The Future of Remote Work: Strategies for Effective Virtual Teams
Description: Remote work benefits each industry but can create unique challenges that disrupt cooperation and contact. Leadership teams, executives, and others in leadership roles may operate these recommendations to enable workers to succeed and be more effective concurrently.
The coronavirus pandemic and the massive transition to remote work from home have changed the standard approach to organizing processes. It is not enough to ask employees to work from home for long periods and expect the same results as in the office. However, you can redesign existing processes and improve your team's productivity if you adapt to new conditions successfully. Many companies have already seen the remote work benefits in their practice and are planning to abandon some offices to support this strategy and what is hybrid remote work? We will answer further in our article.
Communication
Forget about email
Use Slack, HipChat, or another team chat. The cost of switching to such an enterprise chat can be significant for larger-than-average teams. Free options include open-source Rocket.Chat. Avoid WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger for work chats. Firstly, these messengers are designed for personal communication and do not provide many useful functions for business: forced two-factor authentication, SSO, integration with cloud services, activity monitoring, and others, which will be discussed below. Secondly, mixing work and personal correspondence will not benefit one another. In addition to the risk of getting into trouble by "missing" the chat, it will be very difficult to "disconnect" from work or not to "show up online" when it is not necessary.
Stay on top of everything without being distracted by notifications
Use threads in chats. Thus, only the participants receive notifications about new messages in a thread, and discussions are divided into threads that are united according to their meaning. This may initially seem overkill, but it proves its usefulness over time. In many companies, the use of threads is mandatory and is included in the work charter.
Define the communication window
Many gain at least an hour by eliminating the need to travel to the office. Ensure the team knows each other's working hours (they don't have to be the same).
Productivity
Use a task-tracking system
There are many tools; choosing the right one depends on the specifics of the team. Asana and Trello are the most common tools that serve common needs. As a software team, we use Jira Server and GitHub.
Hold regular group meetings
Use Skype, Zoom, or Hangouts. A status meeting allows you to remind colleagues about their responsibility for completing tasks and speeds up the exchange of information about problems and delays. We use Google Meet, the enterprise version offering call recordings and additional analytics. Such meetings are automatically linked to the calendar; only invitees are allowed into the video room.
Use a team calendar
It's hard to avoid getting lost in meeting requests and time zones when working remotely. It is even more difficult to agree on a convenient meeting time for everyone. They mostly use the general Google Calendar with Zvite (a free alternative to Calendly). The calendar is open to all team members. For example, there, you can join a demo of a project, even if you are not directly involved in it.
Information Security Management
A high level of information security is ensured, first of all, by an integrated approach to solving the problem. Various tools make it possible to minimize risks at different levels, from the user device to cloud applications. For example, VPN limits access to sensitive information, while Azure Sentinel technology accelerates threat detection and response across the enterprise.
Data Security
Data security in the digital age is one of the most critical factors for running a successful business. In 2019, 84% of companies used cloud technologies for data backup or storage. Cloud technologies can ensure system uptime and business efficiency, even when the support team works remotely work policy. Disaster recovery services such as Azure Backup & Disaster Recovery can help you get back to normal operations quickly in the event of a disaster.
Prioritize virtual team training
To accept virtual training is less helpful than in-person training, though it is untrue. One current topic research discovered that after a global consulting company formed lunch-and-learn activity sessions, its workers evolved more useful and secure in their virtual professional talents.
Team managers may play identical outcomes by executing virtual training that adjusts to their team's conditions over time. Here are some helpful instruments that will make this attainable.
Technological instruments
Team members succeed when they learn essential data straight from their colleagues. Cooperative learning programs that create customized systems permit everyone to be involved and on the same page. Many platforms also prioritize knowledge that is publicly available and efficiently updated so leaders can quickly incorporate relevant content for each learning session. It's also worth noting that many platforms implement free tools such as OneConvert on their sites.
Intercultural training
While virtual team associates must use technology tools they are pleased to employ together, they also require cross-cultural activity to thrive in remote work. It's harder to pity someone else if they're just an avatar on a gadget. Virtual cross-cultural activity makes it easier for managing virtual teams to cooperate because they will understand how to convey, even on the other side of the world.
Final Thoughts
Exists an opinion that remote work is almost a career dead end. But a glance at the statistics is enough to understand that future of remote work of employees is a powerful international trend. The number of remote workers wouldn't grow exponentially if people thought remote work was a dead end. Many examples of successful career growth for remote work companies in large and small firms exist. However, it is essential to remember that effective remote work requires specific skills, organization, and technical equipment. With them, a remote employee can easily be as productive and successful as anyone else.