Customer service and sales teams are changing. Nowadays, companies are taking advantage of the latest cloud-computing technology to develop virtual teams, instead of letting people sit in cubicles for eight hours a day contacting clients. Its members are dispersed all over the world, speaking with their current and prospective clients in their individual locations.
Although this framework probably appears to be unapproachable, it can be effortlessly practiced across all sorts of businesses, regardless of the sector and size. Eventually, it can prepare your team for success if executed appropriately.
Virtual teams are not a short-lived trend. They hold actual advantages, encompassing the following:
- A Wider Talent Pool. Businesses, these days, are focusing more on finding the best talent-regardless where these people live. Companies are not bound to hire just local talent or those eager to transfer.
- Vast Coverage. If you are targeting a market that covers various time zones, virtual teams can play an imperative role. Virtual teams deliver employees from coast to coast without demanding them to perform past usual business hours.
- Lower Operating Costs. Virtual offices have no utility or rental costs and freeing up resources for other mission-critical happenings.
- Personal Lifestyle Benefits. Working for a virtual business provides employees benefits such as no commute and flexible schedules. These are two advantages that brick-and-mortar businesses usually do not give.
However, virtual teams are not invulnerable to difficulties. Here are two most often experienced obstacles:
- Effective Communication. In a virtual workplace, an employee cannot easily walk down the hall to ask a colleague a rapid question nor can she or he simply gather everybody for a spontaneous meeting. As an alternative, the employee must wait till colleagues take a call or reply to an email. These impersonal ways of communication can obstruct understanding and clarity.
- Fostering Office Camaraderie. Even as humans get the uppermost levels of superiority with technology, they are social beings. They desire personal communication and can tussle with work when an office does not offer it. It is more problematic to build teamwork and trust when people do not see each other every single day.
As difficult as these challenges are, they can be prevented and overcome prior to they’re occurring. Here are four tips that can assist virtual teams to overcome problems:
1. Define Prospects
As you get ready to assess employees’ presentation constructed on results, be clear regarding the deadlines and results required. Let members of the team see the metrics being utilized to measure their performance. Remember that a few people require assistance to learn how to be creative in a remote setting and perhaps want time and training to regulate.
2. Communicate
Try to not make expectations regarding information that has already been delivered and what has not. As an alternative, proactively deliver and request for information to guarantee that everyone is on the same page. It is simple for information to be unintentionally filtered if a manager depends on numerous individuals to pass along data to their teams.
Guarantee that all employees recognize the projects that everyone else is operational on and the progress they are making. Transparency is very important while handling a virtual team because it leads to improved communication and collaboration.
3. Capitalize on Technology
It is critical to making the most of technology in determining a useful virtual team. Hold Google Hangouts or weekly video chats on skype to mimic face-to-face interaction.
When sharing documents, cloud-based services such as Dropbox and Google Drive eradicate the requirement to regularly email files to and fro. Sign up the assistance of cloud-based intranet software to syndicate these functionalities into a branded environment.
4. Invest in Face-To-Face Interactions
Not anything beats in-person communication, so plot and budget for it. Yearly withdrawals can have a vast influence. If virtual employees are situated close to one another, motivate them to meet frequently to brainstorm, troubleshoot or just get to know one another.
