#206 How to Manage Remote Teams Like a Pro

For any of our new managers that are about to get sent this video, talk to Lori. I think there's a shift happening as more and more small businesses have started looking offshore for their talent.

Yeah, that's a big change for them. Communication, 100% key. They are not used to working for someone who cares.

I honestly did not know that.

Yeah, this is more of a conversation than it is just a dictatorship.

That's how I would do it. Really like respecting where they're at in their career. You've taken that to the next level. Yeah, yeah.

Got it. 100%.

What are some tips on like managing how to connect, how to like keep on target?

Honestly—

Welcome back to Owned and Operated. Today on the show, I have Lori Metz, our Director of Inside Operations.

Hi.

Welcome.

Thanks, John.

This will be fun. This is our first time that we've had like a team member on. In a long time.

Oh, I'm excited.

Yeah, yeah, this will be good. And you're the first of many, uh, so you're gonna lead us in with, I think, a good topic. We're gonna be talking both to our internal team but also to the, you know, thousands of people that listen every week. So try not to be, you know, too intimidating.

No pressure.

It's just—

Got it.

Just 5,000 people. So today we're gonna be talking about managing a remote team. So when you came in, you started with Wilson a year and a half ago?

A year and a half, yeah.

Sounds right. And we had already been messing around with remote staffing for like 3 years, probably 4 years. You really helped bring it together and you just did a really great job doing that. And you've expanded on it more and more. And obviously you've helped spearhead AI with Avoca inside our call center. So I would just love it if you walked through a little bit of like, what's your team look like today? And then some of— we'll talk about effective tools to manage after that.

Sure, absolutely.

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More than half the team is remote. Uh, we have 11 team members, um, 4 of which are in-office hybrid.

Like hybrid, like some work from home, some in office?

Well, they work from home 2 days a week.

Yeah.

And they're in office 3 days. So we have 4 reps that do that.

Okay.

And then the other 7 reps are all fully remote.

Yeah. And this is just call center?

This is just call center.

Not dispatch, not— okay.

Correct. Yeah. And it works out fantastic. People really appreciate the opportunity to either have that better work-life balance if they're doing hybrid, um, or be able to work thousands of miles away, uh, and do a great job being remote.

Was this the first time you've managed in like a remote and/or overseas? Because we have remote American as well as remote overseas. So, this was— was this your first time like managing that type of team?

For the overseas, yes. For American, no. In my previous role, I managed a pretty large group of remote, and really it's all the same, um, no matter where that's happening. Yeah, it's just a matter of one, getting the right candidates, And filling those positions well, and then making sure you interact with the remote team just like I would with my in-house team.

Sure.

And having those individual conversations, really bringing them into trainings. So, all of our trainings, even for the in-house team, are all done via Slack. Or Google Meet.

Can you do video?

Mm-hmm.

Oh, really?

On both.

Like video calls on Slack?

Yep.

I honestly did not know that.

Yeah.

I've never tried.

Yeah, it's just a huddle at the top.

Okay.

So, learn something new every day.

Yeah, I did. I sure did.

And you can share your screen and everything just like you would on Zoom or Google Meet or any of the stuff.

Yeah, that's sweet.

That makes them feel like we're all doing the same thing. We're all part of the same team and we celebrate all kinds of stuff, not only professionally, but what's going on in your life. Tell me about your kids. What are you doing for vacation? So that we're all just really getting to know each other.

Yeah.

And as the leader, I also have to be vulnerable and share my personal life and maybe struggles that I'm having so that they feel comfortable doing that with me.

How often are you doing those, like, huddle? Is that daily? Is that 2 times a week, 3 times a week?

We do trainings 2 times a week, and we actually split the group in half, so each group is once a week. Yeah, but then we have constant communication on Slack. I meet with them individually biweekly, and we really get into not only their KPIs, their metrics, but also what's going on in your life. Right.

And that's a weekly one-on-one?

That's a biweekly.

A biweekly.

I'm sure you've seen our Slack channel, Call Center, where we not only put business-related Wilson awesome stuff, but also, you know, random memes, jokes, videos, happy birthday wishes, have a great day, those kind of things.

So, yeah. Is there like a daily, like, morning touch base or like a daily connect?

Not typically because we have different shifts.

Yeah.

So, you've got people starting at all different times. Um, when we first come in, our call center really opens at 7 AM, and we've only got 2 people starting at that time.

Yeah.

And then they start coming in 7:30, 8, 8:30, and beyond.

And then how long— how late does it go, like 8 PM?

So, we stopped taking calls Internal at 9:00 PM.

Okay.

We have our last actual CSR, but then Avoca takes over.

