Creating Extraordinary Virtual Teams: Best Practices for Working From Home [PART 1 / 4]

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has imposed radical and swift changes to how we work. As companies have been forced to send workers home, most are also learning how to build effective virtual teams for the first time. What tools do they need to run “business as usual” remotely? Can they effectively maintain corporate culture and employee motivation for an extended period of time?

Working remotely has become second nature to the members of our decentralized marketing agency, but it’s still foreign territory for most individuals and organizations. In the first installment of our four part series, here are a few work-from-home best practices we’ve learned in the two years since starting The Winders Group. 

Tools and Technology 

Depending on your existing tech stack, migrating to a virtual workforce will be easier for some than others. The key to creating productive, collaborative virtual teams is to have some combination of these systems in place and everyone trained on how to use them. Just having and using the tools is more important than which ones to use, but we’ve included a few of our favorites below. 

• Video Conferencing - We can’t say enough nice things about Zoom for virtual meetings, especially their quality, reliability and ease of use. Other comparable options include Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, GoToMeeting, Join.me, BlueJeans and Skype for Business.
• Instant Messaging - Email still has its place for certain types of communication, but instant messaging is the more efficient way to communicate in real time among teams and to keep a record of conversations in one convenient place. Slack dominates, but it’s not without competitors, including Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, Mattermost, Discord, Flock, Ryver and Wire.
• Project Management - Once you’re in the rhythm of using project management software, you'll wonder what you did without it. Our preference is Asana because of how elegantly it integrates with the rest of our stack, but Trello, Wrike and Monday.com are equally powerful tools for keeping work moving with remote teams.
• Collaboration - There are plenty of virtual collaboration tools to consider, but the gold standard is G Suite, whether numbers (Google Sheets), words (Google Docs) or Presentations (Google Slides) are your thing.
• Measurement - Virtual teams must strike a balance between employers’ requirement for accountability and their employees’ need to feel empowered and trusted. In addition to the reporting capabilities contained within the tools mentioned above, you may also want to consider time management applications like TSheets, FreshBooks, Toggle and Harvest. 

Whatever your industry and whatever your role, you can play a part in creating an amazing virtual team if you employ the right tools, train up properly and use all of their features religiously.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Click here for the next installment of this four-part series.