to accomplish common goals.
Conclusion
Managing a remote team is quite challenging, and rewarding at the same time. Having a remote team significantly reduces your localization project management cost. However, it is important to ensure seamless communication flow and establish a positive digital work environment to ensure high team performance and productivity.
A premium language services provider must know the art and science of managing remote teams without compromising any of their localization project demands. It will allow them to achieve higher work efficiency and keep their team connected. Moreover, make sure to provide your remote teams with all the tools and equipment they may need to do translation tasks efficiently.