hi i'm Nina Fountain workplace strategist at transformed teams
and today i'm sharing with you about the good and the bad
virtual teams seeing as virtual teams are on the rise
let's have a look at the upsides and the downsides
some managers love virtual teams and others hate them
and savvy business leaders ought to be asking themselves what's in it for me
certainly web-based video conferencing shared screens cloud-based software have
made virtual teams so easy and employees want flexibility
that it begs the question so below i've outlined the key pros and cons of
virtual teams so you can decide what they could offer your business and
a virtual team is where people work together in
different physical locations most of the time
they might still get together every now and then say once a month or once a
quarter but most of their work is done remotely
so what are the downsides of virtual teams well
communication can certainly be limited all teams should have good communication
but remote teams need to be experts at it you need to know how to use
technology to your advantage which takes a little
sophistication team bonding opportunities are limited
distributed teams don't have the luxury of being able to hang out whenever they
want as traditional office teams do so they
need to find creative ways to connect as a team
and it's not impossible but it does require some out of the box thinking
managing availability and time zones can be difficult
and whether your virtual team is global or local
it can be hard to find openings in your calendar when everyone can connect
plan ahead and be willing to make compromises occasionally
creating that work-life balance can be hard for some working from home can add
a lot of distractions to an employee's work life and some employees struggle to
resist temptations like watching tv or doing household chores while others
are very good at staying focused on their paid work
and having a clearly defined area for work does a lot to resolve this issue
managing a remote team can certainly be a challenge
not all managers are well suited to managing a virtual team
and it becomes even more important to be a great communicator with empathy
and strong leadership skills managers can learn these skills and increasingly
they want to given the rise in virtual teams
and social isolation is real if you work from home
alone without much human interaction you might start missing the banter
and the chit chat of the office environment and these days most virtual
teams use video conferencing to counteract this isolation
a daily meeting can go a long way unless direct line of sight for managers
and team members is another challenge it's not only managers who are
interested in team members performance on the job
peers want to know as well managers of virtual teams need to establish
transparent outcome measures so that it's obvious that everyone is pulling
their weight and collaborative project management
software allows this but kpi kpis and objectives for each person's role also
help fewer impromptu catch-ups if you work in
an innovative collaborative or dynamic environment you might find that a
virtual team arrangement makes life difficult and this is the
reason that yahoo famously asked its telecommuting staff to come back to the
office telecommunication through technology
still hasn't replaced the value of face-to-face interactions
however not every team and not every role requires team members to be
collaborative and innovative 24 7. expensive catch-ups
the successful companies that depend heavily on virtual teams
recognize that there is great value in bringing people together
if your team is global this can become quite expensive
that being said the savings on office space student having a virtual team
that's not in an office are enormous so thanks to great tools like video chat
web conferencing and the ability to record meetings your need to bring
everyone together may not be as pressing as you once
thought potential lack of cohesion every team
risks losing cohesion when it stops working towards the same goal
and the difference in virtual teams is that managers may notice that lack of
cohesion earlier managers still need to establish
a clear vision clarify roles within the team and manage
meetings well so there's no confusion now if you think that sounds like a lot
of downsides notice how each of those issues can be managed to
reduce their impact and in the equation of virtual team pros
and cons the question is whether the upsides are strong enough
to counteract the extra effort which is mainly about communication
so why persist with virtual teams well increasingly the upsides outweigh
the challenges let's see if you're convinced firstly
eliminate a major business overhead not having an office means saving on one
of the biggest overheads of running a business second only to staff costs
even if you provide money for an employee to set up their home office the
cost remains a fraction of the cost of renting an office space
have a happier and more engaged team when people don't have to endure a long
commute and they have that flexibility in their schedules they have control
back over their lives and many of the major motivational
theories highlight the importance of control
and influence in our lives for happiness skyrocket your productivity people who
work from home are measurably more productive than
those who work in an office you need to think about what work is
being done in your team because not all work lends itself to
being highly productive when working alone
or over telecommunication technologies expand your hiring pool virtual teams
enable you to capture skills that were previously inaccessible
with virtual teams you can hire more experienced employees who don't want to
relocate or who want to avoid a long commute and
most people with skills who can't currently access the workforce are
extremely keen for a work from home position you can
serve more clients across a wider range of time zones and
locations this is why some businesses have two
teams one on either side of the globe so that work can continue around the clock
but even if your team is not global you can extend the hours that you provide
customer service by using an international phone number
or enabling staff to quickly ask suit them so if you work face to face
with your clients you could enable your team to work virtually
to reach a broader geographic distribution
reduce the time that you need to spend managing your team if you think that you
need to increase the time you spend managing your team you might
be surprised to discover that it could take
less time micromanagement just doesn't work in virtual teams
so it frees up a lot of your time once you take that out of the picture
successful virtual managers are good leaders who set a clear direction
allocate roles help people to understand the outcomes and then let them get on
with it enjoying staff loyalty members of
virtual teams tend to love the flexibility that comes with their new
geographic independence as a result they report feeling better
towards their company and they intend to stay longer
that is if their manager has worked out how to manage a virtual team in the
right way fewer sick days taken similarly members
of virtual teams are less likely to call in sick
several businesses have shared examples of how their teleworking and
telecommuting staff use fewer sick days and the research
from these businesses shows that it's usually around six percent less
reduce your carbon footprint establish a virtual workplace and take more cars off
the road and see how your employees enjoy talking
about their clean commute to their home office enjoy
unparalleled business continuity if your business needs to continue
to run after a heavy storm flood fire or earthquake
a virtual team is part of your insurance policy
inevitably you'll recruit people outside of the affected area
who can keep the business running so virtual teams in my view have an
essential role in business i couldn't think of running my workplace
culture agency without the advantages of a virtual team
time doctor ceo rob rawson has shared with us
his example of managing his virtual team so click the link to watch the video
and hear what he says virtual teams are on the rise because more businesses are
realizing that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages by a
significant margin and in an age where business needs to be
more agile and do more with less the importance of virtual teams will only
increase the challenge of getting most out of
virtual teams is one that many business leaders and
team team managers are needing to get their head around but
once great practices are in place who wouldn't want to reduce office costs
have more engaged staff and skyrocket productivity talk soon
you