How to Manage a Virtual Team in 2024

What Is a Virtual Team? 

A virtual team, another term for a remote team, is a group of workers who use digital tools to communicate and collaborate. Being virtual means they do not all work from a dedicated physical workspace and are equipped to do their jobs from anywhere.

The following are the key characteristics of virtual teams:

• Remote collaboration: Virtual teams collaborate and communicate primarily through digital tools such as email, video conferencing, instant messaging, and project management apps.
• Geographical diversity: Team members in virtual teams can be located in different cities, countries, or even continents, allowing businesses to access the best workforce from bigger talent pools.
• Flexibility: Remote work environments allow team members to choose their hours and work location. This structure has shown to boost productivity and work satisfaction. 
• Traditional work structure: Flexible work times and diverse work locations do not mean virtual teams must implement different organizational structures. Companies can still maintain traditional work hierarchy while implementing remote work.

Challenges:

• Technology dependence: Virtual teams rely heavily on technology to facilitate communication, collaboration, employee management, and project management.
• Communication barriers: Time zone differences and non-uniformed working hours means virtual teams have to depend on asynchronous communication. Cultural differences can also hurt understanding and impact productivity if a unique strategy is not implemented.
• Work-life balance: Remote workers often blend their work with personal lives, so that it sometimes becomes difficult to separate both. This practice could lead to stress and a significant drop in productivity.

The concept of virtual teams sounds exciting, and it is. But managers must handle its challenges to enjoy the net positives of collaborating remotel

9 Ways to Effectively Managing Virtual Teams

At first glance, a distributed team may seem overly complicated to build and manage successfully. However, with these best practices, you’ll realize that you can lay the proper foundations that will steer your team members toward success.

1. Start with the Right Team

It all starts with the right team composition. If you put the right people, of the right size, to work on the right projects, then you’ll build one of the most effective virtual teams out there.

What do we mean by:

• The right people?
• The right size?
• The right projects?

The Right People

A team that works in unison is more productive. Therefore, when onboarding remote employees, emphasize the company culture that defines the traditions, behaviors, and systems that employees must uphold.

You will be working with people from all over the globe, and ensuring that coworkers are aware of and sensitive to other cultures is a crucial part of the process. Therefore, consider conducting behavioral interviews and personality tests to screen for such qualities.

Keep in mind that each team member is unique. Find their strengths and weaknesses, and pair them accordingly for projects. In addition, consider organizing training and coaching to sharpen their skills. Most importantly, assess team members constantly to identify those struggling and help them overcome their challenges.

The Right Size

Working with large teams presents more complications when managing teams, whether local or virtual. For improved efficiency, consider grouping teams into the right size. Evidence suggests that the best-performing teams have fewer than 10 members.

You see, when team members work in a large group, “social loafing” – the phenomenon where team members do less in a group setting – kicks in. What’s more, misunderstandings and miscommunications are prone to come up every now and then.

With a small team:

• communication is more effective
• there’s increased engagement
• there’s better innovation
• members receive stronger support and better collaboration

Therefore, strive to keep your virtual teams in small groups for effective management.

The Right Roles

If your organization tackles complex projects, you may want to create subteams that focus on one specific part of the project. That means you need to assess the expertise of each team member when assigning tasks.

By breaking down teams, you enable them to narrow their focus on the specific tasks at hand, which is likely to improve their overall output.

2. Improve Your Leadership

Behind every successful virtual team is a great leader. As a leader, you must strive to understand the unique challenges of leading a distributed team. here are some areas to focus on:

• Create psychological safety. Not only will this boost the collective confidence and creativity of your virtual team, but it also improves productivity.
• Rethink systems. Doing things how you’ve always done them in a traditional office setting won’t work in a remote setup. You need to rethink systems like onboarding, training, equipment, documentation flows, accountability, and decision-making.
• Build trust. In essence, hire a great team, set them up for success, and then get out of their way!
• Practice empathy and patience. Having some measure of patience and compassion in your leadership communications and actions as a leader can make a huge difference in your team’s dedication to working. Remember, not everyone will adjust well to working virtually. Some folks just need the social interactions of an office to thrive. Therefore, dedicate some time to ensuring that everyone on your team is doing well in their jobs.
• Promote constructive criticism. Once you’ve established trust, you’ve promoted an environment of open dialogue. Regular employee feedback is necessary for personal and career development and is, especially, helpful in remote management. It’s also the key to identifying any potential issues before they snowball.

3. Invest in Software

We live in a digital world, and no virtual teams can succeed without investing in the right technology. Virtual teams work with more flexible schedules, and by providing them with the right software, you’ll ensure smooth workflows.

While the type of tools you’ll need for your organization will vary, most of them will fall under three categories. These include:

Communication tools:

Communication is the biggest hurdle to overcome when managing a virtual team. One way to facilitate effective communication is to be clear about how, when, and where to communicate.

It is, therefore, encouraged to implement multiple communication channels. Text messaging tools are ideal for clarifying small matters or asking quick questions. Video conferencing tools come in handy when video meetings are necessary. Email, on the other hand, is great for official communication with clearly determined messages and deliverables. Leave live chats to time-sensitive communications.

As a manager, you also want to keep an open line of communication. To make it more organized, block certain times of the day and let your employees know that they can reach you during those blocks. You can then have a calendar, so that team members know which blocks are taken.

Virtual team collaboration tools:

Collaboration for on-site workers comes more naturally compared to a team of people working in different time zones. For optimized workflows, you must implement additional tools, such as document management software.

Collaboration platforms like Google Workspace, Nifty, Chanty, and many more empower team members to work together on projects from anywhere around the globe.

