It has been 3 or 4 years since my first internet-based job. I wrote, edited, marketed and made plans for companies, and published and executed them online. I also “met” many amazing co-workers whom I have become very good friends with as time went by; most of them are amazing artists and people from the Marketing and PR world. With the breadth of experience I have working online, it’s still astonishing how many people (especially executives) don’t see that it is really possible to build very strong virtual teams, and how much work can get done online. After all, the top candidates for a company job opening may not live in the same place, right?
With virtual teams, one is really driven to look at the skills of the person and in what s/he brings to the table rather than how “visible” they are. There’s no coffee break, less overhead and you can demand more of the brainwork rather than physical work. Because of this, your team can become more result oriented.
Now, no matter how good virtual teams may sound right now, this arrangement also has drawbacks. For example, many things that I didn’t like about working in virtual teams is having multiple time zones, trust issues and usually, there’s the need to overcommunicate most of the time. I think what every employer should do is to land with the right people and set realistic expectations for them as early as possible.
When hiring for a virtual team, employers must be on the lookout for people who are used to working independently and those who are internet-savvy as well. Schedule webcam interviews and ask about their experience and their internet connection. Try to measure, also, how trustworthy they are as early as you can. (Don’t worry, there’s Skype and there are free conference calls available. For team-based office work, there’s Huddle and Google Documents to track those.)
By the time that you have the right people on board, set specific goals and put it in a file where everyone can see it. If you want, you may even spend one meeting where you explain it to them and when they are free to ask questions. With that, celebrate your little successes (milestones) and always be sensitive of your communication. Maybe you are communicating too often, maybe it’s also very loose that people start developing trust issues about you/ your team. It’s not enough that people deliver, people also need to be “seen” online when needed. If you’re the boss, you must also be the most flexible part of your team.
Those are the little things that matter most to building and maintaining virtual teams. Got more questions about working virtually? You can email me via yournewprgirl@gmail.com.
Lotsalove,
Your New Pr Girl
