Can you really build and operate a business solely in the virtual world? Our experiences and observations are an irrefutable NO!
Let’s explain the situation.
The drive to build and create organizations with a virtual or telecommunicating workforce has been growing for the past several years. Many are discovering this approach is not nirvana.
Virtual teams can provide advantages over traditional teams, including the ability to bridge time and space and better utilization of distributed human resources without physical relocation of employees (Lipnack & Stamps, 2000).
Flexible as it may be, the virtual team comes with many challenges, due to its inherent characteristics. Given the separation in time and space, possibly no history of working together, and limited communication channels, utilizing a virtual team can lead to catastrophic results.
That observation was echoed by the prediction of the Gartner group: More than 60% of professional workforces in the Global 2000 company would work in virtual teams.
According to the Gartner group, over 50% of virtual teams will fail to meet either strategic or operational objectives, due to the inability to manage the distributed workforce.
Why is Virtual Work Not Working?
After 5 years of attempting to operate virtually with part of our core team, CRG has abandoned the idea that virtual teams can successfully function and be productive. This is especially true of micro business and smaller businesses where the virtual team members are virtual—self-employed contractors working out of their homes.
1. No Real-Time Communications
For work teams to experience success, real-time communications and synergy must occur. In spite of the advances in technology, this real-time connection rarely happens, especially if you are engaging self-employed contractors who are operating on their own time schedule.
How can the flow of business be efficient when not only minutes and hours go by—but sometimes days—without connections?
It can’t.
One virtual team member was scheduled to be online during a specific time. Two hours later, she finally came online to say, “Sorry, I just decided to take my dog for a walk.” She was not connected to the downstream affect of her actions.
2. Reduced Community
Trust is one of the critical elements required to build a team and get results. The virtual environment severely limits the opportunity for individuals to become emotional or intellectually part of the process.
3. Conflict between Independence and Structure
There is a foundational conflict between the nature of most successful telecommuters and the need for structure and accountability in the virtual workforce.
Companies are discovering that not all individuals can work productively in a virtual work environment. At home, the laundry, housework, yard work, and the fridge all compete for their attention during work time. Tucked away in their own location, they may fail to use self-discipline to focus solely on the work tasks at hand.
Sometimes, children are in the house when the parent is trying to be a productive contributor.Many people don’t want to be accountable in their virtual work environment.
The most successful virtual workers work best when it suits them—which might not be when the rest of the team is online.
4. Intellectual Exchanges Missed
Virtual team members do not experience the benefits of collateral impact. In live team environments, events are constantly in play. During these dealings, team members learn from others and from the organization—simply as a result of being present and interacting with others.
Example 1: Last week, a couple of staff members overheard another staff person’s telephone conversation and commented they had learned new information. The importance of this sort of positive collateral impact cannot be downplayed.
Example 2: Last year, a large business moved its head office and 700 employees into a new office tower. They went from an open office concept to private offices. The results were disastrous—decreased communications, decreased global awareness in the office, and decreased productivity.
After spending millions for the private-office design, the company remodeled the new premises! They switched back to the open concept for the benefit of their work teams and productivity.
Where Does the Virtual Workforce Work and Not Work for CRG?
To enable a virtual workforce model to succeed at CRG, we are limiting our virtual team to transactional projects. Our virtual providers are not part of CRG’s core thinking, creativity, or strategic decision-making group.
Here are some examples.
- After working with five different virtual marketing firms, all failed to deliver desired results—mostly because they were virtual and could not connect to the heart and core message of CRG.
- On three different occasions, we went virtual for our online Web development and design. Each failed. We still use virtual developers but only under the direction of our inhouse onsite development team.
- Our communication position went virtual twice. That produced poor results when lack of availability and accountability caused serious frustrations for others on the CRG team.
- We limit most of our virtual providers to businesses—providers that have a business location, regular hours, and a phone number. This way, we don’t have to track them down, hours later, because some other matter took them offline.
One virtual provider, a graphic designer, decided to go on an unannounced 4-week holiday. During that time we were unable to access any of our master publication files.
- We do have virtual team members when we require specific expertise periodically, such as Editing, Video Taping and Production, Graphics Design, Systems Analyst, IT Network and Support, and an accountant, to name a few.
- We are now doing business only with providers who can meet us in person, if and when required. That way, we can have a blended working model and meet with them face-to-face.
- We have eliminated all our offshore contractors, due to language and time-zone barriers. They were costing us way more in lost productivity, compared to what we were saving in hourly rates.
- We structure virtual work to be project- or performance-based with specific deliverables. Whenever possible, we avoid any hourly or open-ended contracts with virtual providers.
There will much more debate and analysis on the case for virtual work teams. At the moment, we would recommend you limit your use of virtual providers in favour of performance-based and transactional work.
Virtual teams must take extra steps to ensure they are setting up a structure to create a winning environment. If you are thinking about being a virtual provider, you must understand your personal style strengths and weaknesses! Completing a job style analysis will confirm the characteristic you require to successfully perform the virtual responsibilities in question.
Some individuals cannot function well independently in a virtual work environment. When this happens, be real about the situation and make a swift decision to do something about it.
In our opinion, no work team—virtual or not—should be operational without the following learning resources to frame and outline their success.
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