Project management tools:

Project management tools are necessary to keep track of project progress and get an overview of what needs to be done, by who, and when. Trello, for instance, provides incredible flexibility when it comes to planning, monitoring, and communication. Jira makes it easy to track projects and increases transparency.

4. Allow Some Degree of Flexibility

According to a Gartner survey, working hours flexibility is among the top reasons for increased productivity. The study further reveals that 64 percent of employees are more likely to consider a role that allows flexible hours.

Considering that most of your team members work from different parts of the world makes it difficult for your entire team to work at the exact same time. Therefore, you’ll need to be more flexible with your employees’ work hours. When you allow team members to function of their own will, they will be happier, which will result in more productive work.

That said, work with set structures. Develop a clear timetable for meetings and all other company events to avoid inconveniences and confusion. This way, teams will remain focused and purpose-driven, knowing where they fit in the process.

5. Help Promote Cohesiveness Among Workers

Creating strong connections between individuals separated by thousands of miles isn’t easy. Without the physical presence, you’ll need to conjure more creative ways to cultivate some sense of belonging and boost engagement.

One effective way to achieve that is to build a sense of purpose. When people don’t work in an office, it’s easy to forget their purpose. Reminding teams of the shared goals and how each member plays a significant role in the realization of these goals is crucial.

You can do so through the weekly status updates or quarterly meetings. That way, everyone will be acquainted with the shared goals, and this will improve virtual team collaboration.

In addition, you may consider elevating team spirit by sharing company-branded gifts, such as coffee mugs, work devices, notebooks, t-shirts, wallets, etc. These little acts of kindness go a long way in building strong relationships and culture for virtual teams.

6. Recognize and Reward Achievements

If you want to retain top talent at your company, consider implementing a recognition and rewards program. Offering incentives based on employees’ performances and achievements can make a huge impact on their productivity levels.

Each company has a unique reward system, some of which include:

• Cash rewards to the employee of the week or month
• Days off for best performers
• Giving praise to an employee’s efforts on a shared platform

Whatever reward system you use, consider requesting feedback from employees on its effectiveness and make changes accordingly.

7. Organize Virtual Team Events

Team building activities for remote teams can help with bonding and developing trust. But that’s not all. They also play a significant role in boosting employee engagement and establishing company culture.

You can try various team builders for your remote teams, including:

• Virtual coffee breaks, where you decide on a set time for virtual teams to bond outside of work. Choose the most appropriate communication channel to connect through video conference, chat, or phone. Consider sending coffee gift cards ahead of the company-funded event.
• Organize group learning opportunities, such as webinars, online classes, discussions, coaching, and mentoring.
• Organize social networking events that allow team members to interact with each other via social media platforms. This is to encourage friendly chats where they can share pictures, funny stories, personal stories, and so much more while building connections.

8. Check-in Regularly

When team members are co-located, managers can easily see who’s overloaded, burnt out, or showing signs of stress. For example, an employee may start reporting late or leaving work late every day.

You don’t have this kind of insight with remote teams, making it difficult to tell if someone is struggling to cope. That’s why it’s important to check in often, especially when assigning employees an urgent task.

Inquiring about how it will affect their other deadlines allows you to determine whether to go ahead and assign the task or find someone else.

9. Create Well-Documented Procedures and Policies

Managers, you’ll agree that nothing makes working with teams, local or remote, easier than having well-documented procedures in place. These documents cover almost everything, from goals to expectations to responsibilities.

When everyone knows what they are supposed to do and how to do it, work will flow effortlessly.

Some of the things you can touch on include:

• How often do teams meet, and on which days?
• What hours during a work day a team member is expected to be available for virtual team meetups.
• The various communication channels used by the company.
• Monitoring tools used and how they are implemented.

Most importantly, the company procedures and policies must be updated regularly to address changing workplace trends.

Mistakes to Avoid Managing a Remote Team 

Managing payroll

Delayed and inaccurate paychecks can lead to employee dissatisfaction and compliance issues. These issues could drive up employee turnover and hurt your productivity. Use reliable payroll software to automate payroll processes, ensure timely payments, and follow tax regulations in different regions. You can also outsource your payroll process to avoid such problems.

Paying international employees

Consult legal and financial experts to understand international payroll requirements, tax regulations, and labor laws to ensure you’re paying workers in other countries correctly. You may have to cover cross-border transfer costs and determine whether you have any tax obligations in the country.

Calculating compensation

Ensure you consider factors like market rates, living costs, local regulations, and benefits when trying to determine each employee’s ideal remuneration. You can use market research and weigh every worker’s personal situation (especially their country of residence) to offer the best competitive salary.

Permanent establishment risk

Permanent establishment (PE) risk arises when your company’’s activities in a foreign country qualifies it to become a taxable entity within that jurisdiction. Your organization may accrue unexpected tax burdens by hiring a specific number of remote employees in some countries.

You can consult with tax experts to assess your hiring activities within each country. That way you can avoid unnecessary tax liabilities. 

Misclassifying employees as contractors

Misclassifying directt employees as contractors and using wrong payment methods and failing to submit required paperwork as a result could cause legal trouble.

Unclear expectations 

Neglecting to define your goals and the meaning of success from the start could leave employees in a state of uncertainty. Ignoring  productivity and performance assessments can also hurt your remote work aspirations and significantly reduce output. 

You can use productivity apps, such as time -tracking tools and projects management software to keep workers connected to critical workflows, boost time management, and provide clear assessment metrics.

You should also define expectations, perform regular check-ins, and encourage open communication.

IP and invention rights

Include well-defined and clear IP clauses in employment contracts, establish policies on ownership of work-related inventions, and secure agreements to protect your organization’s IP rights.