Maximize Workforce Potential: Building a High Performance Team

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Global corporations have increasingly turned into "transnationals", shifting work to locations where talent and cost advantages are available for completing tasks at minimal expense.

A U.S. economic recession makes this trend essential as companies strive to reduce expenses while recruiting top talent.

Businesses transitioning into "transnational" enterprises must be capable of managing multi-cultural, cross-functional teams across time zones.

Project managers, CIOs and corporate leaders must establish high-performing, highly participatory teams able to thrive virtually. Simply because headquarters are thousands of miles from delivery teams does not mean visibility decreases. Rather, sponsors and project teams must remain visible at every development step.

What Does A Global Workforce Mean?

A global workforce refers to any collection of employees from different locations around the globe who work remotely using virtual software such as Teams, Zoom or email communication tools to collaborate remotely and stay in contact.

A global workforce comprises international employees who come from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

Building The High-Performance Global Workforce

Businesses that can work faster, cheaper and better will be positioned to create and market services and products that provide greater customer value.

How can project managers and business executives effectively manage geographically distributed workforces?

Participate At Every Stage Of The Project Lifecycle

From project planning through design, implementation, and maintenance - be present! Attend all questions from your team members.

Being active during all aspects of a project's life cycle creates an inclusive work environment that fosters open dialogue among team members and active pro-active participation for maximum team effectiveness and better resource allocation (financial, technical and human).

Determine Work Processes And Team Structures

Definitions should include responsibilities and tasks. Communication channels, reporting structures, work transition protocol and documenting these structures as cross-functional matrixes or workflows will aid project teams that include offshore consultants in identifying who is accountable for what tasks.

They can also find sources of information needed to complete their work successfully.

Knowledge Transfer And Communication Strategy

Ensure that all global workers know your company's culture, products, services and project delivery processes through knowledge transfer and communication strategies.

Make available training materials like e-learning presentations, quick reference guides and manuals; as time and resources allow, arrange regular knowledge transfer sessions with subject matter experts onshore who can answer any queries quickly or provide quick clarifications.

Overcommunication can help foster an open culture among project teams. Just ensure communication remains straightforward, and remember that most offshore consultants may not speak English fluently.

Acknowledging Organizational Goals and Objectives

Be honest when discussing your business goals; project team members will recognize their contributions to your firm, its clients and relationships with these parties.

Set mission-critical priorities for the team members and what support, participation and quality work you expect them to contribute.

Building the Appropriate Infrastructure

Infrastructure is at the core of every outsourcing project. Your company and outsourcing partner must possess sufficient software, hardware and bandwidth for offshore development and handle all communication channels, such as emails, VoIP calls and virtual meetings.

Sometimes investing in infrastructure may be necessary depending on its scope, timeline or benefits - especially if partnering for an extended period.

Six Tips to Create a High-Performing Team

An effective workforce is defined as one which outshines its average counterparts collectively. A high-performing team comprises smarter, better-equipped, more creative, engaged and insightful employees than their average peers - fitting seamlessly with an organization's culture and helping foster an atmosphere focused on accountability and satisfaction in the workplace.

To establish a high-performing team, it is important to focus on continual improvement. Employee management must include measures geared toward performance management.

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Here are six strategies that will help you reach your goal of creating a high-performing and secure workplace environment.

By employing these tactics systematically, the results will be positive and lasting.

Hiring And Onboarding

Document your hiring process so you can hire the ideal workforce. First, define what results are expected from them.
Human Resources play a vital role in this process. Every role must have an explicit job description outlining performance responsibilities.
An effective candidate selection process ensures that employees can adapt easily to an organization's culture.
Organizations typically conduct an in-depth background check that includes details about employment references, education history and personal life history.
Prepare an offer of employment that establishes you as the employer of choice.

Define Your Goals And Directions

As soon as they're hired, ensure they receive clear directions and goals about performance and productivity.
Tracking your career progression is of utmost importance. Human Resources plays a pivotal role in regularly gathering supervisor or manager feedback.
Provide an environment that motivates employees to reach their goals by reminding them of professional and personal objectives.

Employee Feedback

Provide feedback regularly to let employees know how well they're performing.
An employee feedback survey is an ideal way to do this; just be sure it does not cause fatigue for employees taking part.
Employment processes cannot be complete without employee feedback. Employee evaluation helps employees identify their strengths and weaknesses and develop them.

Reward And Recognition

Create a system of recognition to thank employees when they do something special at work by awarding them for doing something outstanding. Affirmations aren't necessary for daily tasks completed successfully; rather, large projects completed successfully or tasks submitted on time deserve praise.
Make sure that the wages offered to employees reflect market and industry rates.
Take steps like bonuses and incentives to ensure you pay a fair wage.
Benefits packages should be regularly enhanced and include health coverage that employees can share.

Training and Development

For employees to remain with your organization, provide training, education, and development programs.
Ensure all your employees are equipped with the most cutting-edge technologies and software solutions.
Ensure all your managers have received training on how to interact with employees.
Build jobs where employees can complete all aspects of a task themselves instead of just certain parts.