Yeah.

And they're our overflow after-hours call center.

Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. So there's no daily pulse. That makes sense, like different shifts. What was the initial learning curve on, hey, offshore, half my team's offshore? What did that initial curve look like?

Well, the hours, of course.

Oh yeah.

You know, for us it's daytime, for them it's the middle of the night. So trying to remember that, especially when we're on video and they're completely dark around them.

Yeah.

Honestly, the challenge is not on my side, it's on the offshore side where they are not used to working for someone who cares. They just have typically been the box checkers.

Yeah, right.

Do the task and thank you very much.

Yeah. Yeah.

But to work for a company that actually cares about them and treats them like— yeah, yeah. That's a big change for them.

Yeah. Yeah, I can see that. I remember a few years ago, like that whole industry, it still kind of happens, but I think it's become less. As it's become, uh, like offshore hiring has become more of a thing. But it was— everyone was called a VA, and like that was the whole industry, is like, we'll help you hire VAs. And, uh, like we don't have any VAs, right?

Right.

Like we have CSRs and we have accounting people, uh, like accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, recruiters, but like there's no like VAs. So I, I feel like that's a big I think there's a shift happening in that as more and more small businesses have started looking offshore for their talent, that it's, it's gone from this like, yeah, sort of like a grind.

Yeah.

Uh, to like, hey, no, yeah, you're, you're like an actual team member.

Yes.

Yeah.

And it really makes a big difference in not only the work they do because When you take care of your team, they're going to take care of you, but just in their overall attitude. Yeah, you know, so I know that they're going to be honest with me if they need something from me, that they feel comfortable coming to me. Yeah, you know, we're just one big happy group. Yeah.

Yeah, that's fun. So 7 overseas, 4 in-office hybrid. And different shifts?

Yes.

Working weekends?

Yes.

How are we handling holidays?

So the offshore team typically works holidays. Christmas is optional for everyone.

Philippines has a strong Christian, yeah, yeah, so presence.

Yes, so we don't want to take that away from them.

Yeah, are they 12 hours ahead or behind?

I'm not sure, but I know it's like 1 in the morning there right now.

Yeah.

So I don't know if that's the day before or behind us.

Because I remember, and this is how I'm going to remember this, is I wanted a book every— I have like followed this author closely and he releases on Kindle at midnight wherever you are. So I have to go and create an Australian Amazon account.

Oh my God.

And I get it an entire 24 hours early. Yeah, for sure.

You've taken that to the next level.

Yeah.

Yeah. Got it.

100%.

Yeah.

One of the things that's helped our business grow the most has been peer groups, and that's been for both myself and our leaders. Being able to talk to other companies about exactly how they've solved the problems that I'm dealing with today has just been instrumental. Whether it's how to acquire companies or how to add new locations, how to hire directors or service managers, or what should compensation look like, all of those things are things that can be solved by just asking people a little bit ahead of you. Inside that group, We have fireside chats, weekly peer conversations by business size, resources to help you grow your business, and a lot more. Make sure you check out ownedandoperated.com and click on Join Pro. So holidays.

So typically the offshore team works on the holidays.

Yeah.

So what our American holidays are not their holidays.

You're right, like Memorial Day or July 4th.

Correct. Um, and since as a company we're really closed 5 days out of the year as a company. The only one, 2, I guess, that affect them are Christmas and New Year's.

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

And so we give them the option. I give them the option on those 2. Christmas, they did take off last year, but we had 2 people in-house who volunteered to work. So that worked out. Um, and then for New Year's, they worked.

Yeah.

The offshore team. It's very slow on those couple of days, as you can imagine. So they're able to do some other things. We kind of put together a little list of things you might be able to do. And we're not outbounding on those days.

That's what I'm smiling about. I'm just like, it's all outbounding.

Don't call me on Christmas.

Yeah.

So, you know, they have other stuff that they can be doing. And one of our offshore actually kind of subs as a dispatcher. She's fantastic. She does a great job. She does our full dispatching on the weekend and then helps out in the afternoons. And so she's able—

She's 4 days a week, 5 days a week?

She actually works 6 days a week. So she works 4 10s doing— 2 of those are inbound CSR, 2 of those are dispatch, and then the other 2 days she works only 3 hours a day and she's helping.

Does she want that?

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Yeah. Yeah, they typically want all the hours they can get.

Love it.

But she helps one cover dispatch and call center just for those couple of evening hours.

Yeah. If you were talking to someone on our team and they just joined or they've been here for a while, but they're just getting a remote team, what are some tips on managing how to connect, how to keep on target?

