Motivation of remote employees

In the IT industry, projects with distributed teams are increasingly common. This is convenient - the specification, code, bugs, manuals easily move from one end of the planet to the other in a fraction of seconds. This is profitable - outsourcing project processes, be it development, testing or support, in India or China will cost 3-5 times cheaper than similar services in Europe or the USA.

You will not surprise anyone with a project in which sales, marketing and business analysis are located in England, development in Russia, testing and support in India. The company I worked for specialized in such projects. I would call the communications within the project and the motivation of its participants the weakest points in them. This article describes an effective approach to solving these problems in projects with a distributed team.


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Motivation Triangle

In his article , PMP James R. Chapman, describes three factors necessary to motivate an employee. This is a responsibility for the task, tools and knowledge, regular reporting. Visually, they can be represented as a triangle of motivation:



James argues that, in 9 cases out of 10, this triangle will result in a motivated employee and, as a result, a task completed on time. Consider the features of the transfer of this model to manage employees located hundreds of kilometers from you.

Responsibility for the task

Oddly enough, but the tasks must be set. It is good to use any tracker you are comfortable with (MS Project, Trac, etc.). Bad use mail or IM. Categorically it is impossible to set tasks orally (what is not recorded is not). In order for the performer to feel responsibility for the task and the result, you must perform 3 steps:

1. Set the task as SMAR [T] (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, [At this stage without Time-bound]);
2. Get WBS and task evaluation from the executor;
3. Set the task as SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound);

Bad example

[PM] It is necessary until tomorrow to fix all the bugs.
[Artist] I will try.
[PM] Ok.

Good example

[PM] It is necessary to fix 4 bugs (# 111, 222, 333, 444), give an assessment plz.
[Artist] # 111, 222, 333 - 2 hours each. By # 444 - I need a copy, I would put 4 hours on it, plus 2 hours on fix.
[PM] Ok, you added the task “fix 4 bugs (# 111, 222, 333, 444)” in MS Project. Begin, tomorrow at 18–00 I am waiting for the result.
[Artist] Ok.

Tools and knowledge

In order to fulfill this item, make sure that the performer:

• possesses sufficient knowledge and skills to complete the task. If the contractor has never encountered such tasks, or is this a new participant in the project, there is a risk that the task will not be completed, plan it;
• possesses the necessary software, hardware and other necessary tools for the task;
• has access to the repository with the project documentation;
• has access to the repository with the project code;
• has access to the tracker of tasks and bugs;
• familiar with the rules and processes organized in the project. Each participant must clearly understand how we do the project - how and when we write specifications, how we write and review the code, how and when we test, etc. For this it is good to have a separate document (Project Management Plan) or a project Wiki;
• has the ability to quickly contact all project participants. Well suited Skype chat and Email group. Also, it is useful to share the phone list of all team members;
• knows the roles and responsibilities of each member. Be sure to know and have the opportunity to contact the analyst (the author of the specifications) and the tester (the author of the bug descriptions);
• It has a communication channel to alert you about urgent problems. Email and phone PMA or team lead, for example;

Regular reporting

I use the daily email report in the following format - done yesterday, current tasks and deadlines, problems / questions. Writing such a report takes 5 minutes, it is informative and is a good two-way channel of communication between the performer and the PM.

Good example

Made yesterday:
- finished DiagramView component, filled in
- fixed 2 bugs (# 111, 222)

Current tasks:
- develop the DiagramEdit component. I plan to finish on October 2.

Problems / Issues:
- the analyst did not respond to my letter yesterday, this may delay the development

Bad example

Made yesterday:
- fixed bugs.

Current tasks:
- fix bugs

In the reports I control two main things:

1. Report format In the "done" field should be made the tasks, the results of their implementation. This is the point of self-control of the contractor and a useful source of information for the PM. It is important not to allow nonsense at this point, to return reports saying that the person “read”, “wrote” or “worked”, to demand a result.
2. Feedback. It is necessary to read and analyze reports, answer questions, solve problems. If an employee moves dates, you need to ask what the matter is. If it shows good performance - tell him about it and put in a copy of all. Thus, the report will not be a formal reply, but will fulfill its important communication role.

Total

Try to build such a triangle in your project, support it and evaluate the performance of team members. It sounds paradoxical, but working with such a scheme with remote employees, you are more likely to get better results than with the people sitting next to you.

UPD Thank you all for your interest, special thanks to the atv user! Transferred to the "Project Management".