Over the period of time, the big companies and experienced technocrats have defined the Culture of the software development. The proper team structure is set and as in most of the companies, top to the bottom tree down structure is set. The ethical approach helps in building a smooth setup where big teams work together with the same spirit.

The in-house teams are sitting together in the same office and sharing the same space and other things in the office. But from few years this culture has diversified with the adaptation of new approaches like offshoring and outsourcing.

Matrix Marketers, a web, and mobile Development company, following both the cultures and in this post discussing the difference while adopting Offshore development model.

Different software development companies have different values and their own mission, ethics, and values. But all the companies follow the goal of building a rich cultured working environment which helps in enhancing the innovation, creativity, brainstorming and peer-to-peer networking among the professionals.

To create the feeling of togetherness, some companies come up with ideas like wearing same types of T-shirts or same type of office material. But when the trend of offshore development started, many startup IT companies started hiring offshore teams to save the cost of development. But having an offshore workforce affected the cultural development over time and most of the small companies are now facing employee’s management crisis. Remote teams are sometimes refusing to follow the company’s rules, leading to a shift from the ultimate objectives that the product development is based around.

Let’s follow these tips to manage an offshore workforce in a way that they support your startup culture:

Go for Staff Augmentation over Project-based Teams

A significant number of outsourced development teams work in a project-based model, where an offshore project manager deals with the startup’s CTO, hence cutting off any direct access to the development resources. This is a very limited approach, as it blocks out any cultural assimilation of the remote workforce into the startup environment.

It is better to have augmented teams that work directly with the company founders in order to gain a stronger understanding of the product idea. Direct offshore resources are more invested in the product development as they have a clear path to the founders’ vision. The new project must be treated as the service to mankind, not just a product. Of course, commercial benefits must be ensured but we must have the unethical approach.

Make a Hybrid Approach

A hybrid approach to offshore development teams is the key to a synchronized startup culture that transcends boundaries. It is better to hire a staff at top management level who is not- biased and flexible to adapt and respect multiple cultures by maintaining equal respect for international cultures working alongside. Having a hybrid team can lead to a strong, culturally fit global startup team that can help the startup owners scale their business model internationally.

Foster Cultural Understanding

The offshore developers restrain themselves to participate and effectively communicate their ideas to project manager, preventing the startup from taking full advantage of the offshore team’s creativity and technical skill set. This can be avoided by organizing virtual activities focused on building a stronger bond between the onsite and offshore teams, thus strengthening the startup culture as a whole.

Arrange Global Team Meets Annually

Annual team meetups will bring the offshore team closer to the core team and will be helpful to build stronger working relationships among your global team.

The cultural diversity is there, but managing your remote teams while utilizing the above approaches can eliminate 80 percent of this adverse effect. The value that technically strong offshore teams offer in terms of cost savings, scalability to meet project demand, and faster time to hire resources, makes up for the remaining 20 percent of the cultural difference.

Conclusion

The offshore staffing should be done to maintain long-term relationships not to just minimize the cost of development. Once you are able to win the trust of an offshore team especially from India, who will receive many benefits in terms of results the team shows. At the same time, it can become the worst experience if you let down or hurt the sentiments of the offshore team. Now it is up to you to decide that what kind of experience you would like to receive from the offshore team? As far offshoring is concerned, it has become the need of the hour, not the option. Take the suggestions given by the team of Matrix Marketers and share your experience with offshoring and how has it affected your company’s culture?