Employee Retention

Retention and turnover are two sides of the same coin.
High employee turnover costs can be costly. To retain and engage your best talent, provide them with the ideal environment and facilities.
Surveys can be an excellent way to gather employee feedback about what they appreciate or don't appreciate about working at your organization.

Definition of High-Performing Teams

A high-performance group consists of individuals who possess highly-skilled expertise from various functional areas and focus their work towards reaching a specific business goal.

Together they share vision and values as they collaborate towards meeting this objective; known for their innovation and high levels of communication and collaboration, they consistently produce superior results.

Characteristics High-Performance Teams

High-performing teams stand out from others by having distinct characteristics. We will examine some of them.

Effective Work Practices

Effective work practices for high-performance teams are of utmost importance. Without effective planning, high-performance teams would become ineffective and inefficient, leading to resource issues, lack of team cohesiveness and creativity being blocked from reaching its full potential.

Ineffective rules of work may create organizational difficulties, reduce creativity, and inhibit risk-taking, creativity and innovation.

Respect Is Vital Between Team Members And Leaders

Members of high-performing teams understand and respect one another's skills and working methods, which leads to team cohesion that helps increase productivity and capacity-building.

Team members work together to overcome challenges with shared values and a sense of integrity, driving them toward producing the best possible results.

Shared Vision

High performers on any team often share similar values and visions. Their team members are motivated to work toward an objective to produce optimal business solutions and results.

Communicate Openly And Clearly

Leaders of such teams must clearly and persistently articulate their team's vision and goals, creating an open communication channel between team members and their leader and fostering a culture of constructive criticism.

Types Of Team Models That Are Commonly Used To Achieve High Performance

High-performance teams utilize structures designed to increase performance and focus on the specifics of producing results.

Organizations often employ various models as ways of distinguishing themselves - here are a few examples of such teams:

Work Teams

Teams are responsible for specific areas such as production and customer service.

Each work team comprises employees with similar specializations; typically, it operates full-time under a clearly-established structure.

Supervisors are often the key decision-makers within manufacturing and service organizations. While supervisors make larger decisions about who needs to do what, more employees make these decisions themselves through self-managing teams or direct delegation from supervisors.

Virtual Teams

Virtual teams allow companies to form teams with the best talent. We became more aware of their advantages and disadvantages after experiencing pandemic illness.

A virtual team is an assortment of people working together on common goals despite geographical, temporal, or organizational boundaries.

Read More: Human Resource Management Software Allows You To Do More Than Just Manage And Track Your Workforce

Virtual teams are connected through technology such as Zoom, WebEx or internal networks and may never meet in person.

Due to the lack of geographic restrictions, organizations can recruit top talent to complete specific tasks faster and with reduced travel costs and time expenses.

Project Teams

Project teams are temporary groups formed to complete specific tasks or projects with an end in sight. Composed of members from various departments with the knowledge and skills necessary, project teams typically serve as temporary units responsible for accomplishing specific projects with desired results.

Project teams bring diverse perspectives and skill sets together to solve complex problems. Instead of performing repetitive tasks, project teams use their expertise and judgment to achieve top-quality results.

Management Teams

Management teams are responsible for leading and overseeing subordinate employees and monitoring business performance.

Their hierarchy determines their authority; executive management teams typically lie at the apex.

Teams are responsible for setting the strategic direction and overseeing organizational performance. In other words, their responsibility lies in ensuring their business runs efficiently and effectively.

Parallel Teams

When an organization cannot fulfill certain functions with its formal structures alone, parallel teams may be formed to assist.

These teams are composed of people from various departments or roles within an organization, which operate alongside official structures.

Parallel teams may lack full decision-making powers yet make recommendations that may bring about widespread organizational changes.

Task forces, employee improvement groups and quality improvement teams are among many ways parallel teams can solve issues and enhance operations.

How To Build A High-Performance Team

Here are a few strategies for team leaders looking to increase productivity within their team and lead them toward greater heights:

Form an Effective Team

Scott Keller and Mary Meaney's McKinsey report on building effective teams outlines team composition as the cornerstone of success for high-performance teams.

According to them, high-performance teams should remain small; however, too small may inhibit effective decision-making as a lack of diversity reduces bandwidth for effective decision-making processes.

Large teams with over ten members tend to be less effective due to sub-team formation and its resultant promotion of divisive behaviors among team members.

As such, IT team leaders and CEOs should place less emphasis on team size when setting team objectives; rather, focus on complementary skill sets and team spirit among team members.

Create An Inclusive Team Environment

Cisco, known for its innovation and growth, serves as an exemplar. "Teams with shared values tend to perform better."

To build an effective team, it's critical that every member has a common bond and can freely interact. When team members share the values of their leader and work towards reaching a shared goal together, this happens naturally.

Team members who believe they can accomplish more together will do so when they begin feeling like they all work towards one goal - creating an atmosphere of cohesiveness within a cohesive team characterized by shared values, high levels of interaction and trust among its members.

Encourage An Environment Of Open Communication Within Your Organization

Leaders should ensure their teams foster an environment that encourages risk-taking and fosters psychological safety to encourage employees to express their ideas freely in meetings.

