Managing HR in Virtual Organization

Though many experts believe that co-located teams still work best, most feel that virtual teams can be successful if they are formed, trained and managed correctly. Team members must be able to communicate well and work independently. They also should possess a good work ethic, initiative and creativity. Employees who are stimulated by interaction with other people or who need external structure to stay on track may be unsuccessful in a virtual environment without training and acclimation.

Employees’ training needs can be hard to assess, because any struggles they have taken place behind the scenes. For task-related skills training, managers must encourage team members to make their needs known.

Five areas of training that are especially useful for virtual team members:

• Understanding the technology infrastructure.
• Using technology tools.
• Collaborating effectively in a work group.
• Conducting virtual meetings.
• Planning and managing tasks.

Team Challenges

Communication represents a tremendous problem for virtual teams. Davidson says that managers have to give more support and positive messages when they’re working virtually. “The written word can be so much more harsh than the spoken word; even a critique needs to be phrased positively,” she says.

Another challenge arises when team members cross time zones: The window of opportunity for contacting each other can diminish. These delays may frustrate team members who can’t proceed without an answer from a colleague.

Technology and cooperation can resolve many of these problems, but team members have to work hard to overcome the gaps left by their inability to communicate face-to-face.

Managers Are Key

Worthy points out that when companies use virtual teams, they can take advantage of “just-in-time” talent. Companies can bring together people “from wherever they are to wherever they need to be, almost instantly,” he says.

The downside to this flexibility is that team members with vastly differing levels of trust, expectations, experiences, cultures and personalities can clash. Managers must hold the team together and keep members motivated, but they face significant challenges of their own.

Besides having to think through and formalize almost every aspect of communicating, socializing, team building and productivity, managers must often change their management style. Many initially feel discomfort when they can no longer keep tabs on an employee’s progress with cubicle visits or by asking questions during a coffee break.

Process

Communication Is the Key

When you are interacting on calls or via chat or emails, it means that you need to draft a detailed communication plan with clearly-defined steps to ensure the free flow of accurate information across the team.

• Hire talent with excellent communication skills: To gauge one’s communication skills, you can hold several rounds of interviews using different mediums. You can conduct a writing test (which can be conducted on email), a telephonic round where you can judge a person’s speaking and listening skills, and a face-to-face interview (which can be conducted on Skype if the need be).
• Provide Regular Updates: To foster a culture of communication, give updates to your team on a regular basis and review what each member has done providing them feedback and suggestions on a timely basis.
• Write down Detailed Communication Guidelines: In the cross-cultural communication (where workers are culturally diverse and are working across different time zones), the biggest challenges are ambiguity in communication, language barriers and time barriers. These guidelines should clearly outline which kind of messages should be sent through which mediums and how one will respond to them.

In cases where non-native speakers are a part of your team, you might want to suggest that people should avoid using slang or colloquial language in verbal or written communication.

Build an Appropriate Tech Arsenal: Virtual teams run on technology. You need to define tools your team will use for:

• Chatting (such as Google Hangouts or Skype)
• Project management (such as Trello)
• Web and video conference (such as Skype and Google Meet)
• Collaboration (such as Adobe XD)
• Workflow automation (such as Microsoft Flow)
• Scheduling (such as Doodle)

You can employ these tools on a trial basis and determine which of them work best. Once you have decided on a set of tools, it is time to train your staff to use all these tools efficiently and effectively.

Building Trust in Virtual Offices

Employees and managers can only work towards a shared vision or goal when they trust each other. Teambuilding exercises onsite is a common HR practice. Virtually, it can be done through:

• Establish a Mission Statement: Millennial and mavericks in the workforce are more likely to work for mission-driven organizations. It means that you need to show how you as an organization and as an industry are working for the greater good of humanity. You may ask your workforce to donate to chosen charities, volunteer for the cause wherever they are, and contribute in any way they can. You can discuss these efforts in the team news bulletins as a cohesion effort.
• Define Clear Goals and establish Accountability of each Individual: While this is obvious, many startups and small businesses fail to define clear job roles for each person on the team. In the case of remote workers, it is imperative that each person should know what he or she needs to do, by when and how it will affect the team’s performance. They should also know who they need to report to avoid any confusion. Regular video conferences and review meetings can also help develop familiarity among the team members.

Track Employee Performance

In a virtual environment, where people often work on a flexi-hours basis, it is not possible for a manager to track the number of hours each person has worked. In such a case, the performance of a person can be judged by the quantity and quality of work done by an individual.

Tools like Toggle or Harvest can be used by the members of virtual teams to track the number of hours they have worked on a project. This also makes it easier for a business to quote the number of hours to a client while generating their invoice.