Rob Rawson, Time Doctor – InnovaBuzz 257
Rob Rawson, Time Doctor
In this episode, I’m really excited to have as my guest, Rob Rawson, CEO and founder of Staff.com which is software for actionable productivity metrics and Timedoctor.com which is a time tracking and productivity tool for remote teams.
Rob originally trained as a medical doctor and always had the desire to start and build his own business. When he discovered he could make more money from his internet businesses than working as a doctor, he became a full-time entrepreneur.
In our discussion, Rob and I talked about:
- Building and running a remote team of over 80 people in 31 different countries
- Effective hiring processes for remote teams
- How to deal with cultural differences between people in teams spread over so many countries and how to keep strong communication going.
Listen to the podcast to find out more.
Listen to the Podcast
One of the advantages of remote work is the availability of talent. It expands your talent pool and you can hire people from anywhere. @RobertRawson on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet
Show Notes from this episode with Rob Rawson, CEO and Founder of Time Doctor
Key points and takeaways from this episode include:
- Remote is the way to go. Every company should be working remotely.
- One of the advantages of remote work is the availability of talent. It expands your talent pool and you can hire people from anywhere.
- Time Doctor is a time tracking and productivity tool for managing remote teams.
- Have structured meetings at least once a week.
- When communicating with remote teams, it’s important to keep the balance between asynchronous and synchronous communication.
- There are a lot of places where you can post remote jobs. Some of the job posting boards specifically for remote work are WeWorkRemotely.com and Angel.co.
- Know the exact skills that you need for the job. Create tests that match the type of things the employee would be doing.
- Create a simple test right at the beginning of the hiring process that does not take too much time to answer. It’s unfair to ask people to do a long test unless they are far down the application process.
- Sales is the most difficult thing to get right remotely.
- Encourage people to disagree with you. If they are not disagreeing with you, it means that they failed at their job.
- Learning how to hire and manage great people is a skill.
Encourage people to disagree with you. If they are not disagreeing with you, it means that they failed at their job. @RobertRawson on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet
The Buzz – Our Innovation Round
Here are Rob’s answers to the questions of our Innovation round. Listen to the interview to get the full scoop.
- #1 thing to be more innovative – Choose the area where you are going to innovate. Create the time and choose the right thing to focus your innovation on.
- Best thing for new ideas – Early morning thinking and writing down ideas.
- Favourite tool for innovation – Recording videos – Loom, Screencast, SnagIt
- Keep project / client on track – Having weekly metrics and reporting on those.
- Differentiate – Learn how to manage projects using multiple low-cost resources, Learn to hire and manage remote teams. Make sure you have lots of people that are available for you to do certain projects.
To Be a Leader
Have a vision and never give up on that. Just keep going. Give it your all and never give up when things get tough. It’s all about how you can effectively scale. When you find something that’s great and is working, maximise the returns of it.
Reach Out
You can reach out and thank Rob through their website.
Suggested Guest
Rob suggested I interview Chris Jankulovski, Founder and CEO of Remote Staff. So Chris, keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation from us to the InnovaBuzz podcast, courtesy of Rob Rawson.
Links
Cool things about Rob
- He had a number of startups including an online mapping site, a MySpace profiling site, a limousine directory, travel websites, and many others.
- He worked for 3 years in hospitals in Australia as a medical doctor.
- He speaks Spanish.
Learning how to hire and manage great people is a skill. @RobertRawson on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet