With technology taking over our lives, flexible work hours and telecommuting have turned from a futuristic concept to everyday reality. With employees ardently seeking a work-life balance and popping startups that place their employees’ wellbeing and happiness on the front line, virtual or remote teams are becoming increasingly popular.
Maybe your startup doesn’t have enough space to accommodate a huge number of employees in your office. Or maybe employees in some positions can work as productively and effectively from home as from the office. No matter what the situation, virtual teams in the workplace are trending at the moment – and to everyone’s delight. If you are new to all of this, here are some easy ways to hiring and managing a virtual team.
Evaluate your virtual team in the best way possible
While telecommuting or working from home may work best for both the employer and the employee, this act is not everyone’s cup of tea. When you sift through the potential candidates’ resumes, look out if they are self-motivated or self-determined.
Check if they are good at self-management. Can they work independently? Are they self-directed? Evaluate their level of focus, concentration and discipline. Lastly, see how great they are managing their time.
Candidates who can perform best even when a tight deadline hangs over their heads and not compromise on the work’s quality by even an inch are the most cut out for being an integral part of your virtual team.
For better understanding of the candidates’ or a virtual team’s capacity, ask them about their personal experiences of handling a remote project. Dig deep further and ask the virtual team about how it handled the communication challenges that came along the way.
Managing virtual teams in the workplace
Once you have hired the perfect virtual team for your project, the harder part of your job stares at you in your face – managing a virtual team? If you are still unsure about hiring a professional virtual team, do a thorough research. There are numerous companies that let you hire the best virtual teams in the workplace.
Hiring a Filipino virtual assistant is a popular choice for businesses due to their excellent communication skills, strong work ethic, and ability to adapt quickly to new tasks and technologies. For starters, establish certain parameters for your virtual team employees. Be clear about how long are they supposed to work in a day. Also ensure that you and your virtual team is clear about how soon are they expected to reply to important mails, phones calls or even skype calls.
A remote team is anyway not working under your nose. And if you do not monitor your project’s progress, you might lose track of the crucial stuff and end up generating huge losses as a result. It is advisable that you have a word with the virtual team at least once a week to remain updated with the status of your project.
Be accessible and available whenever possible. Do not let that distance between you and your virtual team deter the latter from contacting you when it needs to. Assure your team that it can reach out to you when the need arises.
Encourage conversations between the team members whenever possible. Provide tech support and other necessary resources if needed. Make sure to monitor the virtual team member’s behavior. Take note of which members are productive, deliver best results and respect deadlines.
The bottom line
Virtual teams in the workplace are a personification of ‘out of sight, out of mind’. While virtual teams come with its own perks, there are downfalls too.
To avoid the latter, hire quality virtual teams – with educated candidates who can manage time, work and communication well. Keep a track of their professional behavior and activities. And most importantly, treat them like your in-house employees – just because they don’t work from your office doesn’t mean their services aren’t valuable.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
