Virtual Team Management

Presentation By:

Mike Thiessen

Co-Founder

Beloit Solutions Group

We Will Cover…

• What does it mean to be a virtual workforce?

• What are the advantages?

• What are the disadvantages?

• Is it right for my company?

• How do we get started with best practices?

What Is A Virtual Team?

• Geographically Dispersed

• Separated By:– Time– Space– Organizational Boundaries

• Joined By:– Web Technologies– Electronic Communication Platforms

Key Components

Source: Forrester Research

Virtualized Workforce = Teleworking = Telecommuting

Quick Overview

• Natural fear of reduced productivity

• Significant rewards, both immediate and long-term

• Improvement in overall productivity

• Decrease in attrition

• Reduction in corporate expenses

• Massive increase in skill set availability

Advantages Disadvantages

Advantages

1. Increase in spendable income

2. Quicker start in the morning

3. Flexibility factor

4. Building utilities decrease

5. Makes your company greener

6. Higher job satisfaction

Disadvantages

1. Never away from their work

2. Family and all the distractions

3. Strangely enough, overworking whenworking from home can happen

4. Isolation

5. Lack of Communication

Steps to creating a Virtual Team

Have Confidence In Your Management Staff

Step # 1

Have Confidence In Your Work Force

Step # 2

• Great employees = Great virtual employees

• Find people motivated by achievement

• Set expectations

• Let them be adults

Research Technology

Step # 3

• Online Collaboration Tools• Corporate Intranets

- integrated- centralized data- one stop shop

• More you learn, less frightening it seems• Give employees 24/7 support• All technologies are not created equal

- sales presentations are a great way to LEARN (match competitors!)

Analyze Every Job In The Company

Step # 4

• Take the approach that virtualization is a requirement

• Examples of good virtual fits: Analysts Project managers Systems Administrators Programmers Sales Recruiters

Poll The Employees

Step # 5

• Who already has the ability to work from home?

• Is every employee a fit for telecommuting and obstacles?

Project The Savings

• Office Space

• Energy

• Insurance

• Security

Step # 6

Document Performance Requirements

• THIS IS CRITICAL

• Clearly define expectations

• Task tracking system

• Objective evaluations

Step # 7

Migrating to remote management is like moving into management for the first time

Retrofit Employee Home Offices

• Existing System vs. Office System

• Telecommunications

• Review Home Office Setup

Step # 8

Identify the positions & the people that will migrate

• Make a list, but don't post the entire list all at once

• Make it a curiosity and make it desirable

• Only post the people that will migrate within the next week

• Winning the lottery is the effect you want

Step # 9

Migrate In Phases

• Gradual change

• Pilot group

• Test

• Proceed steadily but not aggressively

Step # 10

Manage, Manage, Manage

This is the most critical post-migration activity! 

• Dedicated to making the new environment a success

• Management presence

• Increase contact with teleworkers

• Make sure they know, every day, their job requirements

• Communication

Step # 11

Continue To Evaluate• Constant organization evaluation

• Don't jump too quickly to reverse your decisions

• You can always roll back

Step # 12

Conclusion1. The reality is we are surrounded by tools that enable us to make this reality

2. There are a whole host of management tools

3. Cloud computing

4. Managing your virtual workforce is a lot simpler than doing the equivalent in the traditional in-house team

5. With online collaborative tools you can now monitor what your virtual team is doing in real time, watch them through a web cam or share their screen view 

6. The biggest barrier to adopting this mode of working is red tape and our own pre-conceived ideas of what’s possible and what’s not

7. This is why it’s the smaller & mid-sized businesses – the most nimble and less bureaucratic – that have so far embraced it the most

Don’t Be Shy.