Chapter 1: Common Challenges faced by virtual teams and how to overcome them

To trace the history of telework, go all the way back to the beginning of civilization. Fortunately, the Human Resources report has an easy timeline for that. But as far as external or virtual teams are concerned, they only started to appear after the widespread sale of PCs and the advent of the internet. As lucrative as the concept is, virtual teams have only found widespread acceptance in the 2010s. Organizations are finally opening up to the benefits of virtual teams and the effect of teleworking on employee satisfaction.

But along with the benefits, the challenges have also come into companies. Every business or team is unique and so are their challenges, but there are some common virtual team challenges that are similar. The following are eight most common virtual team challenges and a quick solution from the experts.

COMMUNICATION STYLE AND EFFICIENCY
Communication is the pillar of any success. Whether the team is virtual or in the office, communication is essential to maintaining its function. In the office, there are various forms of communication in play. Colleagues often share updates orally, give opinions and even derive information from body language. But none of this is possible with virtual teams, so formal communication methods are becoming more important.

The most common challenge that virtual teams face is that everyone has a distinct communication style. Some people can be thorough and detailed, while others communicate in a sharp way. Some prefer calls while others prefer emails. In any case, when multiple people use different channels, it can become difficult to track communication and encourage accountability.

Another common virtual team challenge is that some people just are not effective at communicating their demands. So they may not offer as much information as is required to function in a virtual team. This can lead to misinterpretations or missed updates.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?
When your team members have different forms of communication and methods, the easiest way to solve it is to establish a communication protocol. Make sure that all official communication takes place over one or a maximum of two channels, and that these channels must record all communication for future reference. These channels can be anything like Slack, emails or project management tools. But creating an official channel helps get rid of ambiguity.

In case of inappropriate communication skills from your team members, it is easy to place the blame or approach it in a way that will lead to conflict. But it is important to remember that doing so is neither productive nor useful. The easiest way to tackle this virtual team challenge is to outline a protocol for communication. When should updates be sent, to whom, in what intervals and in what format? Answering these questions adds transparency to your process and gives everyone a direction to follow.