Managing performance of virtual teams

CHALLENGES OF VIRTUAL TEAMS

What is a virtual team? A group of employees who communicate and work together using digital tools is typically called a virtual team. While they can be located in the same physical space, virtual teams are typically dispersed, and working away from the office in different geographic locations.

Virtual teams are also referred to as ‘geographically dispersed teams’, ‘distributed teams’, or ‘remote teams’, however they all mean the same thing: people working together without physically being together.

How do you manage virtual teams? Many aspects of managing people in a virtual environment are the same or very similar to what you will find in a physical workplace, except you need to effectively communicate in a remote environment.

By virtue of COVID-19 many organisations have had to quickly adapt to their staff working from home.

Individual work styles and home office arrangements contribute to an individual’s ability to perform well remotely. Understanding individual preferred working styles and circumstances is important to consider how you and the team interact.

Some key areas to focus on when managing virtual teams include:

1 .

Effective and regular comunications; utilise collaboration tools

Consider individual employee communication styles and preferences

Build trust with your virtual team

Maintain productivity by having appropriate measurement systems and tools in place

Foster engagement and promote desired workplace culture

Manage performance by setting clear goals and expectations

Managing performance of virtual teams

2.

How do you manage the performance of a virtual team? Some key strategies to help manage the work performance of virtual team members:

One-on-one time with each team member Clothing firm Patagonia found that their high performing teams were the ones who instigated regular check-ins and continuous feedback. But with many teams in organisations now rarely meeting face-to-face, how can this regular dialogue in a virtual environment be maintained?

Making sure you have the right technology in place will help. Research1 indicates that creating one-on-one time with your team members is the best way to manage performance. Findings show that when this relationship is strong and the leader communicates frequently, the virtual team member is more likely to contribute to team decision making, which in turn has a positive effect on team innovation. The importance of this increased as team members became more dispersed.

Clarify priorities and break down objectives Most people will have identified their priorities and set achievable objectives - pre-COVID. However, the new business environment, brought on by the pandemic, may have made these less achievable or no longer relevant as organisations quickly move to re-imagine their business. Managers need to take time with team members to review existing objectives, refocus people, and break down business and/or team objectives into specific deliverables to provide clarity on priorities.

Setting realistic objectives, using SMART goals can motivate staff and focus their attention on the personal and business goals that are applicable during this change.

Identify what has changed for the business and discuss the changing direction with employees While employees have quickly grasped new technologies to carry out their day-to-day work (often from home), the organisation has had to rapidly change to meet the needs of its customers and stakeholders to keep pace with the changing environment.

Discuss with employees: • the changing direction of the organisation• how these changes will impact their work, and• the altered expectations and deliverables.

Managing performance of virtual teams

3.

Set up reporting As the ability to observe employee productivity in person is not available to the virtual manager, it is imperative that adequate reporting measures and tracking are implemented. Project management systems or some other productivity tool/software can help you track time and the flow of projects. Investigate what options you have available to you and your work teams to facilitate effective virtual measurement and reporting.

For example, Google Documents and MS Teams are means to share and set up report templates. Regular reporting that fits with the team’s and the organisation’s needs is essential to manage performance.

While some might still believe that virtual employees don’t work as hard as their in-office counterparts, this view has rapidly changed as a result of the pandemic. Some studies2 have shown the opposite is actually true! Using consistent reporting alleviates concerns that an employee may not be putting in the required time and completing the necessary work tasks.

MANAGING UNDERPERFORMANCE IN VIRTUAL TEAMS

It is important to ensure that the performance evaluation process is perceived as fair and transparent by all participants and that it is consistently applied. Managers should think objectively when comparing and assessing the performance of individual co-located and virtual team members.

What can you, as a manager, do to support underperforming staff? Consider the following.

Investigate the potential performance issue With significant changes occurring to workplaces because of COVID, it may be difficult to clearly identify performance issues in your team. Previously you may have ‘tuned in’ to an underperformer considering whether the performance issues have been due to insufficient skills or resources, lack of initiative, commitment or a challenged attitude to work. Whilst these can be contributing factors, it is not the whole story. It is important to focus on the underperformance itself rather than the individual; this will lead to a better solution-focussed outcome. Before taking the next step in discussing the issue with the employee who you believe is underperforming, consider a few aspects to help determine the contributing factors.

