remote – iView Labs

Let’s talk about the challenges you might face working remotely (and how to address them)

Without a doubt, working remotely has become a norm in the post-pandemic era. There is no dreadful commute; no supervisors or co-workers are looking over your shoulder, and there is no need to get up early to be ready for work. [Add Business leader perspective here– how remote work helps in cost-savings, happier employees etc. Also, working from home is amazing!

But everything nice comes at a cost. While remote work is becoming more common, there are still challenges, especially if you have a team of employees working remotely.

As per a United Nations Labour Organization report, employees who work outside the typical office are more productive, but they are also more likely to work longer hours at a faster pace, experience work-home interference, and, in some cases, experience higher levels of stress.

Working remotely, whether from home or another location, can be isolating, lead to ineffective time management, and present technical difficulties. So today, we have highlighted some of the challenging aspects of managing a WFH team along with solutions.

Your tech trips you up

Office technology is usually speedy and of high quality. Without active IT support, high-end equipment, and a reliable internet connection, one may frequently encounter problems at work. Similarly, if your team collaborates on projects and uses specific tools, you should ensure all your team members have access to those same tools.

How to address this?

Although it might seem like a minor problem, many remote employees have tried and failed to work from places where phone coverage and internet speeds are inadequate for the task. The most important step is to invest in high-quality technology, especially crucial office equipment like a strong router, extenders, and power backup. Employers can allocate a separate budget to ensure a seamless office-grade tech infrastructure at home for employees.

Team communication is patchy

Video calls are an effective strategy for one-to-one communication, although technical challenges and outages may leave employees in the dark. When the intended message is not successfully communicated across the team, miscommunication can occur. Remote teams that rely mostly on emails and chats are particularly prone to this issue.

How can this be addressed?

Using an efficient process can help in creating an efficient, error-free communication pathway. For instance, using channels on Slack for tech support and social media where employees can share ideas/report complaints that they might be facing at home. Moreover, using available communication channels, including voice calls, video meetings, emails and chats, can make the whole process more efficient. Use grammatical checks, for instance, before sending an email to prevent mistakes that can obstruct communication. A smart idea would be to choose the appropriate channel for a given situation.

As we discussed earlier, getting the right tools is crucial. Your business should choose which tools to employ based on your employee strength, frequency of communication and work culture. in addition to Skype, Slack, and Zoom, to make these alternate work arrangements successful. For instance, employees could use an internal messenger for direct communication. Ensure not to use too many tools as that can lead to scattered communication. Having an integrated communication tool helps – so whether you are broadcasting a message to everyone or want to discretely assign tasks to specific teams or people – you should be able to do so with one tool. Also, ensure this tool has an easy UI and can be operated from mobile- as that’s the most preferred device for quick communication these days.

Lack of a balanced work-life schedule

According to a study, telework elevates stress levels by disturbing work-life balance or increasing work-life conflict. Additionally, research demonstrates that those who work remotely frequently engage in overworking, which leads to an increase in working hours.

How can we address this?

With over a gazillion tools at disposal, employers can ensure that their WFH staff isn’t overworked through proper micromanagement and planning. Setting targets for employees at the beginning of the day through team meetings can help them plan their day better. Moreover, tools such as ASANA can help track the team’s daily activities, which can keep the staff motivated.

For employees they need to ensure that try to stick to a schedule. They have several alternatives for planning their daytime schedule. Furthermore, taking pauses as needed may be an excellent way to unwind. Setting reminders to step away from the desk is one method for achieving this.

Lack of leadership approachability

When working remotely, employees frequently feel a little lost because they cannot stroll over to a senior’s desk and ask for assistance. Team members can interact with paperwork, items, projects, and each other without any practical restrictions when they are in the same office.

However, since there is no physical presence, it can be difficult to follow individual efforts, and communication can be more difficult, especially for large teams and complex projects.

How do we handle this?

Effective communication is the first thing you need for distant collaboration. Email is simply inadequate for communicating with a remote workforce. You require an immediate, responsive, and flexible solution. Employers can have virtual meetings and group discussions where they can bring up the issues they face. Moreover, mentoring and reverse-mentoring (senior employees learn from the younger staff) to ensure the team remain coherent.

Moreover, employees can calendarize feedback loops that will help ensure you understand the issues and real-life challenges in existing processes so that they can be addressed in the long run

Thankfully, there are tools available for practically every challenge a remote team manager might face. You will mostly require project management software to assign tasks and track progress. To this, there are a number of alternatives.

How Can iView Labs Help?

