Virtual Teams For Dummies

Human Resources Articles

Is Working Virtually Right for You?

Virtual work as a career choice is a decision that requires thought and planning. Although at first it may seem daunting to make the switch to working remotely, it can create a fulfilling and rewarding work experience for both the employer and the employee if done with care, clarity, and intention. These sections discuss why virtual work is popular, how virtual work can affect on your life, and some questions you can ask yourself to discover whether virtual work is best for you. For many people, the benefits of working virtually are obvious — no commute, flexible schedule, focused productive time to work, and of course, working in your PJs. But if you’re considering switching to a virtual work model, take a closer look at the benefits you may not have considered. Here are six benefits for why you may want to work virtually:

Time management as a virtual team member

Self-direction for virtual workers

Money made on a virtual team

Happiness from working virtually

Phase into retirement as a virtual team member

World travel as a virtual team member

• Being able to relocate anywhere
• Controlling your work schedule and the hours you work
• Needing only a laptop to make a decent living
• Never having to step foot in a corporate office setting
• Meeting people from all over the world
• Being able to immerse yourself in a different country with different customs and ways of living
• Having more balance in life

The personal impacts of working virtually

• Transition: When you work in an office, your workday typically ends when you leave for the day. The transitional drive from work to home allows you to shift your energy and mindset so that you’re ready to focus on your partner, kids, parents, roommates, or pets when you arrive home. That transition is more difficult when you work virtually, often feeling like work never shuts down, which can impact cultivating deep relationships with your family, friends, or pets because you’re constantly distracted by work texts, emails, pings, dings, and rings.

Consider how you’re going to make an effective transition when you’re finished with work. If you have a designated workspace, close your laptop, turn off the lights, and shut the door to signal that you’re finished with work for the day. Take a brief 30-minute walk around your neighborhood. Doing so can work wonders for a shift in mindset.

• Family: Oftentimes family members don’t understand that you’re actually doing real work when you’re home all day. Every day when my kids get home from school, they want to talk to me, share their day with me, or show me something they created. Occasionally after a rough day, they want to talk out their emotions with me. Unfortunately sometimes I can’t stop what I’m doing right at that moment. When your children or pets can see you, but you’re not able to give them your immediate time and attention because you’re in the middle of working on an important project or leading a webinar when a family need pops up, it can be difficult for them to grasp. It’s very conflicting. Juggling between the two can sometimes seem like you’re drowning and no one is around to throw you a life vest.
• Boundary management: Boundary management refers to the separation of work and home. When you’re working virtually, managing boundaries can get extremely blurry. Choosing to shut off work and focus on personal interests is one aspect of setting boundaries. Another more difficult task is to set boundaries with others. Virtual team members frequently complain about unspoken expectations imposed by themselves or others that they’re always available in order to prove they’re actually working. This mentality is aligned with issues of control and a lack of trust. Setting clear expectations with team members and your manager about your availability is an important aspect of working successfully in a virtual environment.
• Advocacy: A recent New York Times article highlighted how people in the office exclude virtual workers, which can easily happen when the whole team isn’t virtual. Virtual team inclusion requires a willingness to make an extra effort and consistently speak up and provide input, reminding your team, boss, and people in the office that you have something to contribute and can add valuable insight. Be your best advocate and work diligently to keep lines of communication open. When you’re not included in a meeting invitation or a meeting gets rescheduled and you aren’t notified, speak up even when doing so is uncomfortable. Make sure that your voice is heard even if you’re not in the office.
• Distraction management: Consider how you’ll limit distractions in your virtual office. You may work from home, work in a remote office in another city, or work from a coffee shop. Make sure you create a workspace that allows you to get work done and be present for virtual calls and video conferencing. Ignoring this important aspect of working remotely will tarnish your performance, reputation, and long-term success in your role.

Will you excel as a virtual team member?

Assess your skills for virtual freelance work

Human Resources Articles

How to Provide Feedback and Accountability to Virtual Team Members

Virtual team members who succeed at their job tend to be self-directed and take more individual responsibility to meet their goals and deadlines. High-performing remote employees are usually supported by a leader who sets clear goals and expectations, gives the team the freedom to make choices about how to design and take ownership for how the work gets done, and trusts them to make it happen. When accountability is present on a team, people are willing to call out performance or behaviors that hurt or inhibit the team. When this level of trust and transparency exists, a lot less time and energy is wasted on wondering what people think. Furthermore, team members are more willing to accept feedback and own their mistakes, and a strong sense of team exists. However, if your team has traditionally worked in an office environment, this mindset shift to self-directed work and a strong sense of ownership can be tricky for both the leader and the team. Team members may be waiting for the leader to tell them what to do, may give them approval to do it, or may be afraid to take any risks on their own. Team leaders may have traditionally imposed accountability by directly supervising the work, creating elaborate incentive plans, or always making the final decision. So, the question of the day is how do virtual teams create accountability practices that are healthy and transparent and supported by everyone on the team? Even though holding one another accountable can be uncomfortable and challenging, doing so is critical for virtual team success. Try these tips for creating healthy accountability on virtual teams:

