Thriving with Your Remote team of CPAs
Working remotely is becoming increasingly commonplace in the accounting world. Remote work was well on its way as a solution to the talent crisis, localisation, optimising the cost structure and the pandemic accelerated it. Today businesses are looking for the best talent by discovering they could find great team members by hiring remote employees out of their own geographic areas.
It allows CPA firms and businesses to find the best worker for every position, fill open positions quickly, prevent staff burnout and enhance their employment branding.
At Offshore Accounting and Integrated Services (OASIS), we enable accounting firms and business to commit to remote work. We help them to set up for sustainable success. You can benefit from these four proven strategies:
- Engaging with the right remote office.
It may sound elementary but getting the right remote office will exponentially improve the remote work experience. While engaging to a remote shared service provider like us, pay special attention to factors like internet speed bandwidth, technology and tools available, working timing difference, cultural gaps, flexibility required and commitment to quality. Determine what works for your team to stay connected and continue to build bonding with your onsite team
- Change of mindset.
Be clear about your work rules so your team can succeed. Trust your team to get the job done. You should change focus to result basis rather than virtual face-to-face time. Rather than worrying about the number of hours they clock in or how frequently you talk to them, establish that your firm operates on objectives and results. For Objective basis, its crucial to trust your team to get things done without micromanaging them.
- Clear communication plan
Effective and efficient communication between your on-site and remote team while collaborating remotely is a prerequisite for success. The primary ways of communication are email and video calling with screen sharing.
When using emails, make sure to establish enough context in a single email to reduce the need for number of emails that you’ll need to send back and forth. Be efficient with your time and accomplish as much as possible with a single email. Use online meetings for decision making and for conversations that you can’t have over email. Meetings should be accompanied by written agendas and we planned in terms of objectives to be achieved.
- Workflow and data security
An efficient and secure workflow for the documents is crucial for productivity and safety. Ensure a system is in place for sharing documents so that employees and clients can find them easily and know if they’re complete. Use software tools for easy distribution and organization, like Dropbox and Microsoft SharePoint. You can make your document workflow more secure by owning your employee’s equipment and controlling their company accounts.