At iView Labs, we’re firmly convinced that technology, if leveraged well and when clubbed with well-thought processes, can provide a smooth remote working environment for both employees and businesses. This broadly fits with the core principle of the digitisation movement, in which technology should ease your life and allow free creative minds to reach new heights.

Rest assured that our team will continue to put our best foot forward to deliver an active, engaged and sustainable remote workforce. Want us to become a part of your growth journey? Get in touch today.

To know more about iView Labs, kindly log on to our website www.iviewlabs.com and to get in touch with us with your queries and needs, just write us an email at info@iviewlabs.com and sales@iviewlabs.com. Download the latest portfolio to see our work.

How to build a remote team from scratch quickly and effectively

As more and more businesses start warming up to new ways of working, remote teams are becoming widespread. Needless to say, hiring remote teams is one of the best business decisions a leader can take today to keep pace with the changing corporate world. However, establishing remote teams also presents some peculiar difficulties. To ensure that you hire talented workers, engage extensively in their training, and actively seek to boost their morale, you must plan smartly.

So, what does it take to build a productive remote team? Broadly, employers may ensure the following to build a productive remote working setup:

A proven and effective hiring process
Open communication channels
Productivity-boosting incentives
A mechanism to measure and monitor progress

Hiring the right employees

When you plan to hire remote employees, often the recruitment process will likely be remote as well. So you’ll need to adopt a different strategy than you would for employing regular employees. First of all, since your employees will be working alone for the majority of the day, recruiting self-motivated individuals is a wonderful skill set to look for. You can also look for employees who have already worked in a remote setup and are comfortable working and collaborating with remote teams.

It often also becomes important for the business to hire individuals that don’t require to be trained extensively and can demonstrate proven expertise in the field for which they are being employed. Employers can test candidates by asking open-ended as well as specific questions to test both their attitude as well as aptitude.

Time-zone of your employees is another point to factor in. If you need to have in-person team meetings, target your geographical locations accordingly. On the other hand, if you’re looking to expand your team in a way that your business stays active 24×7, you can look at locations in time zones complementary to yours- this can also be based on where your client is located.

For instance, we hire the right people to fulfil your business needs at the right time. Send us the tech team brief, and based on your requirements, our team will recommend the most suitable profiles. Once we receive a favourable response, our staff will present the profiles most compatible with the role.

Deciding your hiring model structure

One of the numerous benefits of remote hiring is to be able to choose staff members according to a project. You can choose to hire part-time employees, freelancers, full-time employees or mix and match in a contract-based setup.

Decide the perks and benefits you wish to offer while also freezing the pay structure, schedule and modes. You can always take external assistance to help you manage the entire human resource planning for remote work.

Based on the skills you need, the number of employees needed, and the length of the project, iView labs may assist you in finding the ideal tech team, and we’ll take care of the rest.

Getting the tools right

Your business can employ a variety of remote work tools, in addition to MS Teams, Slack, and Zoom, to make these alternate work arrangements successful. For an added layer of security, you can also get dedicated white-labelled solutions customized for your business.

To make remote-work easier, employers must also make sure that necessary tools, such as project management, time monitoring, and communication, are available to employees. Also, set sprint meetings to check on daily, weekly, monthly progress as and when required- having a SCRUM master could be quite effective in this case.

And while you pick the right tools from those available in the market, also ensure you don’t overwhelm your employees with too many of these products. Security and privacy issues must also be taken care of with due diligence. The tools should work in assisting employees make their tasks easier and should not serve as an obstacle to speed and productivity.

Maintaining high engagement levels

Remote employees are more prone to feeling isolated from the rest of the organisation. The impact of this issue on the business may be significantly greater if the entire team works remotely. Disconnected feelings can impact productivity and can lead to higher attrition rates, consequently impacting both top and bottom line.

As a result, a business needs to invest in the right processes for engagement. Additionally managers, and human resources can take proactive measures to guarantee that workers are actively engaged, such as:

Holding team meetings weekly or bi-weekly;
Check-in with each employee one-on-one, especially those who live alone;
Participating in enjoyable activities such as virtual games, quizzes or anything else that may foster a sense of teamwork.
Rewarding milestones or sending a written note of appreciation to employees.

A system to monitor and track progress

As previously stated, implementing tracking tools is one method of holding employees accountable for respecting workplace standards. Building an integrated app that allows you to assign as well as track work can go a long way in building the right remote working culture. It should be easy for the higher as well as middle management to visualize progress towards a goal, set milestones and assess team and individual performance. This will lead to a streamlined and transparent way of working with business leaders feeling in control even when the organisation is scattered across geographies.

