This article is about effectively managing virtual teams. It was difficult enough to get through to your team and lead in the best possible way before 2020. Today’s pandemic culture requires us to get more familiar with the concept of virtual teams, which makes managing much more difficult.
Top 12 tips for effectively managing virtual teams in 2022
In this article, you know about effectively managing virtual teams here are details below;
There’s no need to be discouraged; there are numerous approaches to effectively managing a virtual team. We’ll do a thorough examination and provide some insight into the strategies and techniques used by today’s top managers.
What are some of the difficulties in managing virtual teams?
When it comes to completing daily duties, you and your staff will almost certainly meet some difficulties. They might range from simple duties being misunderstood to more significant difficulties like mental separation from the workplace. Also check best business management software
Working in a virtual workplace will almost certainly expose you to the following challenges:
• Poor performance and decreased productivity
• Depersonalization in terms of connection with your coworkers
• “Separating the church from the state” — the lines between work and home get blurred owing to a lack of face-to-face interaction
These are some of the most prevalent challenges faced by many at-home workers. But don’t worry if you’re going through anything that isn’t on this list; chances are, whatever you’re going through, you’re not alone.
Well how do you deal with the difficulties of managing virtual teams?
The quick answer is that it will happen slowly and systematically.
Tip #1: Allow for a variety of work hours.
What if your team is virtual since its members are located all over the world?
Working from different regions of the globe, on the other hand, means that your full team will rarely be able to work at the same time.
After all, your UI designer in Warsaw won’t be able to collaborate with your back-end developer in California at the same time.
As a result, you’ll need to be more flexible with their working hours, both to accommodate multiple time zones and to help your staff achieve a better work-life balance. They’ll be happier as a consequence, and their work will be more productive as a result.
So, make your staff operate according to their natural tendencies, and tell them to keep track of the time they spend on activities and projects during their working hours.
You’ll be able to see:
• When each team member prefers to work
• Who is currently working on what at any given time
• Who is available to take on a new task
As a consequence, you’ll be able to determine when your calendars overlap and organise real-time group activities accordingly – for those times when your team needs to collaborate urgently. Set up a conference meeting, discuss plans, and check in with everyone throughout this overlapping period.
You’ll be able to monitor production levels and uncover bottlenecks and potential time-wasting activities by recording your flexible work hours, which you’ll know you need to avoid in the future.
Tip #2: Learn how to work in virtual teams.
If you want to master something in life, you’ll almost certainly have to put in some effort. The same may be said for managing remote teams: it’s occasionally helpful to get some training first.
Because there are many different ways to manage virtual teams, virtual team training courses include three different types of training: technology training, group processing training, and cross-cultural training.
Technology education
Your team will need to be familiar with the virtual team management technologies that you’ll be using in your work.
As a result, you’ll need to know:
• What types of tools to use,
• What scenarios necessitate certain types of equipment,
• How to pick the right tools for your personal needs,
and • How to deal with tech concerns, such as tool malfunctions and a lack of Wi-Fi.
Training in group processing
Your team must be capable of dealing with a variety of project-related issues.
As a result, you’ll need to cover the following topics:
• Goal-setting,
• Problem-solving,
• Building trust among remote team members,
and • Collaboration activities.
Cross-cultural education
If you operate in a multicultural team, this type of training is essential; your virtual team will need to know how to work together effectively.
As a result, you’ll need to cover the following topics:
• Overcoming cultural differences,
• Working according to each culture’s norms and work routines,
and • Overcoming preconceptions and stereotypes.
To discover the finest practises for managing virtual teams, enrol in an official “Managing Virtual Teams” course. You can also perform your own study into the best way to conduct the training.
Tip #3: Create a rewarding environment.
Working from home can, in most situations, have a significant impact on your productivity and how you approach each assignment during the workday. According to the experiences of many virtual teams, not being surrounded by people has a significant impact on the quality of your job. Also check Supply chain management software
Working side by side with your coworkers might foster a competitive spirit, which can be beneficial. When you work from home, however, it loses its vigour, especially if you are unable to visit the workplace on a regular basis owing to geographical constraints.
