Outsourcing To A Dot Net Developer

Managing an employee is an always a challenge and more so if that employee is sitting thousands of miles across the globe and is someone with whom you have merely chatted on the phone or across a screen during a video conferencing session. So, when a virtual employee Dot Net developer comes on board your team, the rules of management might have to be tweaked a bit to suit the dynamics of the new recruitment.

Two factors play a major role in determining the nature of your managerial skills with your remote resources â€" the time zone differences and the geographical distance. India is several time zones ahead of the US and the UK (and behind Australia, which has also started employing virtual employees from India to handle their outsourced projects). So, while these details were non-negotiable with the average offshore Dot Net freelancer from India, and often cramped the process, they are very much within your control when you outsource with reputed vendors.

Surmounting these two roadblocks to successful communication during outsourcing is not the challenge it seems when a well-established outsourcing company has been selected.

• The advantage of hiring a virtual employee to work on your .Net project over contracting with a freelancer is that you can get the former to work the same or even overlapping office hours as you. This is because a virtual employee is an employee, works like a regular employee for you, and has been hired as an employee and not as a third party agency. So, just as you'd decide the work shifts for your local employees, you are also given the authority to decide the work shift that best suits you and your remote resource.

•  Make ample use of technology to make short work of the time and distance perceptions. Strong and effective communication is the backbone of any successful outsourcing. So, communicate with your remote Dot Net programmer via emails, Skype, instant messenger, other online collaborative tools such as Google Docs and the like. Mark a day in a week for a Skype call or a video conference where you can interact with your virtual employee face-to-face in 'real' time. 

• The perceptions of time zone differences and distance get intensified when one is working with a faceless freelancer one has hired from the many portals available online. This resource usually works from home, alone and unsupervised and a client is normally fairly clueless about the progress of the work. There is no way of knowing the number of hours the freelancer is spending on your project and whether it is getting sidelined due to a better-paying client's assignment. With established vendors, on the other hand, the constant presence of the HR executives and project managers ensures that your virtual Dot Net developer works in a supervised environment. So, in case you wish to discuss something urgently about your employee with the HR executives, all you have to do is pick up the phone and call. No waiting till the necessary time lapse has occurred.

• Ensure that the remote employee is made to feel like a valuable and contributing member of your team. Conduct video conferences where your local team members also get to interact with the Dot Net developer virtual employee, so that there is a positive exchange of ideas and inputs, adding a fresh perspective to your work. 

Today, outdated concepts of distance or time zones have no place in work environments that are driven by technology. So, hire a remote employee to handle your outsourced Dot Net programming or development.