The internet and other technological developments in cloud services and communications enable more and more companies to shift from having teams physically present in a brick and mortar office to virtual teams consisting of individuals who could be, well, anywhere in the world. This year, Entrepreneur.com reported that 64% of employees at international companies participate in virtual teams of which 54% of these teams were outside of the company’s home country.
Richard Branson forecasted a few years back that “One day, offices will be a thing of the past”. While many companies are still far away from realizing this, others acknowledge the world that’s changing: the rise of millennials, the aforementioned tech developments, visa regulations and ease of travel all play their part.
I am actually a member of a virtual team myself. Studio XID, producing prototyping tool ProtoPie, lets its employees choose where they’d like to work from. Hence, half of the team works in an office space in Seoul and the other half remotely, myself included. As I am based in Rotterdam for now due to studies, this is just ideal for me.
The common reaction I receive is:
Working remotely, is that even possible?
Uh, yeah! There are tons of tools that can help you. Slack is perfect for team communications. For a lot of teams, it’s nearly a religion! The full force of G Suite is something that we can’t live without. As we are in SaaS, GitHub (dev) and Abstract (design) are indispensable regarding version control. JIRA helps us working according to the Scrum framework. The list goes on and on. I think you get the point now.
According to Harvard Business Review, it turns out that virtual teams are more engaged as proximity breeds complacency and absence encourages people to try harder connecting. A study from MIT Sloan showed that dispersed teams can actually be more productive than ones that are co-located. Moreover, working remotely increases flexibility and freedom, boosts morale, reduces costs, benefits work-life balance and grants easier access to an international talent pool.
Virtual teams don’t come without drawbacks and challenges. As costs for office space and commute could be reduced, costs for communication technology would rise. Furthermore, there could be less cohesiveness and lack of social interactions. In some industries, there would be security and compliance risks when working remotely. Also, virtual teams would have to adjust their schedules to overcome time zone differences.
In my opinion, the advantages of virtual teams and working remotely outweigh the disadvantages. Personally, I have been reaping the benefits while being able to deal with challenges of working remotely. However, it really depends on your needs and your industry as well.
Companies like Buffer, InVision and Zapier all have teams that operate completely remotely and more are expected to follow.
Would you see yourself working in a virtual team?
References
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Whilst I think the idea of virtual teams is very interesting, as mentioned in your article, perhaps it is more relevant for some industries than others. Furthermore, the effectiveness and success of it, would (in my opinion) be highly dependent on the culture of the company and the type of people working for the company. I think it is a very prevalent concept for tech-savvy firms, however, I am skeptical about its success in more traditional industries and perhaps also for the older generation. How do you think this challenge could be overcome? Furthermore, for me, an aspect I would miss in virtual teams is the face-to-face interaction. Of course interaction through virtual channels are possible, although that this would be enough and as alike as real-life interactions.
I am however curious about what the implications of virtual teams would be for a profession such as consulting which is heavily reliant on groups working at the clients location. Do you think virtual teams could be a success (and effective there)? On the one hand this would save costs of transportation and accommodation for one, however, there tends to be high confidentiality in this field of work, which may not be trusted on people using networks in unknown locations.
In my opinion, any standardized, routine or repetitive work process can be done by coworkers remotely. I worked for EY in a tax department for half a year. Both individual, repetitive business from long-term clients that mostly focused on compliance but also project based work in which creative problem solving and team work was necessary, was done in that department. For the former activities, remote work was possible without any problems. For the latter it wasn’t. Not all employees have the same knowledge, the same IT skills and the same equipment at home. Moreover, deadlines are sometimes so tight that any delay caused by remote work would disturb a successful business outcome. Lastly, in project work, in which client data was extremely delicate and employees had to work with files that were extremely valuable, remote work is not possible. Not even with sophisticated screen covers. If the unreleased balance sheet of a Fortune 500 company can be seen on a screen by bypassing guests in a Starbucks in the city center or in a train, the company handling the delicate information could be sued by the Fortune 500 company. My point is, yes remote work will increase but there is still a long way to go and it is questionable if every job, even if it is done on a computer, can be done remotely. Same holds for investment banking or security services from those of NASA by the way. If information is delicate and deadlines really tight, remote work might not be possible.
I agree with you that there are a lot of advantages when it comes to working in virtual teams, but I think there is one interesting drawback that contradicts one of your advantages.
Social loafing is a concept that occurs in face-to-face teams and virtual teams. However, when team members experience less social control, the more team members tend to do social loafing (Chidambaram and Tung, 2005). It is a fact that there is less social control in virtual teams, because your colleagues do not see you 24/7. Another fact that Chidambaram and Tung (2005) explain is the immediacy gap, which means that when team members feel more isolated, they will loaf more. This can be physically or psychologically isolated, which will both occur more easily in virtual teams. This would mean that virtual teams experience more problems regarding social loafing which contradicts the fact that MIT Sloan stated that dispersed teams would be more productive.
Chidambaram L., Tung L. (2005). Is Out of Sight, Out of Mind? An Empirical Study of Social Loafing in Technology-Supported Groups. Information Systems Research, 16(2), 149-168.
Interesting article and interesting comments.
In my opinion we really have to distinguish between the industry and the kind of work that has to be done. Employees of some industries (such as the tech industry, also mentioned by Sarisa) might be more receptive to working remotely and actually be able to communicate with the help of special tools.
Andreas point about sensible information that should not be leak outside of the company is reasonable. However, nowadays a lot of employees (that applies to employees handling sensitive data of third party companies such as consultancies as well) actually take their laptops home with them or work on the train etc. This is actually a big issue for many companies because no matter how many precautioinary measures a company takes, the execution of data security depends on employees. This cannot be prevented by restricting remote work.
In my opinion another factor which has to be considered is the interpersonal networking between colleagues. Would you really feel a sense of belonging to a company if you do remote work all the time? Or would it rather feel like completing a project for a third-party customer? Would you be able to build up personal and professional networks with colleagues?
I used to work for a company’s team whose members were spread all over Germany and Europe. We communicated via skype, email, phone conferences etc. It worked out but I did notice that information actually got lost e.g. non-verbal communication, there was a lacking team spirit and mutual meaning of work (which is so important for teams to succeed). Once again, it is probably also a question of how well the team members can work with digital tools to facilitate virtual work. And finally, changing corporate culture and the way of working is a lengthy process that cannot be suddenly implemented top-down.
Hi Fredo,
Seeing how you are able to work miles away from your employer really shows one of the advantages of being able to work in virtual teams.
I believe the advantages of working in virtual teams far outweigh the disadvantages. If you just get the team together physically in an early stage, you are able to increase trust which is the foundation for virtuals teams to be able to work. Building on this trust, employees can get to know each other and build relationships. Secondly, if you clarify the responsibilities of each team member and then more specifically tasks and process (not just goals and roles) you basically force the team to be on the same page. Having this alignment is crucial for continued effective virtual team work. Lastly, the communication is like you mentioned very important. Of course, for virtual teams, communication is less frequent compared to physical teams that see each other on a daily basis. That is why it is important that it is already clear beforehand and for the whole team on how communication will be conducted.
Thank you for your insightful post and hopefully you find my input useful.