Communication, 100% key. Sometimes we as humans are out of sight, out of mind. type situation and you start to lose track of the person, but also what are they doing?

What are they doing? Yeah.

And how are they reporting to you? So, depending on the position, for instance, in call center, I can see everything you're doing.

Yeah, activity is easy.

Right, I can clearly see your numbers, but in something like purchasing or accounting, you don't have that type of visibility. Yeah, so you need to have Regular accountability from the employee themselves. Like, here are your tasks, and I want you to report to me every afternoon, every morning, whatever that cadence is. And then have minimum of weekly meetings to have that individual feedback from them to understand, are the numbers that they're giving me accurate?

Mm-hmm.

Um, really dive into that, but it also gives you the chance to get to know them and them to get to know you.

Yeah, I think that's good. I think, uh, some of the teams that have been the most successful, it's like the daily pulse. Um, I either— the daily pulse where it's like every, every morning, like, uh, Patrick in accounting does this where every morning his team gets together on like a Zoom for like 10 minutes. It's like, hey, Here's the day, here's what we're going to do, here's how you can help me, here's how I can help you. Jesse, for years now in marketing, has his remote team reports in the marketing channel like, hey, here's what I'm going to do today. And then at the end of the day, here's what I did today. And that replaced the morning call, but either one I feel like works. But like the daily cadence, uh, Cassandra Recruitment also is doing that daily call. And I feel like that's, that's how I would do it just because I feel like that's easiest.

Well, the call gives you the personal aspect. You know, if I'm just giving you numbers, yeah, I don't feel any kind of connection to you. Yeah, I'm just giving you numbers.

Yeah, that makes sense.

But when you have that personal and you can see my face, I can see your face.

Yeah.

I, yeah, I require them to use cameras when we're in meetings. They know that now, you know, that's just our norm, but that really gives you that connection. I can see your facial expressions. You can see mine. You understand this is more of a conversation than it is just a dictatorship.

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like that's great.

Yeah.

What, uh, if, if any other, like, Tips for the, the new to offshore manager?

I think it would be finding the tasks that you want them to do and understanding how you're going to measure them. Because being offshore, they do want to know, what are my tasks? How are you measuring those things? How do I know if I have won? Have I done what you wanted me to do? Am I succeeding? They do want constant feedback in my experience.

Yeah. Well, I agree. And I feel like a lot of it is because I can't walk over to them and give them that feedback, or like, you know, they're siloed. Like they're inside their own bubble of, I don't know, because I'm just in my living room or whatever trying to figure this out. So, I feel like that tracks. Um, I would want that too.

Yeah. And oftentimes we'll set up just random meetings. I know you've seen at the office, I'm kind of the resident therapist in my team. And so people come in and talk to me about whatever's happening at work. You know, they need advice, help with a problem, whatever it is.

Yeah.

And We'll have random calls like that with offshore as well, where we have a topic to discuss. Maybe they need a little bit of coaching, training on a new process, something like that. But we take the time to talk about any struggles they might be having at home or, you know, these great things.

Yeah.

And it's so important to have that personal connection.

Yeah, I think I agree. So speaking often, ideally face-to-face, either camera-to-camera or face-to-face.

Yes.

Really respecting where they're at in their career. That's my own version of wording that, but they're not a virtual assistant, they're a high-performing call taker or they're a recruiting expert or whatever it is. But these are people on our team. Making it personal, getting personal.

Yes.

Connecting.

Yes.

And a lot of conversation.

Yes.

That makes sense. I think it's hard. You know, it's definitely hard. It's more intentional. It may be not hard, but like, it's way more intentional.

Well, yes, because you can't just look over to the next desk.

Yeah, you can't just walk in and bullshit. Yeah.

Yeah. You have to make the time for it, set that time aside. And when they need you, they need you.

Yeah.

You know, so you have to either be available Um, maybe you have certain hours that like, hey, I'm happy to answer all your questions. Let's plan for a 10 o'clock hour and a 2 o'clock hour where, you know, if you have any questions, we can quickly meet. Might be 5 minutes, might be 20, and I'll answer.

Open office hours. Yeah.

But, you know, we have an open-door policy, right? Anybody can come talk to us anytime. They need to have that same availability.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, this was great. I feel like we dove into how to manage a remote team. Yeah, this was helpful. Um, yeah, for any of the— for any of our new managers that are about to get sent this video, talk to Lori. She's got a great team. They're all performing, uh, like at a really high level. Um, and I feel like you've just done a great job, you know, Cleaning up the mess that I made.

For anybody who's new to this channel, that's not shocking.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you for listening. Uh, if you like what you heard, make sure you hit like and subscribe and go to ownedandoperated.com.