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Decades ago, almost all businesses followed the traditional top-down structure. Employees worked in departments with fixed responsibilities. They had a set number of tasks to complete, predetermined wages attached to it, and a manager to report to.
This age-old trend has given rise to offshore employment. Over the last decade, many industries have resorted to offshore outsourcing services. Unlike the traditional hierarchy, offshore employment has given companies the freedom to handpick employees from broader talent pools.
Given the fact that these offshore employees and teams are literally thousands of miles away, how can we efficiently manage them?
Here are the 5 best tools to manage offshore teams:
1. Jira Software
JIRA might be the best project and offshore team management tool that is available on the market. The software is designed to provide a complete picture of the project to every team member, while simultaneously showing personal progress and how much every team member has contributed to the project.
The Jira platform is highly customizable and thus can be used effectively for tech and non-tech projects. The software is highly interoperable which makes it easier to collaborate with third-party software as well. It helps in project task prioritization and bottleneck identification.
2. Trello
Trello is one of the most popular collaboration tools for internal and offshore teams. Employers can list tasks on a board that can be delegated accordingly. The board is essentially a user-friendly space that is depicted with task cards. The board is open to everyone, so that teams can see everyone’s progress, what they are currently working on, and deadlines.
Moreover, you can make your own task cards that keep the workflow efficient, for instance, providing feedback on employees’ cards or sending out specific instructions, etc. Trello keeps everyone in sync with targets, which helps maintain proper order.
3. ProofHub
ProofHub is our third pick, because it is more than a project management and collaboration software that connects offshore teams together. It is a universal solution for every feature or functionality that is required for planning projects. You can schedule your tasks, track progress and even edit a report.
Apart from being a project management software, it also enables users to chat online in groups and even have discussions and collaborations for proofing. You can put time limits on tasks, even while multitasking. With such a wide array of features, ProofHub is indeed one of the best collaboration tools for offshore outsourcing services.
4. Skype
Skype is more of a communications software, but it still is one of the most used online video conferencing platforms in the world. The Skype software is widely known for its simplicity. With no extra features or flashy animations, Skype makes it very easy to navigate the platform.
Teams can chat, have audio conference calls or video calls, without any disruption. Skype also has a strong encryption, which makes it a very secure platform for online conferences.
5. GitHub
GitHub is an open-source platform that is popularly used by a ton of offshore outsourcing services such as https://www.pslcorp.com/. Here, users can store, share and collaborate important information like source code files and other data. GitHub charges the users a small fee in return for their services and can sync with a large number of automated tools. However, this software can only be effectively used for software development projects.
Conclusion
A good offshore team management tool can go a long way in keeping the organisational structure of your business strong and efficient. Though it is a little daunting to manage offshore teams, with proper communication and a decent team management software, one can really create a strong empire.