As a result, the easiest approach to avoid this is to create a meritocratic or incentive system that flourishes in a competitive setting.
• Congratulate your employees on a shared platform for completing a challenging task
• Provide incentives to the best worker of the week/month
• Provide days off for top achievers
• Host pleasant events and gatherings on a virtual platform
Tip #4: Schedule meetings based on different time zones.
We touched on this before – if your team is virtual due to time zone differences, you’ll need to account for this when scheduling time for everyone to “get together” and work.
This is especially true of any type of group meeting.
When it comes to selecting the optimum meeting times, it’s best to:
• Make a list of all your team members on paper
• Include their time zones
• Use comparison to find the best time slots for meetings by combining their clock-in and clock-out times from their time monitoring statistics.
For this, you can utilise an online time zone converter.
You can handle remote meetings by holding video conferences or using a communication system once you’ve decided on a time.
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Tip #5: Request progress reports.
You don’t want to micro-manage your team, but you do need to keep an eye on what they’re doing and whether they’re progressing on their responsibilities as anticipated.
You can also easily do this by looking at their time monitoring records, setting up and carrying out routine daily meetings, and scheduling one-on-one meetings on occasion.
As a result, you’ll be able to identify and discuss prospective difficulties, as well as deal with bottlenecks quickly.
Tip #6: Make good use of communication tools.
Nothing surpasses effective communication when it comes to managing distant teams.
There are a variety of ways to send a message without having to wait for someone to check their email or pick up the phone these days:
• Team messaging apps — Pumble, for example, is ideal for asking short inquiries and resolving some work-related issues.
• Video conferencing tools – these are excellent for conducting video meetings and conferences with your staff.
According to Jason Whaling, a digital marketing consultant, transparent communication with your team is based on three principles: having a central location for communication, having a set meeting schedule, and encouraging everyone to have a thumbnail.
If you have management expertise, these rules may appear arbitrary or even apparent. When they’re finished, though, they make communication much easier for everyone.
You can manage debates, comments, questions, and responses swiftly if you use a variety of communication options.
Furthermore, having a choice of communication options can greatly boost your ability to adjust to diverse work settings that necessitate different behaviours.
Tip #7: Make use of management software.
There are a variety of tools for managing remote teams that you may check out, with the majority of them assisting you with virtual project management:
• Project management software – useful for keeping tabs on project development “from afar” and staying on top of deadlines.
• Task management software – useful for defining and managing tasks as well as storing work-related documents.
• Team management tools — excellent for fostering team collaboration.
• Screen sharing technologies are useful when you need to assist a team member with setting up a new software that you’ll both be using, or when you need to accomplish any other task from afar.
• Online spreadsheets — useful when you need to work on multiple papers at the same time and have all changes saved and synced in real time.
Using a variety of management tools will make project, task, and team management much easier — as well as ensure that you save time by working in one document at a time.
Tip #8: Look for the perfect people to join your team.
When hiring employees to work in your virtual team, make sure you do the following:
• Post job openings on respected freelance websites — perform technical interviews with applicants who apply, but also have them take a couple of personality tests to ensure they’re a culture fit.
• Put new hires to the test — before hiring them full-time, assign them to minor projects to assess their abilities and potential for future collaboration.
• Give those who have worked remotely an advantage – this isn’t a requirement, but people who have worked remotely before know how to function well in a virtual team. This is information that they can share with the rest of the team.
You’ll assemble a group of people who are ideal for establishing a successful team by employing the proper people, even if they may never meet face-to-face.
Tip #9 – Create a culture of virtual collaboration.
Virtual team culture is just as vital as any other team culture; members of a virtual team must still communicate and create mutual trust.
• Getting together face-to-face on a regular basis – if you all live in the same nation, you can plan a get-together every couple of months. Plan a team dinner, go bowling, and get to know your coworkers beyond their job titles. Also check Best SharePoint Alternatives
• Attempting to form virtual friendships – while you won’t be able to hold pizza parties or play Fussball with your buddies very often, you can push them to form online friendships. As a manager, you can set the example by adding your team members to social media sites like Linkedin and Twitter, as well as Facebook and Instagram.
