9 Ways to Manage Virtual Teams Effectively

As more and more organizations have adopted the shift to virtual work environments, the concept of managing work teams virtually is considered crucial to today’s business world. A virtual team comprises people who work in a team while situated in different places or even in different countries with different time zones. These teams rely on technology and other forms of communication to work, tackle projects, and deliver business objectives even without a formal workplace.

The emergence of virtual teams has become a major focus in modern organizations, due to its numerous advantages like flexibility in operations productivity, increased access to talents, and many other advantages like low overhead costs. But as you will agree with me, managing virtual teams has its unique difficulties.

In this article, we will identify the 9 best practices for managing virtual teams so that they are productive and also have unity in the team.

What Are Virtual Teams and Why Are They Important?

Virtual teams, as the name suggests, are groups of workers that are geographically spread out and work together in a team. These teams employ technology in their working relationships to ensure that they can handle projects and be a team although the members never get a physical interface of each other. Virtual teams are inherent in such fields as IT, marketing, content creation, and customer service although they can be used in almost any industry.

Benefits of Virtual Teams:

• Access to a Global Talent Pool: Virtual teams make it possible for a business to employ talented employees regardless of where they are located. This results in more generalized skills and experience hence a variety of perceptions.
• Increased Flexibility: Remote work makes employees free to manage their time properly hence resulting in better time for work and time off. This versatility normally leads to increased employee satisfaction and thus enhanced staff retention.
• Cost Savings: Since there is no need for offices, organizations do not incur costs such as rent, electricity, and stationeries among others. This amount can be saved in other business segments such as innovation and training of employees.
• Scalability: Due to virtual teams being formed by people within the same manufacturing line or production, it is easier to expand the size of operations. If you require extra staff for the short term or the long term you will notice hiring people to work remotely means that the business is capable of adapting to changes quickly.

Challenges of Virtual Teams

Virtual teams have many benefits, but they also have the provision of communicating with people, synchronous and asynchronous time zones, and no establishment of team identity. To overcome these barriers there are management strategies that are very crucial to apply.

Now, let’s dive into the 9 best ways to manage virtual teams effectively.

1. Establish Clear Communication Channels

Perhaps the largest barrier that almost all managers experience when working with virtual teams is communication. Remote workers for instance cannot be able to approach neighbouring employees and seek clarification on issues related to a project as is commonly witnessed in traditional offices. It is thus necessary to lay down protocols in terms of communication as soon as the relationship is formed.

How to Do It:

• For real-time text and video chats, tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom are quite popular.
• It can also be advisable to manage relationship participants’ expectations regarding the amount of time they will take to receive a response.
• Schedule a weekly or bi-weekly video conferencing to review project status, plans, and contentious issues that may hinder the project.
• Make sure all team members understand when to use each system; formal reports are sent through email, brief questions through an instant message, and so forth.

Through effective communication guidelines, all the members remain connected, well-informed, and in sync with each other’s plans and activities.

2. Set Defined Roles and Responsibilities

This is typical for virtual teams who can work in different time zones where the tasks may seem very blurred over time leading to confusion and slippages on the timelines set for the tasks. To prevent this, there is a need for the managers to assign duties and responsibilities to the members of the team.

How to Do It:

• The members of the project must have a clear understanding of each other’s roles and duties. This can be done by using the
• Asana or Trello tools in managing the projects.
• Ensure that everyone involved understands, to the best of them, what is expected of them and how he or she fits into the big picture of the project.
• Ensure you offer detailed descriptions of your tasks and also include timelines so that anyone in a project can know the work done and the time left to complete the project.

The business succeeds where structures are clear so that people, teams, or employees know exactly what is expected of them; this is important in virtual teams.

3. Use the Right Technology and Tools

The use of technology is central to the management of virtual teams. If the environment is not well equipped with technologies that can facilitate collaboration, it will be a bad experience to engage in remote collaboration since the communication may take the following forms: Selecting the appropriate technology stack is critical since it will establish communication and the tracking of tasks and productivity.

How to Do It:

• There are different project management tools that you can incorporate to manage the task, time, and project plans such as Monday. Com, ClickUp, and Basecamp.
• Introduce the use of applications including, Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams to conduct group and individual meetings such as check-ins.
• Use platforms such as Google Drive or DropBox so that all the members can access the latest versions of documents without any hassle.
• Toggl is one of the time-tracking apps that would help in tracking working hours and productivity in different regions.

