Until a few years ago, workplace culture was a big aspect of HR Management. Human Resource Managers used to find ways to inculcate the values, ethics, and beliefs of an organization in every new employee that got added to the business. The telecommuting has hit that space. With no canteens and no office parties, there are little opportunities for the 'people' in the business to interact with each other and build camaraderie.
In this article, we will discuss how we can reinforce the culture in virtual workplaces. We will also discuss the best HR practices to build trust and collaboration between team members spread across the world.
Pros and Cons of a Virtual Workplace
A stay-at-home mom, who is also a business and human resources expert, is quite in demand among the students in the UK who are looking for dissertation help. The arrangement suits her well as it offers her the flexibility of time and a regular income without the hassle of commuting on a daily basis. Here is what Jessica Smith (PHD in Business Marketing), expert editor at GoDissertationHelp shares about being a part of a virtual workplace environment:
“As a part of a virtual team of dissertation writers, I have the freedom and the flexibility to maintain a healthy work-life balance. I can work without boundaries and I have a regular income. Many of my friends envy that. However, things are not always hunky-dory. Silo working seems boring at times. I miss face-to-face communication with my colleagues. Then, at times, we face challenges related to optimal delegation of work, collaboration with others, and judging the trustworthiness of other people who are part of your team. “
Despite all the problems, more and more employers are favoring remote working options. The 2018 Employee Benefits Survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) revealed that 70% of organizations are now offering some kind of telecommuting benefits on – the full-time, part-time, or ad-hoc basis. Flexible working arrangements that employ advanced collaboration technologies allow employers to hire workers around the globe to match customer demands and enable a 24X7 work culture. It also reduces their need for costs on real estate or physical resources they would need in a traditional office setup.
A study by a Stanford professor Mark B, writer at GoAssignmentHelp concludes that working from home can boost one’s productivity, especially if one is availing the telecommuting benefits for a few days a week.
So, what are the best HR practices for a Virtual Office?
One of the biggest challenges for the HR managers is how to make sure that their remote employees feel connected to the organization and are working towards the same goal. Our management expert suggests,
“To build a strong, agile team in a virtual environment, it is very important to establish clear goals, clearly communicate to the employees what you expect from them and what they can expect from you, leverage the individual and collective strengths of the team judiciously, and hold online team meetings and conferences on a regular basis.”
Here are the top three suggestions that can make a virtual workplace successful:
Communication is the Key
Source: Pexels
When you are interacting on calls or via chat or emails, it means that you need to draft a detailed communication plan with clearly-defined steps to ensure the free flow of accurate information across the team.
- Hire talent with excellent communication skills:To gauge one’s communication skills, you can hold several rounds of interviews – using different mediums. You can conduct a writing test (which can be conducted on email), a telephonic round where you can judge a person’s speaking and listening skills, and a face-to-face interview (which can be conducted on Skype if the need be).
- Provide Regular Updates:To foster a culture of communication, give updates to your team on a regular basis and review what each member has done – providing them feedback and suggestions on a timely basis.
- Write down Detailed Communication Guidelines: In the cross-cultural communication (where workers are culturally diverse and are working across different time zones), the biggest challenges are ambiguity in communication, language barriers and time barriers. These guidelines should clearly outline which kind of messages should be sent through which mediums – and how one will respond to them.
In cases where non-native speakers are a part of your team, you might want to suggest that people should avoid using slang or colloquial language in verbal or written communication.
- Build an Appropriate Tech Arsenal: Virtual teams run on technology. You need to define tools your team will use for:
- chatting (such as Google Hangouts or Skype),
- project management (such as Trello),
- web and video conference (such as Skype and Google Meet),
- collaboration (such as Adobe XD),
- workflow automation (such as Microsoft Flow), and
- scheduling (such as Doodle).
You can employ these tools on a trial basis and determine which of them work best. Once you have decided on a set of tools, it is time to train your staff to use all these tools efficiently and effectively.
Building Trust in Virtual Offices
Employees and managers can only work towards a shared vision or goal when they trust each other. Teambuilding exercises onsite is a common HR practice. Virtually, it can be done through:
- Establish a Mission Statement:Millennial and mavericks in the workforce are more likely to work for mission-driven organizations. It means that you need to show how you – as an organization and as an industry – are working for the greater good of humanity. You may ask your workforce to donate to chosen charities, volunteer for the cause wherever they are, and contribute in any way they can. You can discuss these efforts in the team news bulletins as a cohesion effort.
- Define Clear Goals and establish Accountability of each Individual: While this is obvious, many startups and small businesses fail to define clear job roles for each person on the team. In the case of remote workers, it is imperative that each person should know what he or she needs to do, by when and how it will affect the team’s performance. They should also know who they need to report to – to avoid any confusion. Regular video conferences and review meetings can also help develop familiarity among the team members.
Track Employee Performance
In a virtual environment, where people often work on a flexi-hours basis, it is not possible for a manager to track the number of hours each person has worked. In such a case, the performance of a person can be judged by the quantity and quality of work done by an individual.
Tools like Toggle or Harvest can be used by the members of virtual teams to track the number of hours they have worked on a project. This also makes it easier for a business to quote the number of hours to a client while generating their invoice.
Wrapping it up
Besides employing the right tools, making communication a priority, and holding team meetings on a regular basis to make virtual offices work, there are hundreds of ways in which you can build a collaborative work culture in the virtual work environments.
Discussion forums can be the place where remote workers ‘hang out’ with each other. Team pin boards, blogs, and news bulletins can cover stories about how an employee’s innovation or achievement helped the company or who is the most helpful employee of the month etc. Video conferencing may allow the workers the much-needed face-to-face interaction.
Traditional HR practices can be translated to the virtual workplaces by using latest technologies and the right strategy.
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