Archive for the ‘Remote Teams’ Category

21 Essential Strategies for Managing Virtual Teams

Virtual team members in over 9 different countries

I’ve been working with hundreds of virtual team members in over 9 different countries in the past 8 years. There have been times when I wanted to tear my hair out! Sometimes:

  • …I had no idea what my team was doing.
  • …Team members would “flake out”.  They’d work effectively for a while and then their quality of work would taper off or they’d quit.
  • …I was frustrated about not being able to communicate with them effectively.
  • …I had many issues finding and hiring great people remotely.

Now I know a lot more about handling tough situations and issues that come with the territory when dealing with virtual teams. The strategies I now use reflect my years of experience figuring out what works best to keep the teams coherent, productive and motivated.

These are also the strategies that we use at TimeDoctor, where we have over 50 full-time team members all working virtually, remotely, to create the best remote management and productivity software for individuals and businesses. Find out more


Salaries Around the World Awesome New Infographic

Ever wonder what the rates of tech developers are around the world? We did, too. We teamed up with the guys from www.infoactive.us to put together the average salaries of tech development employees from around the world.

Take a look at the different rates and as always check out www.timedoctor.com if you need help managing your remote employees from around the world. If you want to hire developers around the world try our sister site www.staff.com

Average Salaries Interactive Infograph

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Software for Managing a Telecommuting Team

If you manage a team that telecommutes, you will want to make sure that your team is productive. The good thing is, there are many types of software that you can use to manage a remote team and ensure that they are working.

For example, these are issues you can solve with software:

  1. Time and Attendance
  2. Communication
  3. Measuring and managing productivity
  4. Project management software

Find out more


Is Telework the future? Check out this infographic from Staff.com

Is Telework the future? Infographic Heading
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100k developers are dead – Why and exactly how to build software at a fraction of the price

Use virtual office software that allows you to communicate efficiently and provides accountability.

It is possible to develop high quality scalable software for a fraction of the cost and time in comparison to the classic San Fransisco Valley development model? By optimizing any of the these three factors: Creating a bullet proof hiring process, having an efficient virtual work space, and accountability; we think you can.

In the production of Time Doctor we’ve hired dozens of developers from all over the world (we currently have workers in 8 countries) at a fraction of the cost of what we would have paid in San Fransisco and have built in almost instantaneous scalability into our company through our hiring techniques so we can quickly expand or contract dependent upon what we need done. Here are the rules we’ve followed to do this. Find out more


SVN, Git, Mercurial, and CVS – Comparison of version control software

Comparison of SVN SoftwareIf your next big business idea is based on software development, involves an elaborate technical concept, or simply requires a large distributed team working on one task, you need to learn two words by heart: version control.

Version control (also called subversion control, or revision control) helps large projects from spinning out of control by letting individual programmers (or writers, or project managers), each tackle a project from a different angle without getting in each other’s way and without doing damage that can’t be undone. There’s a great visual introduction to version control here if you are completely unfamiliar with the concept.

Which version control is right for your project?

There are a number of solutions out there, and we’ve put together a definitive feature comparison so you can decide the best solution for you. It is a fairly technical topic, so if you don’t have a software background, read our comparison carefully, and consult with your lead technical personnel before you make any final decisions. Find out more


15 essential tips for outsourcing decision making

Outsourcing mistakesIf you’re a business owner or manager and are considering outsourcing of any type, you’re probably aware of the huge risks that can be involved. If you’re not – you should be: placing the future of your business into the hands of strangers can quickly go pear-shaped.

While hiring staff that you may never meet face to face, might seem like a gamble, there has never been a better time to try to leverage online outsourcing, especially once you know how to avoid some of the more common pitfalls involved.

So what specific steps can you take to ensure things run smoothly?
We’ve drawn up a list of the best practices to help you avoid outsourcing mistakes; these 15 best practices will hopefully save you time and energy and shield your business from the sort of mistakes that could bring your efforts undone.
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