To work virtually does not mean taking your time, having your machine ready, analyzing the things you are supposed to do while at the same time watching a series or something. When you are the boss, you must analyze means and ways always to have your virtual teams work effectively and deliver the desired results.
But then, if you are the type of the leader who does not freely interact with your virtual teams, there are high chances that you may never understand your workers properly. Are you experiencing doubts when your employees request for a chance to work at the comfort of their homes? Well, worry not. Follow the tips below to help you overcome the worry:
Focus ahead:
Apparently may people assume that virtual work is never something complicated. They view it as something easy to crack. Well, the truth of the matter is everything has its own challenges, and there are always solutions to each problem. You may ponder on some questions like poor internet connectivity. This will make you be selective in a way that only the employees who have constant internet connectivity should be accorded the opportunity to work at home. However, in the event that they experience some technical difficulties, they should be able come back to the office soon or have to access a nearby Wi-Fi hotspot. The point here is that the employees should not get lazy to work or find excuses as why they are not able to work.
Poor communication is also something to worry about. However the solution ii easy. As a boss, you must be in a position to get in touch with your virtual teams at any moment when the need arises. There are many ways to reach out to your workers. It can be either through chatting, e-mail services, Skype, or even a phone call will deliver the required information. But then, you may wonder, supposed the other person could not get the point being passed across, what next? Lightshot is the solution in this case. With lightshot, you can have screenshots captures directly from your desktop and share with other employees on different desktops.
There is a lot of demand when it comes to virtual jobs. Especially in this era of advanced technology. Surprisingly, every other year, there are always new technological advancements taking place. Virtual teams working from home is among the trendy technologies. So, as a boss, you need to stay awake and move with the seasons to satisfy both your needs and those of your virtual teams.
Encourage Open-Communication
Virtual employees work remotely based on different locations, unlike other formal employees who operate almost face-to-face or side by side. What does this mean? In simple terms, communication among virtual teams is a bit complicated. In most cases, the virtual employees find it difficult in asking questions and getting the feedback in a timely manner. When there is a problem that requires urgency, it becomes hard to handle it. As a boss, it is your duty to set up forums on the means of open and fast communication among your virtual workers.
Some of the channels used by several companies to embrace accessible communication include HipChat; which is a messaging application and MangoAps; which is a social intranet. The applications bring together virtual teams despite their locality. They can always pass messages with ease.
However, some bosses may presume that the resources of the company may be badly used by some employees. The solution is quite simple. As a manager, your principal responsibility is to create a forum for transparency among your workers. Open communication and transparency will make your virtual teams keep focus on only essential matters concerning the organization and not for their own sake.
Note: According to research, a large percentage of virtual teams assume that they don’t have major significance on the company and end up feeling isolated and lonely. As their leader, when you implement improved communication strategies in place and messaging apps, you connect your workers, thereby making them feel appreciated.
Embrace Transparency
As a leader of any remote team, ensure that there are standardized levels of openness especially when it comes to every worker goals, tasks to be performed, and projects at hand. To achieve this, you must put in place a system that is easily accessible by all employees based in different localities.
The advantage of transparency within an organization is that it enables the bosses to monitor every activity of each employee and track down all their activities. This means that every worker is accountable for any activity they do and their work performance. As a manager or a leader, this will increase your organization’s productivity.
Other companies use Basecamp system to control all their activities. The level of transparency within basecamp is high. This means that the virtual teams are well connected, thereby making the work to be more productive.