Such an atmosphere will allow employees to innovate more freely while implementing new concepts.

Leaders need to understand the individual styles of team members to maximize effectiveness. Many leaders use team-building tools such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument to understand the personalities and thinking styles of their team.

Learning Is Important

Fostering an environment of continuous learning is vital to building high-performing teams. This will allow you to address challenges like skill gaps and digital transformations while remaining adaptable in an ever-evolving technology landscape.

Corporates place particular importance on teams being able to adapt, continuously improving their skills quickly. While much learning occurs among team members, upgrading abilities through training or documentation also plays a crucial role.

Setting Effective Goals

For optimal group performance, setting effective and measurable goals with clear intentions is vital to creating high-performance groups.

High-performing teams become inspired when working towards one common goal; sharing core values will allow them to complete more in less time - the hallmark of any high-performance group. Recognizing teams for their performance also keeps them engaged and productive.

To build a winning team, it is vital that every member shares common bonds and can interact freely. When team members share the values of their leader and collaborate to meet a shared goal, this becomes achievable.

Members who believe they can accomplish more together can do so when they believe their efforts have one common purpose; an ideal cohesive team would have shared values, high levels of interaction and trust between its members.

Building high-performance teams for business

Building high-performing teams offers many advantages to companies and employees in general. Their impact can be substantial; their positive results extend beyond individual team members or employee benefits.

When teams are created, their purpose becomes apparent immediately - whether that means reaching the original goal or solving the original problem they were formed for.

That could include developing a client service product tailored to an organization's needs, devising a complex office move strategy, or building a company culture that encourages creativity and improves time management.

Once disbanded or moved onto another project, high-performing teams that have proven their worth can still bring substantial advantages for businesses and employees; this is done by creating frictionless collaboration among team members to reach high-priority goals while aligning all workers towards the company vision.

Implementing and Building High-performance Teams at Work Offers Many Advantages:

Increased Productivity And Efficiency

Building high performing teams can dramatically enhance productivity and efficiency.

Such teams consist of experts from different fields who collaborate towards meeting their goals; when members work as part of one, they can leverage each member's skills and strengths, leading to increased productivity.

Challenging Outcomes

High-performance teams are formed to meet ambitious objectives. By working collaboratively to address a specific issue or objective, these high-performance teams work towards meeting complex challenges such as developing client service products or creating new company culture.

Increased Engagement And Trust At Work

Team members working together toward common goals develop trust and gain involvement with their work. Team members form camaraderie while learning to depend on one another - leading to increased motivation and job fulfillment.

Business Vision Actualized

High-performance teams are an invaluable asset to companies. Working towards shared goals together aligns all employees with the vision of the business.

It can result in improved performance for clients or internal processes that benefit business growth.

Achievement Of High-Priority Goals

High-performance teams achieve important objectives more quickly and successfully thanks to their members' focused seamless collaboration.

Businesses can use this to reach their goals more rapidly with greater success.

Maintaining High Performance

Maintaining high-performance teams requires having a written charter that clearly states expectations to ensure all team members are onboard at the outset.

Businesses should be transparent in their efforts and encourage team members to join in by collectively committing to team and individual improvements.

A business case for high-performance teams should be updated regularly so everyone remains on board.

What Is The Advantage Of Having A Global Workforce In Your Company?

Global Talent Acquisition

Expanding your recruitment reach allows you to access a wider pool of candidates. Why limit yourself by recruiting only in Des Moines when hiring the top software developer from Delhi for your project is what is desired? Or vice versa when recruiting social-media managers.

Customer Service

Customer service can be greatly enhanced when your contact/helpline is open 24/7, which is easier to accomplish when your workforce spans multiple time zones.
As your employees are spread around the globe, hiring employees who speak multiple languages fluently and are attuned to cultural differences can significantly enhance customer service. Customers who feel their needs have been understood are likely to be pleased with the service delivered.

Diversity in Culture and Language

Global workforces typically feature teams composed of employees with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Such an environment enables employees to share ideas and enhance communication skills; when implemented as team-building activities, cultural and linguistic diversity can only add to your company's success.
Diversity within your workforce will make your company better prepared to enter international markets. Knowledge of local conditions is paramount when entering an unfamiliar international market; for example, certain marketing strategies might work in one country while not in another.

What Challenges Are There In Hiring A Workforce From Around The World?

Synchronizing Employees Across Multiple Locations

Management of a global workforce can be difficult. You must keep tabs on all members, ensure engagement and maintain high productivity levels. Working remotely across time zones may create an "asynchronous" style of work which causes some team members to feel isolated while leading to decreased productivity levels.
Effective management is the only way to combat this. Regular check-ins and team-building exercises like virtual games or buddy schemes are effective ways to stay in contact with a global workforce.

Payroll Management

Payroll systems differ across countries. Pay cycles, currencies and mandatory deductions all play a role.

Compliance

Tracking ever-evolving labor and employment laws in countries where your employees reside can be challenging. Staying abreast of these evolving policies is often impossible, from changes to employee termination laws to payroll regulations and tax laws for employees.
Compliance failures can lead to costly fines and penalties and irreparable harm to one's reputation.