• Making all meetings remote-friendly – when only a portion of the team is virtual, the non-virtual members may feel compelled to hold separate meetings. Establish the practise of hosting all meetings, including quick ones, online to avoid the remote crowd feeling left out.
Building a virtual team culture allows the team to feel more like a whole, rather than just a collection of people working at their computers and punching the clock.
Tip #10 – Demonstrate empathy for your team’s individual needs.
You should strive to take into account that your employees have personal life and commitments, just as you should enable flexible work hours. This can have a negative impact on their work efficiency, especially if they work from home because they can’t “run away” from their difficulties.
This is why today’s organisations generally have big HR teams to assist their employees with any problems they may be having.
However, as a manager, you may take a few steps to ensure that your staff find a way to balance their personal and professional lives:
• Create a healthy workplace where employees are not concerned about their responsibilities and projects by encouraging them to speak with your HR team if they are having any challenges that are harming their work.
• If at all feasible, allow team members to delegate less critical and urgent duties to the next day – be realistic about the burden.
Tip #11: Schedule one-on-one sessions.
Even while having a virtual team culture allows you to form stronger bonds with your employees, you should still take the time to get to know them and see how they’re doing.
Individual, one-on-one sessions are critical for three reasons:
• Removing authority-related stress for some employees,
• Discussing potential workplace hurdles and challenges,
and • Getting to know each employee’s skills and limitations.
Annabel Maw, JotForm’s director of communications, emphasises the value of one-on-one meetings, claiming that they are an essential element of encouraging her coworkers.
Aside from weekly 15-minute meetings for progress reports, she also schedules 30-minute one-on-one meetings with each employee on Fridays to discuss how the workweek affected them.
It’s a efficient way to let off steam and have a friendly chat while still keeping a healthy work environment, she says.
Tip #12: Look for inspiration in well-known virtual teams.
When in question about how to manage a virtual team, look to virtual teams who have been successful at what they do for years for inspiration.
Here are just a few instances of effective virtual teams, as well as some insight into how they work and what makes their remote work policy succeed:
Basecamp
The company was founded in 1999, and its headquarters are in Chicago.
The number of persons that work remotely is 50, and they are spread across the globe.
What you can learn from them: They provide specific perks to their remote workers, such as covering the price of purchasing a standing desk to increase productivity.
Jason Fried and David Hansson, the creators of Basecamp, even wrote a book called Remote about running a remote firm.
Zapier
was founded in 2011 and is based in San Francisco.
The number of persons who work from home: twenty full-time employees, all of whom work from home.
What you can take away from them is this:
To overcome the geographical divide and promote collaboration and project management, they employ a variety of methods.
Fun fact:
They prefer the term “distributed” over “remote” because they are in constant contact during their workdays.
Trello
The number of persons who work from home is as follows: The marketing department as a whole is virtual, as are 50% of the other departments.
What you can learn from them: They keep in touch and up to date by holding frequent video meetings.
Fun fact:
The Trello staff manages their projects remotely using the Trello project management tool.
Clockify (yep, we work from home as well)
Incorporated in the year 2017
Palo Alto is the company’s headquarters.
The number of persons who work from home is as follows:
Because members of our team travel regularly between Palo Alto and Novi Sad, we frequently collaborate online.
What you can learn from them (or, more accurately, from us):
We keep track of project progress using Clockify, a time-tracking software that we created ourselves.
Fun fact:
You’re probably reading a piece written while “on the road” whenever you read a post from our blog.
When in doubt, look to legendary successful virtual teams for inspiration – whatever issues you’re facing, chances are they’ve faced them before and shared their experiences with the public.
We’re coming to a close…
Although all of these suggestions may seem overwhelming, you do not need to implement each one in order to enhance your management skills. Concentrate on a few of these, and you’ll notice that your work environment begins to brighten.
The most important thing to remember is to value your employees, to be aware of their requirements, and to create a pleasant working atmosphere. You’ll notice an improvement when you’ve done this, and you’ll find it much easier to put these actions into action.