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Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Get equipped with the necessary resources to manage remotely.

  • Virtual team members must rely upon collaboration technology to communicate and collaborate.
  • Management practices and approaches that work face to face do not always translate effectively in virtual contexts.
  • Managers cannot rely upon spontaneous social interactions that happen organically when people are colocated to build meaningful and trusting relationships. Space and time need to be created in a virtual environment for this to happen.
  • Observing an employee’s performance or development can be more difficult, and relying on others’ feedback becomes more critical for managing performance and development.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Managing virtual teams does not require developing new manager competencies. Instead, managers need to “dial up” competencies they already have and adjust their approaches.
  • Setting clear expectations with virtual teams creates the foundation needed to manage them effectively.
  • Virtual employees crave more meaningful interactions about performance and development with their managers.

Impact and Result

  • Create a solid foundation for managing virtual teams by setting clear expectations and taking a more planful approach to managing performance and employee development.
  • Dial up key management competencies that you already have. Managers do not need to develop new competencies; they just need to adjust and refocus their approaches.

Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams Research & Tools

1. Equip managers to effectively manage virtual teams

Equip managers to become more effective with managing remote teams.

The workbook serves as a reference guide participants will use to support formal training.

2. Additional Resources

Many organizations are developing plans to allow employees more flexible work options, including remote work. Use these resources to help managers and employees make the most of remote work arrangements.


Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Board Of Co-op Education

Guided Implementation

9/10

$2,231

2

Jane did a great job of sharing everything out there. Time is still needed to go through and make connections to what we are already doing. I did... Read More

The University Of Manchester

Guided Implementation

10/10

$38,249

9

I found the support and guidance on the subject of remote and virtual management invaluable. The coaching and tips I will continue to use for the r... Read More

Montana Department of Revenue

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

2

The knowledge shared is very timely and helpful as I prepare performance evaluations.


Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Learning objectives

Describe the benefits of virtual teams.

Create a plan for adopting effective management practices and setting clear expectations with virtual teams.

Identify potential solutions to the challenges of managing performance and developing members of virtual teams.

Create an action plan to increase effectiveness in managing virtual teams.

Target audience

People managers who manage or plan to manage virtual teams.

Training length

Two three-hour sessions

Training material

  • Use the speaker’s notes in the notes pane section of each slide to plan and practice the training session.
  • Activity slides are scattered throughout this training deck and are clearly numbered in the slide title.
  • Notes in italics are written to the facilitator and are not meant to be read aloud.
  • Download the Workbook for participants to use.

Suggested materials for activities:

  • Index cards or sticky notes
  • Markers
  • Whiteboard/large table space/flip chart

Agenda & activities

Section 1

Section 2

10 min

Welcome: Overview & Introductions

  • Introductions
10 min

Welcome: Overview & Introductions

  • Session 1 Review
  • Session 2 Overview
50 min

1.1 Introduction to virtual teams

  • What kind of virtual team do you lead?
  • Virtual team benefits and challenges
55 min

2.1 Managing wellbeing in a virtual team context

  • Share current practices and challenges regarding wellbeing in virtual teams
  • Identify and discuss proposed solutions
  • Develop draft action plan for managing wellbeing in a virtual team context
5 min

Break

5 min Break
45 min

1.2 Laying the foundation for a virtual team

  • Identify behaviors to better inform, interact with, and involve team members
60 min

2.2 Managing performance in a virtual team context

  • Share current performance management practices for virtual teams
  • Identify challenges of current practices and propose solutions
  • Develop draft action plan for managing performance in a virtual team context
10 min

Break

10 min Break
55 min

1.2 Laying the foundation for a virtual team

  • Identify and share ways you prefer to communicate for different activities
  • Develop draft action plan for laying the foundation for a virtual team
40 min

Action planning & conclusion

  • Refine consolidated action plan (three parts) and commit to implementing it
  • Key takeaways
5 min

Session 1 Wrap-Up

Recommended Customization

Review all slides and adjust the language or content as needed to suit your organizational context and culture.

The pencil icon to the left denotes slides requiring customization of the slide and/or the speaker’s notes, e.g. adding in an organization-specific process.

Customization instructions are found in the notes pane.

