Working From Home & Virtual Teams: Advantages and Effective Communication

​A home working digital lifestyle has been thrust upon many businesses in the UK as a result of Coronavirus Covid-19.

What are the advantages of working virtually for organisations in 2020 and how can you effectively communicate and manage a remote workforce? Read on to find out more.

Virtual Teams

​​How can I create a ‘virtual meeting place’ for my home working team?
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Because home workers will not be making contact in person, they need to have a place where they can share resources and information.

​​Instants messaging and email is a great way to communicate to share vast and detailed information and helps to create an audit trail.

Video conferencing facilities are ideal as it helps to remove the impersonal feelings of an email and brings life and personality to your communications.

Visual communications are also preferred for brainstorming as ideas flow better whilst communicated verbally. 

​​Further video communication ideas can be found in software-based conference room solutions such as Zoom, GoToWebinar and Google Hangouts.

​Some software even allows you to create polls, share links, slides and videos by sharing your screen with the team. 

​These tools help to make interaction more specialised during virtual team meetings.

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How can I make virtual meetings more dynamic for my employees?

​Delivering news to your employees face-to-face is the best way to gauge how they feel about your proposals, purely through their physical reactions.

Seeing digital body language helps to build trust.

Someone may be shocked, another may shake their head, whilst another may look happy when you announce a new idea.

​Seeing directly how your virtual team feel about your proposed plans is often the best way to gauge feedback.

​To keep a virtual team motivated will rely on good management and communication, either through email, phone, message chat or video.  

Different home workers prefer different forms of communication, so as a manager its your job to ensure you ask employees  which form of communication they prefer. 

​Quality communication and regular check-ins with your team, whilst they are working from home will help to build trust and keep your team energised. ​

#1 Increased cash flow - eliminating the need for a physical office or work space frees up cash meaning there is more money to invest in the business. 

#2 Flexibility – many workers love flexibility. Gone are the days where the Monday to Friday 9-5 grind is the norm. Home working provides flexibility to those who need it. For example, carers of children and the elderly.  

#3 Social Value - home workers can fit their social interests around their work, such as volunteering and helping their community. Organisations can record this as part of their social value charter. 

#4 Quality -  embracing virtual team working means the talent pool just got bigger. Technology means you can draw from qualified talent all over the world. 

#5 Diversity - home working and virtual teams provide opportunities for people with disabilities or mental health issues that may prevent them from working from a physical location. 
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​Top 5 advantages of  home working for organisations 
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​About the Author

Millennial Procurement is a UK based boutique procurement consultancy specialising in strategic sourcing.