Top Challenges of Managing a Virtual Team
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Top Challenges of Managing a Virtual Team
Global virtual teams add plenty of value to projects, but the challenges of managing a group of global professionals are unique. -
Devoted Effort
Survey respondents say that 85% of their organization's employees serve on global virtual teams, and nearly 20% of these employees spend more than half of their day interacting with team members. -
Multi-Team Tasking
22% of survey respondents participate on at least four global, virtual teams. -
Essential Element
85% said virtual teamwork is critical to their productivity, with 54% indicating it is "extremely" critical. -
Eclectic Asset
79% said their virtual team capitalizes on its cultural diversity, with 21% indicating this statement is "extremely" true. -
Missing Standard
Only 28% said their virtual teams have a charter for high performance. -
Under-Educated
Just 22% have received training to increase productivity while serving on a virtual team. -
Top "Extremely Beneficial" Forms of Communications Among Virtual Team Members
Regular face-to-face meetings: 51%, Video-conferencing: 37%, Conference calls: 34% -
Cloud Connection
37% of survey respondents use online meeting platforms at least half of the time. -
Seldom Seen
41% said they never meet their virtual team members in person, and 28% said they do so only once a year. -
Remote Issues, Part I
51% said a lack of face-to-face contact with team members makes it challenging to understand the full context of what people are communicating, and 48% said it can make it difficult to manage conflict. -
Remote Issues, Part II
45% said a lack of face-to-face contact with team members makes it challenging to establish trust and build relationships, while 39% said it makes it hard to have an effective dialogue.
The majority of employees today work on global virtual teams, according to a recent survey from RW³ CultureWizard. In fact, the accompanying "2016 Trends in Global Virtual Teams" report reveals that a notable share of professionals work on multiple global, virtual teams at once. And, as the world becomes increasingly interconnected with regard to communications and markets, most of these workers say virtual teamwork boosts their productivity. Challenges remain, however, as few of these teams operate under a charter for high performance. Only a small minority receive training to maximize productivity while serving on a team. And, while online communications technologies play a critical role in day-to-day performance, team members say a lack of face-to-face interaction creates a number of issues. "Organizations large and small continue to make the erroneous assumption that virtual teamwork comes easy because of cutting edge communication technology," said Michael S. Schell, CEO of RW3 CultureWizard. "Only (a small minority) of virtual team members receive any training to prepare them to be effective on an intercultural team … The total economic impact on productivity represented by these virtual team challenges is incalculable, but obviously significant, and relatively simple to improve." More than 1,370 global professionals took part in the research.