Virtual Teams

1266 Words3 Pages

OVERVIEW
In order to attract highly skillful individuals that are well-qualified for the duties and jobs that are available within the organization, the geological areas of our recruitment needs to be expanded. In order to accomplish this task, I highly recommend the addition of virtual teams to our organization. Virtual teams are groups of two or more geographically and/or organizationally dispersed people who are coordinated primarily through a combination of telecommunications and communication technologies to accomplish a common and valued goal (Townsend, DeMarie, & Hendrickson, 1998). Virtual teams rely on communication technology such as phone conferencing, emails, FAX, and video virtual conferencing in order to collaborate with one another. …show more content…

By hiring locally, we are restricting the available talent pool that can be beneficial to the business. The business savings on cost from virtual teams can be utilized to pay more to our team members. With the combination of being able to hire from anywhere, and with the potential for more pay will greatly increase the level of talent that we can attract to our organization.
• Increase productivity. A recent Stanford study showed a 13% productivity increase when employees worked remotely. Team members working from home can increase their productivity significantly by eliminating office distractions, travel and allowing some flexibility in working hours.
• Lower business cost. The cost of opening and maintaining an office can be costly and by having virtual teams we can access cities and even countries with the same level of talent but with lower living costs for those individuals. The cost of a lease, the utilities, and the equipment alone can add up to a very significant ongoing cost.
• Employee retention. When given the opportunity to work from home, employees are going to be more loyal and could stay with the organization …show more content…

By providing the training of a greater role clarity of effective communication strategies, I am positive that the benefits of having a virtual team will outweigh the disadvantages mentioned. Every team member would be set up with a company email, rather than a generic Yahoo or Gmail account, so that the communication can stay strictly business with no interference of outside sources. This feature is very low on cost but highly secured for the organization. All emails would be subject to monitoring. In order to maintain a respectable virtual working environment for everyone, all individuals will have to go through a mandatory 2-day diversity seminar course in a centralized location. This gives everyone the opportunity to “meet and greet” with their virtual colleagues during the 2-day seminar. Once a quarter everyone will come together to the main office to discuss progress, plans, issues and other factors that consist of the team’s projects. This allows the team members to stay socialized with their colleagues face-to-face and to tour the main offices. As a leader and future manager of virtual teams I will make the goals clearer, performance standards higher, and communication rules standard. People have varying assumptions on what to expect from each other and in order to avoid build-ups of misunderstandings, it is critical to replace those assumptions with clear rules and protocols that

Open Document