Tips

  • Adjust the speaker’s notes on the slides before (or after) any slides you modify or delete to ensure logical transitions between slides.
  • Update the agenda to reflect new timings if major modifications are made.
  • Even seasoned leaders need to be reminded of the basics now and again. Rather than delete more basic slides, cut back on the amount of time spent covering them and frame the content as a refresher.
  • Participant Workbooks
  • Relevant organization-specific documents (see side panel)
  • Training Session Feedback Form

Required Information

  • Communication guidelines for managers (e.g. cadence of manager interactions)
  • Performance management process and guidelines
  • Employee development guidelines
  • List of available resources (e.g. social collaboration tools)

Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Section 1.1

Practical foundations for managing teams in a remote environment

Feasibility of virtual IT teams

Most organizations are planning some combination of remote and onsite work in 2022.

This is an image of a bar graph demonstrating the percentage of companies who have the following plans for return to work: Full work-from-home (All employees WFH permanently) - 4% ; No work-from-home permitted	9% ; Partial work-from-home team (Eligible employees can WFH for a certain portion of their work week)	23% ; Balanced work-from-home team (All employees can WFH for a certain portion of their work week)	28% ; Hybrid work-from-home team (Eligible employees WFH on a full-time basis)	37%

Source: IT Talent Trends, 2022; n=199

Speaker’s Notes:

Most organizations are planning some combination of remote and onsite work in 2022 – the highest reported plans for WFH were hybrid, balanced, and partial work-from-home. This builds on our findings in the IT Talent Trends 2022 report.

Feasibility of virtual IT teams

What percentage of roles in IT are capable of being performed remotely permanently?

Approximately what percentage of roles in IT are capable of being performed remotely permanently?

0% to less than 10%: 3%; 10% to less than 25%: 5%; 25% to less than 50%: 12%; 50% to less than 75%: 30%; 75% to 100%L 50%.

IT Talent Trends, 2022; n=207

Speaker’s Notes:

80% of respondents estimated that 50 to 100% of IT roles can be performed remotely.

Virtual teams take all kinds of forms

A virtual team is any team that has members that are not colocated and relies on technology for communications.

This image depicts the three levels of virtual teams, Municipal; National; Global.

Speaker’s Notes:

Before we start, it will be useful to review what we mean by the term “virtual team.” For our purposes we will be defining a virtual team as any team that has members that are not colocated and relies on technology for communications.

There are a wide variety of virtual work arrangements and a variety of terms used to describe them. For example, some common terms include:

  • “Flexible work arrangements”: Employees have the option to work where they see fit (within certain constraints). They may choose to work from the office, home, a shared office space, the road, etc.
  • “Remote work,” “work from home,” and “telecommuting”: These are just various ways of describing how or where people are working virtually. They all share the idea that these kinds of employees are not colocated.
  • “Multi-office team”: the team members all work in office environments, but they may not always be in the same office as their team members or manager.

Our definition of virtual work covers all of these terms. It is also distance neutral, meaning that it applies equally to teams that are dispersed globally or regionally or even those working in the same cities but dispersed throughout different buildings. Our definition also applies whether virtual employees work full time or part time.

The challenges facing managers arise as soon as some team members are not colocated and have to rely on technology to communicate and coordinate work. Greater distances between employees can complicate challenges (e.g. time zone coordination), but the core challenges of managing virtual teams are the same whether those workers are merely located in different buildings in the same city or in different buildings on different continents.

1.1 What kind of virtual team do you lead?

15 Minutes

Working on your own, take five minutes to figure out what kind of virtual team you lead.

  1. How many people on your team work virtually (all, most, or a small percentage)?
  2. How often and how regularly do they tend to work virtually (full time, part time regularly, or part time as needed)?
  3. What kinds of virtual work arrangements are there on your team (multi-site, work from home, mobile employees)?
  4. Where do your workers tend to be physically located (different offices but in the same city/region or globally dispersed)?
  5. Record this information in your workbook.
  6. Discuss as a group.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

  • Size of virtual team
  • Current remote work practices

Output

  • Documented list of current state of remote work

Materials

  • Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

  • All managers with direct reports working virtually

Advantages

Benefits to the organization

Benefits to employees

Operational continuity in disaster situations that prevent employees from coming into the office.

