More and more work is being done by virtual teams. Projects have been led in a virtual environment for years, so working remotely isn’t exactly new. However, as technology moves on, and project work becomes even more complex, are you working together as efficiently as possible?
Here are 5 tips for making sure virtual teams are a success and that your team can work in a virtual environment and stay productive.
1. Prepare for tech glitches
Whether you are a PMO manager with years of experience of virtual work, or a new project manager just starting out working from home, tech troubles happen. It’s best to be prepared for when your team meeting fails as someone’s internet goes down, or you can’t get the slides to show on your screen.
You can’t always foresee the tech issues that your virtual team will face, but you can think about some of the risks that remote working and software bring to the project. Then you can plan for and work around them, as you would any other risk.
For example, if the internet is a bit shaky, ask people to turn off their cameras to save bandwidth. Start meetings at a few minutes past or to the hour, to avoid the international rush of people starting meetings on the hour. Send out presentations in advance so that if you can’t get them to show via screen sharing, people can still see what you are talking about by looking at their own version.
The more experience you have with virtual meetings, the easier you will find it to lead and facilitate online discussions. Keep practicing! Everyone is in the same situation and it’s likely your team is all learning together. Be honest about the struggles and ask for suggestions to keep improving your virtual calls.
2. Hold each other accountable
One of the biggest worries we hear from team leaders in a remote environment is that they are concerned people won’t do their tasks. In our experience, it’s unlikely you’ll find someone on the team who prefers to sit at home and watch Netflix all day and then report to you how busy they were. Most people do try to do their best, but the concern is real.
Create a culture where you can hold each other accountable. Talk about deadlines and set clear expectations for the team and individuals. Make sure people know what they are responsible for and what quality criteria they have to meet. Encourage everyone to focus on results.
3. Create transparency around tasks
When you aren’t all in the same room, it’s even more important that people know what their work priorities are for the day. Enterprise project management tools and task management apps make this easy.
Give people access to the software they need to see their assigned project work. However, remember that some people might need support and training to get their skills up using the tools. If they used to always ask the person next to them for help, they won’t be able to do that if they are now working remotely.
Online manuals and tutorials can help, as well as reference materials like training videos in bite-sized chunks that cover the key features they need to use.
In fact, it would be a good idea to make sure everyone’s skills are up to scratch. Why not put the whole team through an online training course to help them become more efficient at using their software tools?
4. Let people know your availability
One of the major benefits of remote working is that you can pretty much set your own hours. If you are up with the larks, you’ll be doing your most difficult work before the night owls are even out of bed. If you work best in the evening, your colleagues with young children might already be slumped on the sofa exhausted after an early start with toddlers.
The great thing about virtual teams is that it doesn’t matter when you work. As long as the work gets done, starting at 6am or 6pm shouldn’t make much difference.
However, it is annoying for your colleagues if they can’t get in touch with you. Be open about your preferred working hours and how you intend to structure your day. Tell the team if you can’t be available in the morning because of the school run, or if it’s OK to phone you at 10pm in the evening. And check that your flexible working is not going to impede on anyone else’s productivity. After all, there will be times when you all have to show up at the same time, regardless of whether it is personally convenient or not. Sometimes, that’s the job.
Flexibility is a bonus, but consider how your approach to flexible working affects others in the team and make sure they can still get in contact with you during core work hours.
5. Value each other’s differences
You all bring something different to the team, and being remote doesn’t change that. Take time for office chit chat, the kind of conversation you would have at the coffee machine or water cooler. You can spare the first few minutes of a web conference to check in with people about their day.
Everyone will have different work preferences, styles, experience and cultural background and all of that will only enhance the team if you let it. Think about ways to mark events or national holidays for all team members, wherever they are based, and encourage everyone on the team to talk about what’s going on in their location. Differences are what makes teams stronger, and project results better because diversity of thinking leads to better decision making.
These 5 tips will help you build confident and creative virtual teams. Whether you are working in a PMO or project delivery role, or as a team member, it’s time to get comfortable with your web cam and virtual working, because being part of a remote team is here to stay.