Embrace Digital Nomad Peculiarities

by Matt Jansen / Jan 14

Do more by embracing the peculiarities of digital nomads

Digital nomads share some similarities with traditional office workers, but they also have a unique scoring system on what motivates them to participate and stay engaged with a project. It’s important to embrace those differences because that will encourage independence while realizing gains in productivity and a reduction in turnover. Here is a breakdown of some good ways to keep productivity high.

• Learn from Facebook. The system is immensely popular because it allows people to interact with their friends easily and in creative ways, and it’s fun because there are various ways to poke, tease, challenge, and compliment friends. A system that transplants some of those same concepts to a cyber working environment will be extremely effective by communicating in a fun, intuitive way while preserving and expediting core kernels of information.
• Be open with digital nomads about problems the company is facing and successes it is enjoying. That opens the way for suggestions on how to improve a situation and celebrating victories encourages repeat behavior (just be sure you find out how people like to be recognized first). It also helps participants feel like they have ownership in the organization.
• Respond to suggestions from team members, because if they take the time to create a written suggestion there usually has been some thought behind it. Seeing suggestions implemented is even better because it helps team members feel like their opinion is valued and leadership is in touch with what’s happening on the front lines.
• Pay attention to successes and recognize them with monetary compensation whenever possible, though simple recognition is good too. For example if a writer is able to wrangle a large swath of traffic from a popular search term by including relevant keywords and an attention-snatching title, let them know you’re impressed!
• Some face-to-face time is best. At least for now humans react best to seeing each other in person. It allows us to read body language more clearly and understand other points of view the clearest.
• Recognize the support team. For example a disorganized CEO would never make appointments without a strong administrative assistant. A star blogger wouldn’t bring in nearly as much traffic without the regular posts generated by other writers on the team which make a blog a daily destination.
• Help digital nomads manage any necessary time tracking and invoicing easily as that kind of work will quickly aggravate them.
• Allow independent decision making. If digital nomads are too bound by a series of checks and balances they may not be able to respond quickly enough in a high pressure situation.
• Finally, be clear and upfront about what your expectations are for digital nomads regarding deadlines, time reporting, and pay. It will foster a good relationship and keep team members focused on building success for the company.

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