Maximize your business success with our software outsourcing services.
Elevate efficiency, reduce costs, and accelerate innovation with Your Team in India.
Almost 99.9% of businessmen are frightened to trust offshore companies.
It is human nature to fear experiencing new things. Probably that’s why we fear building new relationships with people from other cultures.
But then, how are you supposed to build trust when you are so frightened?
- First, understanding that “offshoring is no rocket science” will help you calm your fears.
- Second, your offshoring team is also humans. (They might have some similar worries too).
In reality, we don’t fear people; we fear ‘Cultural Diversity and the inability to cope with it. Plus, we fear trusting people sitting in the other corner of the world; we fear our inability to build a trustworthy connection.
Together it makes a deadly combination, which pushes you to be more doubtful about offshoring a team.
However, you might be limiting your possibilities and opportunities to grow by letting these doubts fear you.
This learning session will help you grow out of all such fears, build a stronger bond with the offshoring team, and manage it all while understanding cultural diversity.
So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Exploring the Cultural Diversity of Your Offshored Team
You might have heard ‘culturally diverse’ interchangeably with the term ‘multiculturalism.’
Wikipedia defines it as, “Cultural diversity is the quality of diverse or different cultures, as opposed to monoculture, the global monoculture, or a homogenization of cultures, akin to cultural evolution. The term cultural diversity can also refer to having different cultures respect each other's differences. Moreover, it is often used to mention the variety of human societies or cultures in a specific region or in the world as a whole. It refers to the inclusion of different cultural perspectives in an organization or society.”
It is challenging to trust new people in the beginning. However, with the constant communication, their tone of voice and body language (over video meets) might help gain confidence with time. For that, you (as a remote employer) need to put in efforts to build better relationships and understanding with them.
Note: Always remember that you both share different cultures and the space. So, give them enough time to understand you and vice versa. After all, it takes time to build good relationships and trust.
Of course, you want to make it happen (but being patient is the key) in this case. Also, shift your focus to these points:
- Invest Efforts and Time in Building Stronger Bond
A weak bond between you and your offshoring team can ruin productivity in the long run. Hence, it is essential to invest time and effort in building stronger bonds.
But how does that happen?
With more frequent communication - either audio or video interaction- it is possible to know them and their culture better. Invest more time in team-building activities, which is an effective way to improve work relationships.
Basically, it has to start with ‘a warm-up’ followed by team activities and then constant communication.
But we don’t recommend being super serious all the time. That might help you complete tasks on time, but building relationships has to be given priority. And, that happens when you kick in some fun factor in your interaction.
*Don’t be too serious*
Simply put, a balance of being serious when needed and being chilled at times will help you build a stronger bond with your offshoring partner.
- Be Accessible, Don’t Disappear
Many fail to build a reliable connection with offshoring partners. And, the reason is disappearing when you should have been actively communicating with them.
We get the fact that they are responsible for handling it all (and they might be doing it well). But, remember they belong to different cultures, and there is a lot for you to learn, a lot to understand about them.
The worst you can do to ruin your relationship with the offshoring team is Disappear.
Building a connection will not happen overnight, just like Rome was not built in a day. It takes efforts from both sides. It takes time to make a bond and maintain it.
So, the best you can do is be ACCESSIBLE!
Also, it is not about being physically present all the time. Even a message or greeting would help them feel your presence.
Why not allocate meetings more often?
Your relationship being long distant, it is critical to connect virtually once in a while.
Invest time in:
- Getting daily updates
- Track and monitor their work regularly
- Allocate meetings more often
- Share your schedule with your teams
- Encourage regular communication
- The Key is ‘Show Interest in Understanding Their Culture’
You have invested in communicating with them, and you have had enough meetings to interact with them.
Recommended Read: How To Hire Offshore Developers [Complete Guide & Checklist]
Does it make sense to understand their culture still?
Just imagine working with two employees - one who often talks to you about your culture, language, and what happens in your country. And, the other who just does his work and never takes an interest in finding a common point between you two.
Well, of course, everyone loves talking about their culture. And, it always interests people to talk about something in common with the other person. Simply put, it makes them feel connected and happy.
Getting a sense of their culture helps build a stronger connection. When you work with your partner, you remain entirely in immersion - you understand their culture, how the differences in culture work, and everything in between.
This makes them feel that you are genuinely interested in building a good long-term relationship with them. Nothing temporary, just fulfilling the purpose to get work done.
Understanding their culture will help:
- Create better relationships
- Establish much-needed trust factor
- Understand how and why they behave the particular way
- Predict their behavior better
It is simple, the better you get to know them, the better for your business.
- Verbalize Your Feedback & Suggestions
Communication is better when you verbally communicate or send across a message.
Share your opinion on this one…
How do you think you were able to communicate better with the other person? Probably, when you spared some time to give them a call and discuss the matter.
Messages could be misunderstood, sometimes. But that’s not the case always too. However, the chances of being misunderstood are pretty higher on this side.
It is always better to speak to the other person to better deliver your message and the context.
When talking to your Offshored team, make sure to connect over a call - be it to express your concern, share feedback, or even just to share valuable suggestions. It is always a good idea to speak rather than to drop a plain text message, which usually misses the feeling and the tone you wish to convey.
Verbalize your feedback and suggestions, always or whenever possible.
Also, be sure to share both the positive and negative messages in a tone that doesn’t sound rude. Your in-house team might sometimes feel criticism, and negative feedback once in a while is healthy, but that doesn’t imply to your Offshored team.
They might have been doing it differently in their culture. So, it is better to pick a safe method to do that. For example, you could safely opt for a ‘Sandwich Method’ where you place constructive criticism between two positive comments.
Well, that could be a slice of your perfect ‘Feedback Strategy.’
- Be Humble, Accommodating, & Open to the Differences in Cultures
That’s the formula to build a good connection with your offshoring team residing in almost any country.
Acknowledge the fact that there will be differences in cultures. Be open to it, and you will manage things better.
Moreover, don’t try to understand all of it at once - you might get confused.
Start slow, take small initiatives, and take all factors into consideration. Everything can be different from the time differences, language, behavior, and even the way they respond.
And, don’t worry about adjusting to their culture - they might have the same fear too!
So, how to cope up with this?
Well, start by learning the basics. Like, how they greet in their language. What is their style of communication, or how do they prefer to work.
All such petite things matter when you are trying to know your offshoring partner.
They might feel more comfortable with you! Also, hearing something in their language would make them feel at home. That is a perfect warm-up!
Being accommodating to their culture is something that would help both of you build a better bond for a long-lasting relationship.
Conclusion
The offshoring trend is sloping upwards with time. Eventually, businesses will have to adapt to this growing culture to fulfill their business needs for accessing diverse talent across the globe.
Don’t let your doubts keep you from scaling up your business.
Overcome these fears in the right way. And, with these steps, you can genuinely do that.
As we said, talking solves almost all concerns, doubts, and problems - it is time you speak to an offshoring expert who is proficient in explaining all about offshoring to you.
- You will be able to make a better decision for your offshoring teams
- Learn to build a better connection with your team
- Understand their culture better
- And, basically, learn everything that will solve all your offshoring-related concerns.
Your custom offshoring EXPERT is just a click away!
4.8 out of 5 by