TRAINING FOR WORKING IN VIRTUAL TEAMS

Posted by Sukesh Gupta
1
Nov 2, 2015
190 Views
The use of updated and latest technology is the primary objective of any business entity that plans to create a mark for itself both for the consumer as well as the competition. However, having a traditional business environment imposes some limits on the thought process of employees and may also lead to depletion in performance of the employees.

Since most decisions are made by corporate heads who are often working from abroad and a need is felt for having a team that is independent and can act as a back-up plan for the company. These virtual teams that lead to a business having sky-touching profits can be easily categorized as follows:

1. Remote Teams:
No face-to-face interaction and communication takes place through technology only.

2. Extended Teams: Teams comprising customers and other business partners and having experience of different business culture and objectives.

3. International Teams: Teams cooperating with each other and often working away from considerable time and geographic distances.

4. Matrix Teams:
Comprises individuals from different business units of the company and reports are sent to multiple seniors in the corporate hierarchy.

5. Virtual Reporting Teams: Employees working on multiple teams and have to divide time among the different teams and often operate through influence.
This new concept of having teams around the globe ready to work for the business without any limit of time and place has its own set of advantages.

What Advantage does Virtual Teams offer to the business entity?

1. Time: Every member on a virtual team has the advantage of setting the work schedule according to them. One can easily work in the middle of the night or wake up early morning and take care of business.

2. Money: Business entities also save considerable money that is spent on the transportation and facilities provided to the full-time employees as opposed to virtual teams. Hence, no money needs to be spent on corporate training or management training of employees.

3. Comfort: Employees working from home have the comfort of doing the work from home among various other benefits among other minor options of dressing style and work schedule.

4. Space:
The best thing about having a virtual team is that they can be called upon whenever the need arises. All one needs is a good computer system with access to Internet and they are good to go.

However, working with virtual team also has its limitations that need to be tackled to make it successful in the long run.

1. Lack of Physical Contact:
Since, there is no face-to-face interaction between the boss and the employee and this can often lead to an employee becoming less productive in the long run, given the comfort and ease of timing.

2. The Work Routine: Since, there is no scale to fix the work timings hence hectic and unhealthy work habits can take a toll on the team member’s health and lead to decreased performance. This also happens due to lack of proper motivation that is a basis of the success of any business entity.

3. Imbalance Life: Virtual team members often face the trouble of having mixed their professional and personal life putting in danger either there personal space or professional commitments. This can lead to businesses losing a motivated and hard- working employee.

4. Changing Business policy: Since, virtual team members are located in different corners of the globe. Hence, it becomes a bit of an ardent task to let each member know about any alterations in the company policies.

Hence, a virtual team is beneficial to a corporate entity when trying to follow a less-expensive and more profit oriented approach for itself.
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