Cost savings: Employees who WFH half the time can save $2,500 to $4,000 per year (Global Workplace Analytics, 2021).

Cost savings: Organizations save ~$11,000 annually per employee working from home half the time (Global Workplace Analytics, 2021).

Time savings: Employees who WFH half the time save on average 11 workdays per year (Global Workplace Analytics, 2021).

Increased attraction: 71% of employees would likely choose one employer over another based on WFH offerings (Owl Labs, 2021).

Improved wellbeing:

83% employees agree that WFH would make them happier.

80% agree that WFH would decrease their stress.

81% agree that WFH would improve their ability to manage their work-life balance.

(Owl Labs, 2021)

Increased retention: 74% of employees would be less likely to leave their employer if they could WFH (Owl Labs, 2021).

Increased flexibility: 32% of employees rated the “ability to have a flexible schedule” as the biggest benefit of WFH (OWL Labs, 2021).

Increased productivity: 50% of employees report they would maintain or increase their productivity while working from home (Glassdoor Team, 2020).

Increased engagement: Offsite employees tend to have higher overall engagement than onsite employees (McLean & Company Engagement Survey, 2020).

Speaker’s Notes:

Remote work arrangements are becoming more and more common, and for good reason: there are a lot of benefits to the organization – and to employees.

#1: Save Money

Perhaps one of the most common reasons for opting for remote-work arrangements is the potential cost savings. One study found that organizations could save about $11,000 per employee working from home half the time (Global Workplace Analytics, 2021).

#2 Increased Attraction

In addition, supporting remote-work arrangements can attract employees. One study found that 71% of employees would likely choose one employer over another based on WFH offerings (Owl Labs, 2019).

#3 Improve productivity.

There are also improvements to productivity. Fifty percent of employees report they would maintain or increase their productivity while working from home (Glassdoor Team, 2020).

Remote work also has benefits to employees.

#1: Save Money

As with organizations, employees also benefit financially from remote work arrangements, saving between $2,500 and $4,000 and on average 11 working days while working from home half of the time.

#2: Improved Wellbeing

Most employees agree that working from home makes them happier, reduces stress, and provides an improved work-life balance through increased flexibility.

Challenges

Organizations

  • Concerns that WFH may stifle innovation (Scientific American, 2021), likely due to the potential lack of collaboration and knowledge sharing.
  • Fewer organic opportunities for informal interaction between employees working from home means active efforts are required to foster organizational culture.

Leaders

  • 42% of managers believe that monitoring the productivity of their direct reports is a top challenge of WFH (Ultimate Software, 2019).
  • The lack of in-person supervision compounded with a lack of trust in employees leads many leaders to believe that WFH will result in a drop in productivity.

Employees

  • 20% of employees report collaboration/communication as their top struggle with WFH (Owl Labs, 2021).
  • Employees often experience burnout from working longer hours due to the lack of commute, blurring of work and home life, and the perceived need to prove their productivity.

Many of these barriers can be addressed by changing traditional mindsets and finding alternative ways of working, but the traditional approach to work is so entrenched that it has been hard to make the shift.

Speaker’s Notes:

Many organizations are still grappling with the challenges of remote work. Some are just perceived challenges, while others are quite real.

Limited innovation and a lack of informal interaction are a potential consequence of failing to properly adapt to the remote-work environment.

Leaders also face challenges with remote work. Losing in-person supervision has led to the lack of trust and a perceived drop in productivity.

A study conducted 2021 asked remote workers to identify their biggest struggle with working remotely. The top three struggles remote workers report facing are unplugging after work, loneliness, and collaborating and/or communicating.

Seeing the struggles remote workers identify is a good reminder that these employees have a unique set of challenges. They need their managers to help them set boundaries around their work; create feelings of connectedness to the organization, culture, and team; and be expert communicators.

1.2 Virtual teams: benefits and challenges

20 Minutes

  1. Discuss and list:
    1. Any positives you’ve experienced since managing virtual employees.
    2. Any challenges you’ve had to manage connected to managing virtual employees.
  2. Record information in the workbook.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

  • Personal experiences managing remote teams

Output

  • List of benefits and challenges of remote work

Materials

  • Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

  • All managers with direct reports working virtually

Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Section 1.2

Laying the foundations for a virtual team

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

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A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

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