The importance of having a virtual team in every organization or company is something that can hardly be overemphasized. This is usually because they have a vital role to play towards the achievement of organizational goals and objectives within the expected timeframe. Virtual teams are so important that no organization can do without their existence.
Here Is the Problem
Despite all of these, you have to understand the fact that there are always steps to be taken to ensure that a virtual team is as effective as it ought to be over the course of time. The reason why so many companies struggle to bring out the best in their virtual teams is that they don’t understand how they can be motivated. Even when it looks like they are on the right path, their decisions are being based on guesswork.
The major aim of this post is to have you exposed to ten of the most effective methods to ensure that your virtual teams are performing maximally. Companies are using these methods every day with proven results.
1 Fostering of Bond Between Team Members
This is very important and should never be taken for granted in any way if you want objectives to be met. How members of your virtual team do relate with one another can go a long way to determine their level of productivity. The relationship existing between them needs to be very healthy to bring about cooperation. The reason for this is that their workflows can be affected by their attitudes. You need to get a chat room opened for this purpose.
2 Setting of Deadlines
Any work without a deadline is going to continue forever. You need to ensure that for every task, there is a deadline. One way of making this method very effective is through ensuring that you are constantly supervising their levels of progress. You should constantly be updated on how far each team is progressing over the course of time.
Some employers usually take advantage of this. They give more tasks to their teams when they discover that the time allotted to tasks given out seems short. Try as much as you can to avoid this as it can be disastrous eventually.
3 Respect The Time Zone Of Every Team
Having time zone set isn’t good enough as you need to ensure that such is done in a quite smart way. Most employers set deadlines that relate to their time zones. You have to understand the fact that your team operates in a different time zone. This is what you should consider while trying to set deadlines for tasks which have been assigned.
4 Instruction Regarding Every Task Should Be Specific
There are times when tasks are assigned only to discover that their deadlines couldn’t be met due to instructions that were not clear enough for your virtual team to understand. You can correct this problem today by ensuring that before tasks get sent out, the instructions regarding what is expected of every team is well – explained. Another thing that you can do in regards to this is to ensure that you are always available to explain little details that may seem confusing regarding such task.
5 Making Needed Tools Available
For the productivity of virtual teams to be boosted, there are always tools needed for every task. It is your duty as an employer to ensure that they are all made available. In cases where they aren’t there, it could slow down the work being done. This isn’t encouraging in any way and can make members of such a virtual team feel less motivated. Don’t forget that the task at hand will become easier to accomplish with the right tools in place.
6 Paying Promptly
Being an employer of a virtual doesn’t just entail giving orders but also ensuring that members of your virtual team get paid at the right time. Virtual teams are always difficult to monitor 100%. This implies that if you fail to pay members on time, they could start doing the tasks of other companies without you knowing. Your assigned task could be abandoned for those that are ready to meet their needs at the moment. You need to ensure that they are paid promptly.
7 Always After the Interest of Your Team Members
It doesn’t matter how important your company goals are, never place them ahead of the interest of your virtual team members. This could be disastrous once they find out that you care little about their well – beings. It is always your duty as an employer to ensure that members of your virtual team are happy at all times. You need to consider their interests and make them feel important. For instance, you can decide to extend the deadline for a particular task or even tell them to take a day off. This can have an amazing effect on their levels of productivity.
8 Avoid Unnecessary Meetings
Sometimes employers make use of platforms such as Skype to have meetings with members of their virtual teams. This is great, but the truth is that it isn’t always necessary. As an employer who wants his virtual team members to be optimally productive, you need to look for a way to send your message across in specific details. Avoid the long and boring meetings as such times could have been used in doing something more important.
9 Roadblocks Should Be Removed
There are obstacles or barriers which can prevent virtual teams from getting tasks completed. Your duty as an employer or leader is to ensure that these are all eliminated. Such could be ensuring that the team members can communicate effectively amongst themselves during the process of getting tasks completed.
10 Checking Tasks Assigned Regularly
This is very important given the fact that team members can become lazy when given considerate deadlines. Always ensure that you get status updates about tasks assigned. This will enable you to know the level of progress being made. It can also help the virtual team members not to rest on their laurels.
