Two-Thirds Of UK Workers Would Consider Moving Abroad To Work Remotely: 6 Tips On How To Best Manage Teams As Hybrid Working Environments Change 

Recent data has revealed that almost two-thirds of UK workers would consider moving abroad to work remotely and as many as a third would actually consider leaving their current role in order to do this. 

With the remote and hybrid working models still being embraced by many organisations around the UK, it appears that workers believe that the next step in this progression is to be able to work from a foreign country. 

This has only been exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, in which reports have shown that workers are factoring this into their decisions to work abroad. 

Equally, the pandemic has created a shift in mindset where individuals are increasingly prioritising travel, which also contributes to workers wanting to further adjust their working conditions to suit the changing economic and social climate.

For example, the research further highlights that 71% would only consider a new role which allowed them to work from anywhere for at least a portion of their time. 

Therefore, as hybrid working continues to rise, meaning that more employees may be wanting to work from abroad, companies must refocus their attention on allowing and preparing for employees to shift their hybrid working environments to countries outside of the UK.

Virtual College by Netex spoke to Tom McLoughlin, founder of SEO Travel, about his learnings since offering the opportunity to his employees to do a one-month workation. SEO Travel is a specialist digital marketing agency for travel companies based in Leeds.

The specialist online learning provider, which has leadership and team management courses as part of its offerings, also spoke to Sophie Steel of Sales Activator, who has experience in leadership coaching, to get her insight on how companies can best lead teams in a hybrid world. 

#1 Bridge The Virtual and In-Person Gap

Sophie revealed that if companies are going to be allowing for team members to work abroad, they need to be ensuring that the gap between those present in person and those present virtually is sufficiently bridged. 

Sophie mentions that this will “promote team cohesiveness”, ensuring that considerations are being made to make members of the team feel comfortable and included, despite being geographically further apart from their colleagues. 

Habits as small as ensuring that, if team meetings are occurring where people are in the office, team members that work abroad are dialled in from a computer that has a direct view of all members of the team is a great way to promote this cohesiveness, making them feel as if they are there also.

Sophie mentions that whilst this may mean companies have to invest in their technical set-up, this is important to keep all team members of the team feel as connected and included as possible, regardless of distance.

For example, managers may consider buying a large screen for these meetings to take place, or investing in a camera or a microphone so everyone can be seen and heard equally. 

#2 Lay Out Team-Agreed Working Requirements

Over a year ago, Tom McLoughlin decided that working abroad would be an opportunity that he wanted to offer his team members as it became apparent that flexible working was the best approach. 

However, he mentioned to Virtual College that there need to be clear boundaries in place to ensure that everyone knows what is expected, and required, before offering this opportunity.

“When you’re making a shift from a remote workspace at your home, which you and your teammates have experienced to be reliable, to a completely new environment, this may pose problems if a team member is not adequately prepared”. 

“For example, you wouldn’t want to book an Airbnb thinking it has good wifi and turn up with intermittent connection making it difficult to work. Equally, planning to stay in a country where electricity blackouts are frequent, or in the middle of nowhere where if your wifi cut out for an extended period you couldn’t access an alternative working environment would pose problems for your company. 

“Therefore, members of our team ensure that they have enquired about the wifi connection of their chosen ‘home away from home’ when working abroad beforehand, and also that their accommodation has an adequate workspace from which they can base themselves during their work day.”

#3 Keep The Company Culture Strong

Companies have done a lot to ensure that company culture is maintained and that relationships in teams were strengthened during the initial shift to remote and hybrid working.

Therefore, if more employees are going to be shifting to working abroad in companies, Tom highlights that the push to keep the company culture eminent and team relationships strong is crucial, especially if people will be working abroad for extended periods. 

“We have bi-weekly team meetings, at the start and end of the week, in which we touch base as a team virtually to see how everyone is. We feel this has been hugely beneficial to enhance our team culture anyway, but this benefit applies particularly to when people are working abroad.

“It puts the set time aside for our team to not only reflect on their week or outline their goals but also to outline personal matters, promoting transparency and connection, which has more chance of being lost when there’s geographical distance and time differences”.  

Equally, workers should be making an effort to have more check-ins with members of their team, particularly to talk about personal things that they would have more opportunity to do in person, to make sure that those relationships are being maintained. 

#4 Preserve Both Team And Client Relationships 

Whilst working remotely has become the ‘new normal’, Sophie mentions that it’s more important than ever for companies to ensure that the skillset required for maintaining relationships and communicating through the lens of a camera is developed.

Sophie mentions “maintaining eye contact” as a great way to ensure that these relationships are kept strong, which is particularly applicable to those working abroad who are shifting from a hybrid working phase where in-person meetings and encounters were more common. 

She details that even maintaining eye contact through the lens of a camera can produce oxytocin, the body’s ‘happiness hormone’, helping make people feel comfortable and relaxed and that you’re truly looking at and listening to them. 

Ensuring that cameras are therefore on in team meetings and making this effort can be crucial to maintaining these relationships. 

Similarly, voice notes and video messages, as opposed to text messages in which tone and emotion cannot be easily communicated, are a great way to keep the ‘human’ element of conversations alive, which is even more important if you’re away for long periods. 

#5 Consider Time Differences

Whilst the opportunity to work abroad also leads to a wealth of opportunities for where employees can choose to work, Tom reveals that sometimes boundaries are best put in place about the locations and countries employees may be able to choose. 

“Dependent on your business, if you have clients who your employees may communicate regularly with, if there’s a large time difference between your employee’s destination abroad and where your clients are, this could create an issue for emails that need to be responded to promptly or calls that need to happen.”

Tom details that the same principle applies to team relationships also, as if someone is still completing the work that they need to do, but this is outside of other team members’ working hours, this will reduce the amount of communication and contact between employees, and perhaps weaken relationships within the team. 

Tom believes that it’s important for companies to discuss, as a team, the boundaries that should be set for the time differences which can be adopted whilst working abroad, and take into consideration what is best for both client and team member relationships. 

#6 Collaborate To Make Working Abroad Mutually Beneficial  

Whilst managers and company leaders may feel that they should be in control of outlining the requirements and boundaries associated with working abroad, Tom emphasises that this needs to be a process that the whole team can collaborate on and discuss with equal input. 

“If it’s a process that your employees are going to largely benefit from, you need to make sure that they’re able to discuss what their wants might be for this, and create an environment in which they feel comfortable discussing or disputing anything addressed, with managers taking this into consideration accordingly.” 

Similarly, Sophie mentions the importance of managers understanding the needs of their teams by asking them this and creating a communicative space where this can be discussed, steering clear of a ‘one size fits all’ approach, as it may be that a case-by-case basis needs to be adopted for working abroad to be equally possible for all members of the team. 

“If people have signed up to do it together, people are more likely to be invested in making it work” she states. 

Virtual College by Netex offers several courses for teams to best adapt to remote working from abroad as more employees take, and prioritise, this opportunity. The company’s Maintaining Team Culture in Remote Teams course ensures that managers are enhancing their team’s communication and engagement, promoting a healthy team culture. 

Similarly, its Managing Remote Teams course is beneficial for managers looking to ensure that teams are working effectively, and technology is being used efficiently, to overcome the obstacles associated with working remotely. 

To find out more about Virtual College’s ready-to-go courses, you can visit > https://www.virtual-college.co.uk/courses/search