In today’s world, businesses have the option of building a team made of people all over the world – so how does one go about building a team in todays virtual world.
While these virtual teams often allow a business to hire the most talented and creative individuals possible, there are also many things you need to consider when building a virtual team.
Varying Time Zones
When dealing with a virtual team, team meetings take on even more importance than when all your team is gathered in one location. Such meetings are not only a way to provide all members with your team the information they need, but also these meetings are also useful to help establish that team feeling and aid in keeping the lines of communication open. However, you do need to give some real thought into scheduling meetings since team members may live in vastly different time zones.
Creating the Feeling of “Team”
When you have a virtual team, each member of the team is physically distanced from one another, making it more difficult to create and maintain the feeling of being part of team. It is essential that you find ways to create the team feeling and maintain that feeling in order to keep things running smoothly.
One way of doing that is for you to learn about your employees and find ways for them to learn about one another. You also want every member of your virtual team to understand what every other member of the team does, who to contact for support, and how each team member relates to the bigger picture.
Communication
Communication is the key to any great team, and keeping the lines of communication open and avoid misunderstandings in an office environment can be difficult enough, but keeping the lines of communication open when members of the team is scattered across the country or around the world can present even more challenges.
You will need to find various ways of keeping the lines of communication open and nip any misunderstandings in the bud. Making use of Skype and video chat is essential to aiding in keeping the lines of communication open. You also need to encourage every member of the team, to speak up as they need to feel as though their thoughts and input is important and welcomed.
Motivating Individuals and the Team
Another thing you need to consider is how to keep each individual of the team and the team as whole motivated. While working on their own, can allow virtual team members to focus on their specific area of their job, it can also lead to lazy work habits and difficulty in staying motivated. Your team leader should be selected carefully to ensure that they are able to motivate team members scattered all over.
These are just some of the things you need to consider when building a virtually team, yet, if you can overcome the various obstacles and challenges that virtual team can help you to increase your business substantially.
© New To HR
View Comments (2)
I am discovering that building a virtual team is NOT easy, and a lot of people fail at it. As you mention, the major issue is distance. People can't be face to face with one another, and it gets tedious after awhile. However, modern technology is making it easier and easier. A lot of people incorporate Skype into their virtual teams now, so that they can actually see a person physically. There are ways to do it, but you need the drive, patience and motivation to do so.
All the companies I’ve worked for had a virtual team for a various aspect of their business and they had huge success with this concept. The challenging part is to pick people that are truly passionate with what they do and to make them feel like they’re part of the team.
There was this company that manufactured organic products, from cleaning supplies to organic cotton bed sheets; we had a team of five people that were in control of the future products we would develop and they contributed tremendously to the company’s success. 2 of them were from US and the rest from Europe. Having people in different places allowed us to be updated to various trends and to be ahead of our competition. Our strategy was to use people that were already involved in these; all of them were strong advocates of the organic way of life and they really wanted to make a change.