My recent role has been a turnaround of a problem area – a global function with a large offshore component. When I took on this area, it simply was not working. The client was unhappy, the technology senior management were unhappy and the team themselves were unhappy.
Six months later and the story is very different. The global team feels empowered and passionate about their roles, the client has given feedback all around the regions that the product is more reliable and they are getting what they want from the team, and the senior management are relieved because they are no longer getting noise from their senior clients.
Without a doubt, having a very hard working and dedicated offshore team was a huge reason for this amazing turnaround, but there are some generic lessons that can be applied to making any offshore engagement or in the case of this engagement, a mixed model onsite/nearshore/offshore engagement, a huge success.
- Build a Team
Don’t just manage a workslate, create a real team structure. Roles and responsibilities with all team members. Start with your direct reports – define what you expect them to own – and then empower them to own it. This works well for both manager and direct. The direct report is empowered and will hopefully take on a sense of ownership about their area. Secondly, you hold them directly accountable for their area – you know who to speak to when things go wrong, but equally you reward and recognise when things go well.
2. Set Objectives
It’s especially difficult to motivate a team with a continuous delivery responsibility – when does the project ever finish? Nevertheless, regardless of the type of engagement and delivery process you have, it’s important to create projects or “initiatives” that you can set goals on, complete and then reward your team for the completion of. We all need a sense of completion, reward and recovery before we are motivated to take on the next challenge. Without this you will very quickly have a team that is exhausted and de-motivated.
3. Explain your offshore model
Offshoring is not the same as having an onsite team sitting beside the client – and it never will be. It is a different model with it’s own strengths and weaknesses. Make sure your client understands this – what they will get from it and what they won’t. They may not get the best people in the business sitting beside them and brainstorming future initiatives, but they might save a huge amount of money freeing them to hire analysts for such activity.
For a mixed model, it’s also important to explain the offshore function within your team. Make sure the onsite and nearshore teams understand the strengths and weaknesses of each team – the teams should be complementary. At all costs avoid having overlap of function between the teams – this will only lead to problems.