Virtual teams are a group of employees who work together from different locations. It gives them flexibility to have a team without any restrictions or boundaries. Virtual teams play an important role in the private sector specially IT industries. More than 60 percent of companies work with virtual teams. Virtual teams contribute to more business and more profit which directly reflect the impact on the economy.
Multinational Companies believe in Virtual Teams & their employees do work by sitting at the different corners in the world. Virtual Team can be said as Remote control which has been increasing productivity. This is the trend to increase your business all over the world.
Even Though Virtual teams are the new norms of modern way of working, it is not without its own challenges, I’ve highlighted some of the challenges which are faced by virtual teams -
- 1. A lack of office Culture - This challenge can be difficult one to manage. It’s complicated to create a good office culture when you are working virtually.
- 2. Scheduling Meetings - Many virtual team members are working from different geographical locations in the world, so sometimes it is difficult to plan a face-to-face meeting.
- 3. Productivity - Low productivity is a clear risk when employees work outside of an office premises. In this trend without day-to-day lapse, some virtual team members may not use their time sensibly. On the other hand, some employees risk burnout when working virtually due to a lack of boundaries.
- 4. Lack of Trust - It is a very serious challenge for virtual teams. When your senior might notice that one person never responds quickly then some distrust develops.
- 5. Communication - When you deal with worldwide teams, there would be language problems and it would be quite difficult to make someone understand about the work.
How To Solve The Challenges Of Managing Virtual Teams?
- Use Professional Language:- Virtual teams should always define a single language of speaking in which they want to communicate, to make sure everybody is on the same page.
- Communication:- To manage virtual teams, there should be clear guidelines on what tools to use to keep the seamless communication going. Select a platform for management and communication, It could be Google Hangouts, skype,Microsoft Team, Outlook etc. Decide only one medium. So everybody could be present there. Inform early about the meeting time so the team can make themselves available.
- Provide Training:- Training plays an important catalyst in your team growth and knowledge, it can be helpful in variety of ways:
- Proper understanding of the system and software on which work needs to be done. Either technical or functional training for new team members or existing members for better understanding
- Take meetings on video calls, it helps with understanding verbally, increasing grasping factor.
- Be liberal with your team:- Being liberal with the team and understanding their situations, allows building a rapport with the team. It will create trust building which will clearly reflect on the work quality and time accountability.
- Take proper report:- At the end of the day, take proper report of who has worked on what and how much. If it is not complete then ask the reason & if it is not urgent, give some extra hour but in that span the work must be done. Make the team aware that the report will play an essential role in their work performance which is actually important.