Several businesses are running their operations remotely because of the current world situation. Since the start of the pandemic, businesses have had to consider practices for operating remotely while still providing the best quality services to their customers. If you are thinking of building a remote startup, there are things you need to consider before progressing with your plans.

In addition, if you already have a startup and plan on switching to a remote work operation, there are some important points you should consider. The switch to remote work comes with it is own dilemma for startups. To mitigate any cannibalization on productivity, certain activities must exist to make it work.

This article focuses on the factors to consider when building a startup remotely. It also provides tips and strategies to manage your teams for an effective remote work model for your startups

Best Practices to Consider When Building a Startup Remotely

Physical work operates well because everybody is present and there is constant monitoring of progress from each team with its individuals. However, remote work can be challenging as there are limitations surrounding how the monitoring process will take place. Furthermore, the resources available for physical workstations might not be available for remote workers. Below are some of the best practices that you should consider before building a startup remotely

1.  Remote Setup

The remote setup types matter a lot while deciding the working situation for your startup. Due to the type of operations that your startup is running, this decision is crucial for the success of your startup. The options available are:

The type of need your startup requires determines the remote setup type you will settle for your startup.

i. Full remote setup: this work scenario involves every member of the team working remotely. Communication for this type of work setup is important for meetings and information sharing. This work setup benefits startups as it can source skills and expertise across various time zones.

ii. Hybrid remote option: this option offers a partial remote opportunity for workers to work remotely for some days and be physically present in others. This schedule allows startups to meet and deliberate physically and synchronize their day-to-day process.

iii. Partial remote option: this work setup allows for some of the employees to work in-house at the office while others work remotely. This special type of remote workforce is usually useful when your startup needs to bring in experts and contractors to augment your workforce

2.   Tools and Resources

The availability of tools and resources to work remotely is also another important point to consider when planning on building your startup remotely. It is important to determine what tools your workforce has and how much you are willing to go to support them.

Workers productivity greatly rely on the tools available to carry out their daily task and achieving their collective goals. There has to be some tangible amount of investment in the right tool for remote work.

For communication or software for project management, engaging the right tool for task-specific functions is important to help your startup produce and maintain productive deliverables.

3.  Handbook for Remote Work

The onboarding process of working in a team can only be done digitally for people that work remotely. This process is important to introduce teammates to their managers and prepare them for their roles. A handbook is a necessary onboarding document that contains information about the company, the roles, and the rights of the employees.

Creating an onboarding handbook becomes crucial to help remote teammates understand the company’s mission and vision. The handbook explains the roles the new hires are required to fill. It also draws the hierarchy for reporting. For questions and other clarification, this handbook stresses to provide answers that are needed.

4.  Work Schedule and Productivity Metrics

Creating a work schedule for the team working remotely is important. It is important to spell out how to measure the progress the team is making, what time they have to put in daily, and outline the policies for leaves and absences.

Conducting regular work check-ins becomes important to measure employees’ availability. The check-ins become important for new hires to ensure they are fitting into your startup properly. As an inclusive practice, it is also important to have regular check-ins with every other person who is working remotely from time to time.

5.  Training and Best Practices

Investment in the training of new hires and the rest of the team is another important part of building a successful setup. Collaborative software is one of the top software that fosters collaboration between the team. Knowledge of how to use the software for delivering on projects and communicating is one of the important training that staff members will need.

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Facilitating training programs via videos and webinars is a great way of training your startup’s staff to get going with using these solutions. These training materials also point out the best practices for these solutions to the team members and new hires.

6.  Communication Channels

Communication is an important ingredient for the success of any team. This is a top priority to develop and maintain the productivity and success of your startup. Developing a culture of communicating between the different teams in your startup should be an important factor when building a startup remotely.

Maintaining the communication between co-workers provides the channel necessary for project completion and meeting tight deadlines. It also provides the channel to seek clarification and allows for emphasis on important tasks and deadlines.

Developing a culture in an organization is quite important. A communication culture is important for sending information and receiving feedback within your startup. Developing a communication culture is important with the right communication tools from top management to the rest of the team.

Summing It Up

Building a startup remotely requires some deep-level consideration. Company size, budgets for operations, employee geographical location, turnover rate, and communication among teammates are some of the important factors that should come under your consideration.

Although remote work provides a lower operational cost and wide expertise across different time zones, it also comes with its own mitigatable shortcomings. Either way, consider the points above before moving forward with building your startup remotely.