• Establish what has changed

• Has the employee just recently started to underperform?

• What are the new variables that could interfere with the employee’s work?

• Have there been any recent organisational shifts that have impacted on the employee and their role?

• Is the new work environment (e.g. changed teams, working from home, new responsibilities) impacting on performance?

• Are there personal life impacts that need to be considered?

• Are there technology challenges (e.g. new technology to learn, the technology is not working effectively)?

• Are there self-management issues – are they keeping on track with their work?

1 Gajendran, R. S., & Joshi, A. (2012). Innovation in globally distributed teams: The role of LMX, communication frequency, and member influence on team decisions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(6), 1252–1261. 2 https://www.forbes.com/sites/larryalton/2017/03/07/are-remote-workers-more-productive-than-in-office-workers/#4075867d31f6.

Managing performance of virtual teams

4.

• What is failing?

• Virtual work can raise systemic weaknesses across the organisation:

» Processes may be manually focussed and may be impacted because of remote working arrangements

» It may be difficult to get the information needed to do the job – for example, working virtually means no more stopping by someone’s desk; chatting to find out who to speak to about an issue

» Work-arounds that people have developed may no longer work in a virtual climate

• It is essential that managers identify whether there are broader organisational issues that are contributing to performance issues

• What’s fact, what’s emotion/reaction?

• Show empathy without avoiding the issues – separate emotion from fact

• Anxiety, anger and fear can lead to blame, defensiveness and irrationality – these emotions may be heightened when a person is working in an isolated environment

• Help your staff to succeed – don’t lower expectations; acknowledge any issues and create support structures that help them succeed

• What’s mine, what’s theirs?

• Accountability – as a leader be aware that you may have a part to play in an employee’s underperformance:

» Have you been clear on what is expected from your newly remote (changing) team?

» Have you provided the right resources, support and feedback?

» Are you open to employees approaching you with solutions?

• Involve the underperforming employee in finding a solution

• Often changes in performance, particularly sudden ones, need to be questioned from various angles – often the person most responsible for the outcomes is the closest to the solution

• Don’t weaken the employee’s ownership and commitment to work:

» Don’t underplay the impacts working in isolation can have on intensifying their anxiety about making a mistake, particularly when they were previously working well

• Strengthen team accountability

• Ensure individual team members realise their shared success and the interrelationship between team members to achieve this success.

Managing performance of virtual teams

5.

Meet with the employee and take action To manage underperformance in the remote/virtual work environment, use the performance management process and the performance improvement plans (PIP) that are already in place in the organisation and adapt them where appropriate for the virtual work environment.

• Organise to meet the employee virtually using video technology so that you can ‘see’ one another

• Provide the opportunity for the employee to have a support person with them in the meeting

• At the meeting, explore the situation and use in-depth questioning and active listening:

• Ask questions like, ‘What is contributing to this recent change?’; ‘What would you change if you could?’ and ‘What can we all learn from this?’ If there is denial, excuses, blame or refusal to take responsibility then the performance issue needs to be escalated

• Take the time to fully explore the situation and solutions – ‘What can I / we do right now to help you?’; ‘How can the team help to get you back on track?’

• Clearly outline the expectations that need to be met by the employee

• Listen and take into account the employee’s position and perspective

• Identify what support, training, mentoring etc. can be provided to achieve improved performance outcomes

• Conclude the meeting with a clear agreed plan of action

• Confirm your notes from the discussion via email after the meeting to ensure agreement

• Create a Performance Improvement Plan and have regular catch-ups to monitor work performance and progress toward improvements.

RESOURCES To learn more about managing a virtual team, refer to:

How to Do Performance Reviews – Remotely, Harvard Business Review How to Manage People, The Virtual Hub How to Manage the Performance of Remote Workers, HRM Online Managing Staff Appraisals During COVID-19, Hays Working in a Virtual Team, Mind Tools

Last updated September 2020