Working from home is nothing new and millions of developrs, graphics designers, marketers or any freelancers are working from their home. Working from home provides multiple advantages such as flexible work hours, control of workloads, independence and so on. You don’t always work under other people and you sometimes need to run your own virtual team or your freelance work might require that. Even large multi-national companies are running virtual teams to have the advantage of 24/7 active working team and cost saving. But running a virtual team comes with some challenges as well.
Here are some useful tips on how to overcome the challenges of managing a well performing virtual team:
Hire Employees Perfect For Virtual Work
Not everybody is perfect for working in a virtual environment. Someone who is busy with other tasks will be less likely to reply to your emails quickly. Someone who is not working as a virtual worker fulltime, will give less importance to your assignment. So, try to go for the right people for the right job. Have only skilled, experienced and serious individuals to have maximum results within quick time.
Describe The Work Systems Well Upfront
You need to ensure you don’t pay for unproductive work or hours of your employees. Describing the work systems and setting a benchmark or a standard is a great way to teach your employees exactly what you want. Everybody has his or her own style of working and if you don’t make your working style upfront, you may waste a lot of time.
Communicate Effectively
Communication is the single most important thing for the success of any virtual team. If your team members do not work in the same working hours, you need to make use of tools such as BeeCanvas, Google Drive, and Spreadsheet to make sure your team members get all the instructions they need when they work and when you are available you can know expertly what stage each project in. Spreadsheet is particularly a mandatory tool to use when you need multiple people in your team to update a single database. Video calls, and Skype group conversations are very effective forms of communications. So, make sure you make good use of all these tools to increase productivity of your virtual team.
Know About The Skills And Experience of Your Team
Sometimes it is important to know various skills and experience your team members have. You can use that knowledge in getting out of complex situations. It enables you to know whom to consult for what purposes.
Build A Long Lasting Relationships
Success is a logical sequence when each member of a team works to achieve the same goal. When you build long lasting relationships with your team members, each member will understand the importance of achieving a common goal for the team. When you achieve a goal as a team, give due credits and possible bonus to your team members. It will help you have long lasting relations with your team members.