These tools reduce the load of work, allow more real-time work, and keep the entire team on the same page irrespective of geographical restrictions.

4. Foster a Strong Team Culture

Establishing and sustaining a positive organizational culture within an effective virtual team is one of the most challenging tasks, but it is very important for long-term performance. To be more specific, positive feelings towards the team and the company are significantly associated with work engagement, employees’ productivity, and organizational commitment.

How to Do It:

• Playing games or having trivia or coffee meetings virtually should also be arranged to foster team building.
• This should be done because it is a good practice to allow team members to freely talk to one another to improve their working relationship.
• It is an excellent idea to hold events to help the team commemorate its achievements regardless of whether it is a successful project delivery or a team member’s birthday. People should feel valued and this can be made possible through identifying and celebrating accomplishments.

Virtual teams believed they were part of the team and hence did their best, thereby increasing morale as well as productivity.

5. Set Clear Expectations

Lack of clarity in a virtual team can create problems such as; time waste, misunderstanding, and irritation in the team. That is why the guidance and direction of detailed specific expectations should be established at the beginning of the process.

How to Do It:

• This involves coming up with specific rules of expected performance on the projects including delivering on what is expected from time to time and the quality standard of the work to be produced.
• It is important for KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) set had to be clearly stated and understood by the team from top to bottom.
• Make a schedule for communications, so that all are aware, of when it is time for a meeting and when updates or reports are expected.

Expectations should be realistic to avoid confusion while making sure that any member of the team has a clear idea of what is expected of him/her at any one time.

6. Encourage Regular Feedback

Giving and receiving feedback is critical in the formulation of any team, particularly an online team. When one cannot meet their co-workers physically it also becomes more necessary to foster positive feedback in an improvement organization.

How to Do It:

• Set up an organizational culture that implies having performance meetings at least once a month to discuss individual and team performance.
• Getting feedback: Encourage the team members to discuss what is good or bad regarding the project.
• Establish structural relations in which people can feel free to give their opinions and share their views without prejudice.

Through encouraging the reviews, you shall be certain that your virtual team is on track with the goals of the project and any hitch is identified and fixed as soon as possible.

7. Be Flexible with Time Zones

Meeting an online team consisting of workers crossing different time zones is very challenging. Yet, if managed appropriately, the time zone differences are not going to act as an obstruction.

How to Do It:

• Tools like World Time Buddy should be used to set a meeting at the appropriate time that would suit all participants.
• Change the timing of the meetings so that it will not create a habit for someone to be always on late evening or early morning duty.
• When setting timelines be very conscious of due dates and ensure your team members have enough working time to meet the set deadlines even if they are in different time zones.

Relaxations on time differences ensure that people feel valued and therefore improve their relations at the workplace and balance between work and other activities.

8. Monitor Progress and Productivity

It is very useful to monitor your virtual team and their progress in order not to lose track of some important dates and to have the reassurance that everyone is working efficiently. If you are not able to supervise your team in person you will need to rely on tools and reports on progress.

How to Do It:

• Engage in the use of real-time project management tools to keep track of the activities and timelines of the projects.
• Weekly one-on-ones should be conducted to get more information on how every member is doing and to discuss or resolve issues that may arise.
• Set time tracking mechanisms so that the project is done on time and all the set tasks have been effectively done.

Over time putting in check offers the much-needed visibility into what your team is up to and the most appropriate time to intervene where necessary.

9. Build Trust and Empower Your Team

Faith is one of the foundation stones in every team regardless of the nature of work, it becomes even more critical in the online working environment. The objective of any manager shall be to encourage the delegation of tasks within the organization while at the same time trusting the employees to deliver as expected.

How to Do It:

• Allow for decision-making flexibility that will enable team members to decide on aspects within their purview.
• Avoid keeping close tabs on your employees and their performances, instead control for the results or the outputs.
• Stand up for your colleagues and ensure they are capable of taking on respective tasks and provide them with the tools they need to perform them.

In the situations when virtual team members feel trustworthy, they become more motivated and this makes the results of their work better and collaboration between them tighter.

Conclusion

Virtual teams are one of the most complex challenges that can be faced in the management of organizations.

This paper will discuss that successful management of virtual teams entails effective communication, proper tools, leadership, and culture. These 9 practices when applied facilitate the organizational development of virtual teams that are efficient, motivated, and effective.