Virtual teams are now common across the Globe. From big IT giants like IBM, Oracle to new digital startups all rely on remote team management.
All this is due to the benefits that it offers. As per globalworkplaceanalytics.com data analytics, working remotely increase employee productivity, Employee/Client satisfaction, and above all, it can save up to $10000 annually to a company.
Despite all the benefits there are some challenges that managers face while team management. Among the top 5 common challenges are:
- Communication in Virtual team
It is the core of any team to work efficiently. Managing a remote team is challenging and having good communication in it is even more.
Managers that co-ordinate the team remotely need good communication skills to direct the team members.
- Scheduling difficulties
Communication tools like chatting, instant messaging, video conferencing makes it easier to share difficulties and schedule them.
Having one-on-ones meeting with team members helps in discussing their problems, thoughts, and ideas. It becomes more convenient for both managers and employees to converse during these meetings and work smoothly. This report by SoapBox shows the complete statistics on one-on-ones meetings
- Language and Cultural barrier
Working with a team remotely means working with diversity. Diversity of culture, language, or any other. These diversities can inversely impact the interaction between the team sometimes. That can affect their working efficiency, project task priority, project growth, etc.
Managers should acknowledge these issues and take the necessary steps to overcome them. Because the project’s success mainly depends on team co-operation and co-ordination.
- Tracking employee performance
The success of a project depends on the performance of employees. In a virtual team, a different employee can have different work, working style, working time.
Employees from different areas can have a different time zone. It requires an effective time tracking software with screenshots & employee monitoring to track their performance. Through this team members can work efficiently without any distractions.
- Lack of trust and cohesion within a team
Employees that work remotely do not have any physical interaction with co-workers. For human ideology, it is something that builds trust between them.
This lack of physical interaction can cause a lack of trust between team members or between managers and the team.
For this, remote managers must learn to give the necessary freedom to team members and their working style. This way they can gain their trust and navigate them smoothly.
“Though, apart from many benefits in working remotely with a virtual team, there are still some challenges. But, it’s not that it can’t be overcome. All it needs is proper tools and management to carry out it’s working smoothly and now you have them”.