• Recognize that accountability is everyone’s job. It’s not just the leader’s job.
• Create clarity on roles and responsibilities. Teams that have a high level of clarity find it easier to hold each other accountable and point out behaviors or performance that are impacting the team in a negative way.
• Measure success on results, not on time worked. Involve employees in setting realistic deadlines and schedule check-ins for progress updates.
• Establish a strong level of commitment to goals and expectations. Help your virtual team members understand what everyone is doing and what is expected of each team member.
• Provide direct feedback. Some people are uncomfortable providing feedback because they haven’t practiced it enough. Check out a simple process of giving feedback in the figure, which focuses on solutions for the future, rather than past behaviors that didn’t work. Practice this regularly with your team members to increase their confidence in giving feedback.
• Encourage the team to notice, support, and positively reinforce when team members engage in peer-to-peer accountability in team meetings. Although pointing out when another team member makes a mistake may feel uncomfortable to hear, doing so establishes a habit of transparency and honesty that is ultimately necessary for virtual team success.
• Use technology appropriately. Technology is an effective tool for visually mapping both team and individual progress and where things are getting stuck. Project management software can facilitate who sees who isn’t pulling their weight, meeting deadlines, and moving the project along. Shared calendars can help team members understand what other team members are doing — whether they’re out of office, traveling for work, and so on.

Human Resources Articles

How to Create a Virtual Team Onboarding Process

The onboarding process is a time when employees need to feel welcomed to the team and have everything clearly explained to them so that they can hit the ground running in their new role. Here are some important steps you can take to develop a strong onboarding process for your remote employees: 1. Have tools and technology ready.

You may provide a laptop, phone, or other office equipment to your remote employees. Make sure you send them to your new team members’ remote offices before the first day. Whether you like it or not, not having the tools and technology ready to go communicates some unsettling messages like “we weren’t really ready for you,” “we were too busy to focus on you,” or “we have more important things to do than to get you set up.”

Ship your new hires a care package full of company swag and a message from the team to arrive on their first day to welcome them and showcase a bit of your culture. Your newly hired remote employees will love it because they immediately feel a part of team. Some of the best welcome kits that I’ve seen include these ideas:

• Company mugs, water bottles, T-shirts, hats, pencils
• Company journal with the values on the front and an explanation of the values on the inside cover
• Leadership books that the team members have read and reference frequently to improve team culture and relationships
• Team welcome cards signed by everyone (ideally, handwritten but electronic signatures can work too)
• A welcome message from the CEO or founder
• A calendar of important company events, including all-hands meetings, company retreats, and so on
• A checklist of tasks to complete in the first 15 days that includes connecting with different people in the company, doing research on the company website to answer trivia questions, taking pictures of their remote office, sharing where they live and a story about themselves, and completing important HR paperwork, nondisclosure agreements, or benefits.

Even if you don’t have a bunch of company swag, look to several online companies that specialize in beautiful care packages for onboarding. Whatever you decide, just be sure to make your new hires’ first day special.

Many virtual companies I work with swear by the practice of investing in meeting their new employees in person the first week or month. The manager may visit the new team members at their home or town, or the new team members may journey to the home office (if one exists) to meet the company executives. Doing so provides a chance to hear stories about the company culture, vision, and values. Furthermore, it speaks volumes to the new team members about how important they are to the team. If time and expense is a deterrent, have a face-to-face meeting using videoconferencing technology.

Develop a training plan for your new hires to introduce them to the company, culture, products, and their role priorities. This plan most likely includes self-study, online training, coaching by the manager or other team members, and more. The key is to get them up to speed on the most important aspects of their job role and the company culture and values.

You can get creative with this one as well. When introducing the new team members, you may do a virtual conference with the whole team and have each team member share a snapshot of what’s out his or her window or an interesting hobby. You can also schedule each team member to have a one-on-one meeting with the new team members during their first week. You want to make them feel part of the team family quickly so build ample opportunities for the team members to engage with them early and often during their first 30 days.

The first day is super-duper important when onboarding your new team members. If you’re the manager, the best-case scenario is to meet your new team member face-to-face. If that’s not possible, meet with them via a videoconference call first before anyone else, which is your opportunity to build the relationship, discuss expectations of working together, help them understand how the team and company are organized, explain what they need to know about the culture, and share some personal insights about each other. I also recommend you plan a meeting at the end of their first week to answer all their questions from week one, dive deeper into job level expectations, discuss more about the company and team culture, and chat about their priorities, goals, and measures for the first 90 days. (Refer to the section, “Focusing on the first 90 days” for more specific guidance.)

Starting any new job can feel like you’re drinking from a fire hose. Schedule frequent and regular check-ins to touch base and keep a pulse on how your new hires are doing. Keep in mind that if they’re struggling, they may keep quiet about it because they want to be seen as competent. Make sure you ask open-ended questions to check for understanding or confusion.

When you read this list for onboarding, you’re probably a bit overwhelmed. You may also be thinking about where will you find the time to accomplish everything. I understand, which is why I strongly suggest having a buddy, also known as a mentor, for every virtual new hire for the first 30 to 60 days. Having a buddy is a powerful way to make sure that your new remote employees don’t slip through the cracks the first few weeks and feel isolated and alone.