Farid Dordar is a former kick-boxing champion and the founder of PerfectMind. The North Vancouverbased software-as-a-service company has 110 employees spread across Canada, Ukraine and India. Here’s how he keeps them working together even though they’re located on different sides of the globe.
Illustration: Christian Dellavedova
Choose your location carefully
We had four main criteria we needed to satisfy before expansion: cost, stability, scalability and security. We decided to partner with reputable local companies that could better satisfy our business needs. The selection process proved to be rigorous and time-consuming, but we needed to do our full due diligence to guarantee the outcome. Once the offices were operational, instead of letting our partners drive our business, we took charge in both cases and built teams that were true extensions of our local [Canadian] teams.
Bring everyone to head office
We bring new employees here for the first three months. We want them to be part of our culture. It’s important for employees to develop a personal rapport.
Communicate, communicate, communicate
Our project managers are constantly on Skype. Often that means holding conference calls outside normal business hours, but team members are willing to make that sacrifice.
This article is from the How To package from the August 2015 issue of Canadian Business. Subscribe now!
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Do you have employees in other timezones and countries? How do you manage them effectively? Share your strategies and tips using the comments section below.