If you are looking for a Technology Talent partner, we at iViewLabs will be happy to help. Just fill in this easy form to get in touch with us with your queries and needs. You can also write to us at info@iviewlabs.com and sales@iviewlabs.com.

5 Effective Ways of Retaining Product Customers

In a saturated marketplace such as ours where competition is stiff, it makes sense to conserve the customer base that you have acquired. It’s a well-accepted fact: if you service the customers you have, you won’t have to go around hunting for new ones. Yet, sales and marketing people exert effort and expenses in generating leads.

You can sell to an existing customer 7 out of 10 times, but only 1 out of 10 times to a new customer. Plus, acquiring new customers is costly. You can retain present customers at a fraction of this cost, one-sixth to be precise. And here’s the trump card of statistics in favor of customer retention: Gartner states that 80% of all your future ROI will come from just 20% of your customers. Wow, that’s an eye-opener! This means your business can survive (at least break even) just by cross-selling or up-selling to your existing customers. You almost don’t need to onboard new customers.

Are you thinking – this doesn’t concern me, I have a great product and my customers will never abandon me? Then, there’s another bitter pill you’ll have to swallow: no matter how good your product or service is, your customers might leave if they feel neglected. This is why many top-notch products and companies shut down. They just don’t work hard enough to build customer loyalty. In fact, a good 68% of customers say a company’s uncaring or impersonal attitude is a relationship-killer.

The graphic below will prove our point:

Source

So putting things in perspective, we have compiled battle-tested techniques for retention of product customers.

1) Deliver Quality Products: The key to gaining repeat business is delivering top quality products. Nothing works as well as a product that wows with its features. Even if your product is marked higher than competitors, it will reign supreme if it’s a cut above the rest.

Let’s illustrate with an example: Two doorstep service providers, Urban Clap and Yes Madame. Both offer at-home salon services at competitive prices. Urban clap is priced higher than Yes Madame. Yet, it is market share is bigger. Why? The differentiator is service quality. UC technicians are better trained, use branded products, and are punctual and courteous. Granted, UC has the first-mover advantage, but it’s managed to keep up and even beat competition just because of its killer services. Although, the great marketing helps, but remember, even the most radical marketer can’t sell a product that sucks. Do ample market research when creating your product strategy. Understand what your audience needs. Have a long vision plus short-term goals. Never compromise on quality when faced with time or budget constraints. This is a non-negotiable area that every successful product company excels at.

2) Nurture Customer Relations: KPMG in their study found customer retention to be the biggest revenue driver for companies. The secret that many product companies don’t know is that loyal customers are their best promoters. Satisfied customers become brand ambassadors of a company. They campaign unknowingly about the superb experience they’ve had with a company or product they’re using. Their genuine, first-hand account is a marketing billboard in itself. You don’t need to hire expensive influencers for generating brand awareness or leads for yourself. Your happy customers are doing it for you. So, provide excellent customer service. Reward your return customers with gated offers, discounts, and resources. Treat them well and they’ll treat you better. Keep in touch with them via email, newsletters, and your website. Feature their stories on your social apps and website. Make them your family. Involve them in your journey and they will stay till the very end. A practical way to do this is to draw a list of customers who buy from you regularly. Reach out to them via exclusive offers and make them feel special. Another good tip: List out subscribers to your newsletter. These are people who show an active interest in your work but haven’t purchased anything yet. To make them jump boat, send a first-time promotion offer or discounted service/product.

3) Lend a Personal Touch: Personalize all your emails and offers. Rid the assembly line approach of sending mass emails. An Ecoconsultancy survey has proved personalized offers, based on a user’s purchase history and preference, can surge your ROI to the sky. This infographic compares the business returns of companies using personalization vs. those that don’t.

4) Listen to Your Customers: Some product companies just never stop selling. Every effort of theirs is geared towards the cash register. This is hardly effective as customers, existing or new, don’t want to be taken for a ride. You’ll have to give them something in return. One of the best ways to make the relationship mutually beneficial is to incorporate their feedback into your future offerings. Don’t send lengthy questionnaires to customers asking them for their opinion or experience with your product. Keep it short and simple. Encourage specific, precise feedback regarding what they liked or didn’t like. Try to collate points and factor them into your product strategy. Do keep respondents in the loop, reassuring that their feedback isn’t ignored. When you value your customers’ opinions, they become stakeholders in your business. Your product becomes more aligned to market needs. Your ROI improves and so does your customer satisfaction index. Source

5) Use a CRM: A CRM system is a handy way to keep track of how customers interact with your product. Draw up metrics of customer inquiries. What bottlenecks are customers facing with your service or product? Are they content with the after-sales service you’re giving? Do you need to improve in some areas? Deeply inspect issues that are reported by the majority of your customers. These have to be resolved on a priority basis. CRM also gives you a sneak peek into how well your sales or customer service staff are working. Disgruntled employees and lackadaisical post-sales staff can annoy a customer big time. This is a serious red flag for any organization and should be attended to immediately.

