How to Manage And Retain Remote Developers?


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How great would it be to work from anywhere and anytime you want? You could log into your computer, see some emails and a few Slack messages, and get right down to business. Experts think you’d be able to hire a top remote software developer if you could offer this cool perk since it’s a great way to successfully juggle between social life and professional life without sacrificing their job performance or productivity.

Sounds great, right? But setting up a system with no location and no hours barrier isn’t easy if you do not start it right. So, how can you make sure that it works for you? Our experts at micro1 have compiled a handy guide to make your flexible remote work arrangement a success.

1. Let Developers Choose Their Hours

A lot of people get attracted to work from home, but they don’t want to feel like they have no control over when they do it.

Some people love working early in the morning, while others prefer late evenings or weekends. Let your developers decide when they should work to make the most of their time. This gives them a free hand over their own time and life balance.

Developers who have greater control over their work environment are happier employees who are more productive and do better work.

2. Establish a Clear Communication Strategy And Tools

You can’t just jump into remote work without establishing clear guidelines for how your team communicates.

 Set up regular meetings with each team member and ensure everyone agrees on what those meetings will cover. Also, establish rules for when people should reach out privately versus during meetings. This will help ensure that everyone feels heard and supported while keeping meetings short and focused on the business at hand.

You need to figure out what software and tools your developers will use for communication and then make sure everyone knows where to go and what to do when there’s an issue or question.

In addition, you should outline the specific channels of communication you’ll use for each type of message — for example, Slack for urgent matters, email for administrative tasks, or Monday for project updates. Having this clarity in place helps reduce confusion when it comes time to respond quickly.

It’s also important to establish clear guidelines for how often you expect to hear from your team members, what information should be shared, how often it should be shared, and when it’s appropriate to reach out for more information.

3. Team Collaboration Hours

 Add a couple of hours where everyone works at the same time every day (e.g., 9 am-11 am). This will give people a sense of belonging, which is important when working remotely. It also gives people an opportunity to catch up virtually with peers, which helps them maintain relationships with their team members as well as their boss or manager. It also gives you the opportunity to give them feedback in real time, which is extremely valuable for both sides.

4. Give Remote Developers Accountable Without Micromanaging Them

 Remote workers thrive on autonomy and freedom, so they need clear expectations and goals without too much oversight from managers. It’s important not to over-manage your remote workforce because you want them to feel like they can take ownership over their projects without checking in every hour or asking permission for every action they take on their computers or smartphones.

At the same time, you don’t want them doing whatever they want either because then there’s no way for you to know if what they’re doing is effective or not — and this can lead to clashes among team members and blame games, eventually destroying deadlines. Tools like Hubstaff can help you track developers’ productivity with or without recording screens, capturing screenshots, and tracking URLs visited. You can ask your team members and accordingly adopt a tracking and productivity policy to manage the team without micromanaging.

5. Regular Performance Reviews

You may not be in the same room as your remote workers, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hold regular performance reviews. These sessions allow you to give feedback and ask questions about how things are going, which is essential for maintaining a healthy work environment where people feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves.

Regular performance reviews are important even when employees are working remotely because they provide an opportunity for both sides to talk about what’s going well and what needs improvement. If you aren’t scheduling regular one-on-one meetings with each employee, consider doing so now that they work remotely — especially if it’s been a while since you’ve seen them face-to-face or haven’t met them in person yet.

 6. Build An Open And Learning Culture

Make sure each member has a mentor who can help them with guidance on how they can improve as developers. If you’re unsure which member needs mentoring most, set up an anonymous feedback survey where team members can anonymously rate their peers’ performance — this will help identify which members need more guidance or training.

Encourage communication between team members by setting up video chats at least once per week so that everyone can see each other’s faces every few days (or even better, every day). Team members need to be able to interact with each other in person as often as possible — don’t let distance get in the way!

7. Set Up An Accountability Structure

The trick with managing remote teams is that work gets done when it’s due — not when everyone feels like working on it. If you’re going to let people work remotely, they need to be held accountable for their work. A good way to do this is by creating a structure where team members have weekly check-ins with one another or their manager, so they can discuss what they’ve done and what’s coming up next.

To avoid situations where your developers aren’t getting anything done – an accountability structure will help to know what tasks they need to complete each week or month (depending on how often you want them to report back). This will help prevent procrastination from creeping into your team, which means more output over time!

8. Engage And Excite Your Team

Engage and motivate your team with different virtual team activities. Team building is important in any workplace, but it can become even more essential when your team members aren’t in the same location and work during the same hours.

Get creative with ways to build camaraderie among your team members by doing something fun together, like playing virtual team games or having a board game night or hosting fun podcasts, and scheduling one-on-one meetings. Your employees will appreciate the opportunity to spend time together outside of work. It will help them feel more connected to one another.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, flexible remote work is a great way to attract top talent to your team while providing flexibility and freedom to your developers. By giving your team the right tools and instruction on using them, you can turn this form of work into an incredibly valuable resource for both your business and your team members. If this sounds too much to you, connect with micro1 experts today to hire the best remote developers and set up a flexible work system for them from Day1.