Virtual Teams: Advantages and Effective Communication

What are the Advantages of virtual teams?
 
How do I effectively communicate with my Virtual Team?
 
How can I make Virtual Team Meetings More Dynamic?

​A remotely-working digital lifestyle now appeals to many. The desire for flexible working from anywhere and at any time is the aspiration for most workers facing their daily commute. And employing virtual teams could also be the answer to your business needs. Read on to find out more.

Virtual Teams

​A virtual team is a team of permanent and freelance team members who are geographically distributed and interact through the means of telecommunications.

​What are 5 Advantages of  Virtual Employees?

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1. Lower costs – Virtual workers will have their own office setups so material costs will be reduced. You will not have to supply them with an additional phone, laptop and internet if they already have their own.
2. Cash Flow - Eliminating the need for physical work spaces and travel costs means more money for marketing your business.
3. Flexibility – Virtual workers love the flexibility that a virtual role brings. Gone are the days where the Monday to Friday 9-5 grind is the norm.
4. Work/Life Balance - Virtual workers not only benefit from the time saved from commuting, they also benefit from fitting their work around their life meaning they can squeeze in personal appointments when needed.
5. Quality - It is worth noting that by employing virtual teams you can select the best talent from the whole of the market (not just the local market) meaning that you can draw from qualified talent wherever it is located. 

​How can I Create a ‘Virtual Meeting Place’ For my Remote Team?

​When building a virtual team, you must build bridges between team members to gain trust and create cohesion. Because Virtual workers rarely make contact in person, they need to have a place where they can share resources and information.

​Email is a great way to communicate to share vast and detailed information and helps to create an audit trail. Investing in video conferencing such as Skype is often a better idea however 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 verbally communicated. 

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

​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.

​Virtual teams rely on good communication either through Email, Phone, chat, video or in-person. Different Virtual workers prefer different forms of communication, so ensure that you ask them which they prefer. Quality communication and regular check-ins helps to build trust and keep your team energised. 

About the Author

Millennial Procurement is a UK based boutique procurement consultancy specialising in procurement tenders and contract management. We provide in-house procurement training and bid and tender writing workshops. Find out more about our procurement consulting services here.