Wrap Up

By now, you must have grasped the impact customer retention can have on the sales and success of your business. Work your magic on your current customers. They are the big fish that’ll act as bait for the other fish in the pond.

If you are looking to build a web, mobile or a cloud product, you can avail of a round of discussion with iView Labs’ tech team. Our developers and project team are always here to help and suggest what is required and necessary for your products.

To know more about iView Labs, kindly log on to our website www.iviewlabs.com and to get in touch with us with your queries and needs just write us an email on info@iviewlabs.com and sales@iviewlabs.com.

Download the latest portfolio to see our work.

“Developers on Demand” for IT Companies

Catering to the new shift in IT industry of reducing bench resources

Typically, as most persons are familiar, Just in time is an inventory management method for materials and goods to be available “On Demand” or be replenished as required in the production process.

On-Demand-Developer_1

The general perception is that this method is most suitable for companies and industries where repetitive manufacturing functions are involved and are beneficial when the tasks involved are on an assembly plant or a job floor. However, with the rise of Information Technology and the advent of service-based businesses in the last one and a half decades, this has become an established practice in the IT circles too.

With a growing industry but season based demand for example in case of service businesses, it is highly time-consuming to build, maintain and manage the turnover of developers inventory through the traditional candidate pipelines. Moreover, despite the time and efforts put in it is not always as value adding for either the firm or the client since many software developers remain as Bench Resources in wait for a project and are a preventable cost to the company.

“Benched Resources” by definition are software developers who are waiting to get the project(s) to work upon. While these are important assets for the firm, it is also crucial to note that Benched Resources do not bring in revenues till such time that they get a project and hence remain more of a cost to the company. On the one hand, in situations or seasons where there are no or limited projects with the firm, it considers trimming down resources on the bench and on the other, the fact that he/she is waiting on the bench and a trim-down possibility can be demoralizers for the resource. Bench Resources were considered as the key strength of the Indian IT industry for a long time. However, with the increasing popularity and relevance of Developers being available on demand for short and fixed-term contracts, the environment is different. Added to this is the rise in automation and all these factors have reduced the average bench strength from 8% to 4% in recent years.

“Great vision without great people is irrelevant.” – Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great

How can IT companies then maximize the value for both the software developers as well as the company with appropriate planning and work allocation?

This is where Developers on-demand model comes into the picture. Traditionally, firms build and maintain candidate pipelines without an actual need but with developers on-demand model, IT companies are able to hire candidates that exactly match the needs or requirements of the project, at the time when they want them, in the appropriate number and at a mutually agreed cost or fees. Albeit, this does not provide the safety of the traditional candidate pipeline approach yet it is more targeted and rewarding. Also, with the advent of gig economy, business models where services are traded on the basis of access rather than ownership are picking up.

In some cases, many companies consider outsourcing projects for a specific duration when they want to focus on their core businesses. Many IT companies today send their benched resources to other companies for a project. In this way, the companies are able to leverage expertise from multiple talents for specific projects and also better utilize the available resources by sending them for specific projects outside.

On-Demand-Developer_2

Given below are some benefits of Developers On demand method.

This is a pull system where the resource is pulled or utilized based on a need or demand. This permits IT companies to cover the staff requirement without having excess human inventory.
Developer on Demand faster resource replenishment and lesser burden on the human resource department of the company.
Developer on Demand model gives companies flexibility and convenience to get access to different talents which are existing across the industry. Moreover, since resources can be found quickly (usually within 24 hours) there is increased productivity and less slack time.
This approach reduces the overall cost to the company, increases efficiency, productivity and saves on crucial organization time.

“The smartest business decision you can make is to hire qualified people. Bringing the right people on board saves you thousands, and your business will run smoothly and efficiently.” – Brian Tracy

With so many advantages on the table, still one cannot nullify the importance of having some benched resources in this industry. Resources which specialize in certain skills and are high on performance are contracted so that they can be called upon as needed

The Developers on-demand model is beneficial as it makes underused software developers, both tangible and intangible. If companies come together and start sharing their underused resources or services, this will decrease cost and also will make sure that every resource is rightly utilized.

– Team iView