Virtually Alone – Real ways to engage with virtual employees! (Lets be f.r.i.e.n.d.s)

As a part of my PhD work, an exploratory research study of employee engagement in virtual teams was undertaken with a sample size of 300+ employees from several organizations across the globe who are part of the virtual team. Today in the context of Covid-19, the findings of the study are all the more relevant for the organizations to engage their tele-working/virtual teams.

With the emergence of virtual teams, a paradigm shift at workplace has occurred.

1.     From work as a physical place to doesn’t matter from where you work.

2.     From work happens between 9 and 6, it happens when it’s assigned and due.

3.     From employees to be monitored, now employees are responsible for results.

4.     From visibility increases productivity to telecommuters are productive too.

5.     From micromanagement to employees being high on accountability and ownership

However, managing a team has never been an easy task. Be it on field, face to face and now virtual teams. The challenge in managing a virtual employee is how we engage them. In a virtual working environment, the sporadic moments of connection that happens in hallway or cafeteria or in recreation room is completely missed. The casual human interaction and the accompanying sense of belonging are also missed. With the ever increasing number of employees working virtually, it is imperative to study how to engage this workforce. As a business leader or HR Professional, if one would like to positively engage employees working in virtual teams it is imperative to understand their needs to work successfully.

Real ways to engage virtual employees:

A simple framework of “f.r.i.e.n.d.s” is derived from this study. So what is this new practice of f.r.i.e.n.d.s that helps to engage virtual employees?

1.     F – Flexibility: Employees today believe that life exists beyond careers. From a time when an identity of an individual revolved around workplace achievements, employees today seriously pursue hobbies or activities along with their careers. Personal time or family time is of prime importance today. Given the nature of flexibility that gets offered in a virtual team, leaders should be vigilant of employees tasked too little or too much and thus help them strike a balance between home and work. Along with flexibility, comes responsibility and accountability of tasks undertaken. They may have freedom to speed up or slow down; however, the focus of the Manager shouldn’t be on counting hours and should be on productivity.

2.     R – Role Clarity: In a virtual team, it’s imperative for every individual to have an ability to work independently. Every team member should know their contribution to the big scheme of things. A set of agreed upon guidelines, communication hierarchy, clarity of goals and its assessment helps dispersed teams to work on same page with common denominator.

 3.     I - Identity crisis: As organizations are growing larger, the employees are getting isolated and at times are recognized only by their email ids. An identity crisis may emerge with a feeling of out of sight- out of mind in employees working in virtual teams. They may be working as lone wolves, however, humans being a social animal at times needs recognition, listening ear, sounding board to share ideas. Business leaders and HR Professionals should have their eyes and ears open and act with agility to bridge the gap of emotional vacuum that employees may suffer from due to lack of real communication as against virtual connect.

4.     E - Enablers to work well with colleagues: Using the right technology which helps to integrate all types of communication is a must to work cohesively as a team. Conference calling, discussion forums or virtual rooms like Microsoft Sharepoint, direct calling, chatbots are certain technologies that come in handy to connect with the team. However, the messiness that gets created during human interaction could be completely missed. There is a high possibility of virtual teams being highly diverse, hence to collaborate it’s important to understand the cultural nuances.

 5.     N – Need to feel valued and rewarded:  Given the identity crisis that virtual team members go through, it becomes all the more important for them to feel valued and rewarded. Being in virtual team, they may completely miss the pizza parties and several milestones celebrations; however as Business Leaders and HR Professionals, we need to ensure the dangers of distance are bridged well. Constant and real time praise is a lifeline for managing such teams. In lieu of onsite opportunities or flexibility and other benefits, we cannot forego timely reward and recognition for their achievements.

6.     D – Dynamics of relationships: Multi-location, multi-generation, multi-culture, multi-time zone and multi-functional team members make the dynamics of team complicated. It isn’t easy to manage any team and a team with such dynamics; it’s all the more difficult to manage it. Given the significant cost effectiveness that virtual teams bring in, it’s here to stay and increase in the times to come. Are organizations ready to cater to their different needs at every touch point? Behavioural interviews, personality tests during hiring, office video tour during induction, sustain learning and growth momentum at different milestones, recognition of their contribution to the project that should top the priority list. Managers and team members need to be proactive, self-starter, high on accountability and ownership, should have an ability to foster trust, collaboration to work on a shared vision. In absence of this, the relationship may get muddled. When people are able to build on each other’s ideas and play to their strengths, relationships flourish.

 7.     S - Size:  The size of the virtual team plays an important role in its success. Smaller the better. The most effective virtual teams are small ones, a team size of not exceeding 10 people. Small teams help in inclusive communication, members of the team are able to relate with each other’s behaviour and working style and are thus able to co-create and progress in achieving goals to effectively work together.

As the world becomes an ever more interconnected place, working in virtual team will only increase. Embracing real ways to engage with virtual employees is a key to succeed in this new form of workplace. 

Stay safe and act responsibly.

Prapti