How to Hire and Manage a Virtual Team
Ever since the pandemic, the shift from physical to remote work has drastically increased. More and more people work from home, and it has resulted in double and triple productivity increases. That’s why this topic: how to hire and manage a virtual team is now a popularly asked question. Here, this article will explain concisely how to hire a great remote team and how to manage them regardless of your location differences.
How to Hire a Virtual Team
Before moving into how to manage the team, you need to know first how to scan through the multitudes to pick out the most efficient people as your team members. Most people tend to outline what it is they need, and then they look for who can give them exactly that. Well, that’s a wrong approach. You’ll see why.
So how can you make the right choice when adding more hands to your virtual team?
- The first thing is to figure out what you can handle by yourself and what you need help with. To do this, carry out the task while you document the parts that seem overwhelming for you. Jot out the exact things you need help with so that they are direct and easy for whomever you will hire.
- Decide on what kind of task it is. There are two types of tasks – thinking and doing. Thinking jobs requires the team member to think in line with your goal before attempting the job. For this kind of work, you need to hire a person you communicate easily with. For a doing task that requires more skills and technicalities than joint reasoning, the requirements are different.
- Pick a budget as to how much you are willing to pay for the job. Be honest and don’t over-value or under-value the work.
- Decide on a method of communication; calls, email, texts, social media, etc.
- Choose where you want your team member to be located. This can be because of the language differences, variations in time zone, and so on.
Once you can get these things figured out, it won’t be difficult finding a qualified person for the task. So, where do you find remote workers? Many of them are on remote freelancing platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, and so on.
How to Manage a Virtual Team
Now that hiring is out of the way, it’s time to dive into team management. How can you manage a team that doesn’t even stay in the same state or country? Here’s how.
- The first step is to sit with yourself and ask yourself what you expect from the team. Yes, you’ll spread this information to them so that they can run with the goal in mind but it has to begin with you. What jobs should be completed by the end of the week? What is the penalty for missing deadlines? Do you appreciate creative ideas from your team members or are you strict with what you want? These and more need to discuss between you and yourself.
- Don’t boss things up, Ask your team members how they like to be communicated with. Things aren’t like how they used to be when there is a CEO in the office, a secretary and a few workers downstairs working their asses off from 8 am till 5 pm. Since everyone is working from the liberty of their comfort zone, there can be differences in what ways they communicate. So them hoe they like to be managed – of course, there is a deadline with a list of tasks and all. But they might prefer to add more or less while filling things up some other way. The good news about this is that you can end up learning something new.
Conclusion
Virtual work is not as difficult as it might seem. Not only is it more cost-effective for any organization, but it also gives every team member the freedom to work wherever is possible at any time of the day. To hire a virtual team member, the most important factor is to decide on what work is available and how to go about it before you even reach out to anyone. Also, when managing the team, you must lead like you are also a member of the team and be clear about your expectations. With these, you are good to go.