9 Lessons For Hiring and Managing Remote Teams (Part 3)

Here we are—the final stretch in our series on building great remote teams. This part is all about tackling the tricky stuff: trust, hiring, and legal considerations. From our experience at Tunga, we know these details can make or break a team. They’re not just theory—they’re what we’ve learned firsthand while connecting global developers with businesses that thrive on collaboration.

We dive into the subtleties of remote work culture, like whether “camera off” moments are a red flag or just cultural nuance. We also rethink the value of CVs in hiring and explore how in-person meetups—whether you’re flying developers in or visiting their home base—can add tremendous value (even with a hefty price tag). Plus, we break down legal and compliance concerns to show that they’re easier to handle than you might think. These lessons are a practical guide for leading remote teams, grounded in the belief that small adjustments can drive significant results.

Read this series’s first and second parts to learn from our first six lessons.

LESSON 7: REMOTE WORK CULTURE: IS CAMERA OFF A RED FLAG?

Q:  If people are reluctant to be on video, should you consider that as a red flag or not? Or could it also be a matter of cultural differences?

This depends a little bit on the type of meeting. If you have one-on-one or a minimal number of participants on a call, it could be awkward and strange if someone does not put on their camera. That could raise questions, although red flags may be a heavy qualification.

However, in meetings with more people, like an online town hall meeting in Tunga, where there are between 25 and 30 people in the room, it’s easier for people not to turn on their videos because their participation in the meeting is less active. In such situations, we agree that everyone should turn on their videos, and most people do it then.

Focus on tracing patterns. What could be more worrying is that turning off the camera means there’s a slow response time or questions are being evaded. Then, this could get suspicious. Overall, it’s good practice to agree with the team to turn on cameras, especially if you primarily work remotely. This could improve communication amongst the team.

LESSON 8: DOES A CV TELL THE FULL STORY?

Q: Is there a standard procedure for checking CVs to be sure they meet your requirements?”

When we process job applications, we screen all the CVs we receive, and we have standardized requirements that we would like to see in the CVs. It’s the first check before we test candidates. 

We check the CV because if we can see based on the CV that it’s not a qualified match, then we want to save the candidates’, our own, and, of course, our clients’ time. So there’s a standard procedure.

Once the CV has been approved to meet the criteria, we have a standard procedure for organizing the testing and interviews, which are at the end of the process because they take up most of the time.

We use CVs to create a long list of applicants, but this doesn’t tell us all we need to know about a candidate.

LESSON 9: INVITING REMOTE DEVELOPERS TO VISIT ONSITE OFFICES

Q: “What’s our take on inviting colleagues to the country where your business is?”

This could be beneficial but also very costly. A cost-benefit analysis is needed. If you can afford it, definitely do it.

There’s a price tag because you’re talking about visas, stay, and flights, and that’s expensive.

We are always very cheerful when clients come to us with the idea of taking their remote staff to visit their offices. However, due to the cost, we advise them to refrain from doing that in the first three months of working with the team.

Still, the other way around is also an option, i.e., the client going to the remote team’s country to meet them. They could have beneficial sessions, live brainstorms, goal setting, etc.

Our client visited our head office in Uganda and their team in Nigeria a few years back. It was tremendously valuable for them to understand, for example, ‘How is a developer in Lagos?’ ‘How do they look? ‘And what are some of the things they are working with?’ Plus, it was a lot of fun. So, that was a very positive visit. In these situations, we, as Tunga, take care of all the paperwork needed.

BONUS LESSON: LEGAL AND COMPLIANCE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH HIRING REMOTELY

Q: “What legal or compliance risks should you be aware of when hiring international developers?”

We’ve often been asked that question about legal matters. With one of our clients, we spoke with lawyers to learn more about it, and we concluded that although it sounds challenging, it’s relatively easy.

If you hire developers, they automatically fall under your insurance. They fall under your legal framework. Legally, it doesn’t matter where that particular person is located.

Of course, you have to deal with local labor laws. However, if you want to avoid that altogether, working with an intermediary company is best, but the risk is minimal.

People often think of this as high risk, but it’s not. Regarding compliance, the most important things are your compliance, coding guidelines, and how you manage your code base.

And if your code base is secure, the people working with your code base are secure.

Would you like to learn more about how we hire and manage remote teams for our clients? Join our next roundtable with C-level executives or set up a 1-1 chat with one of our business managers.