I have been blogging and writing about virtual teams for several years now, yet I haven’t really put together a concise article about the main virtual teams pros and cons.
I must say upfront that I’m biased because I’m a huge advocate of working remotely (I work a full-time management job from my home office in Boston), but I do admit there are several advantages that you miss out on in a virtual team environment.
In this post, I’ll outline the different advantages and disadvantages of having a remote workforce.
I’ll also reference studies and facts to back those different virtual teams pros and cons.
As an added bonus, I’ll also present links to solutions to the disadvantages so that you know what you can do about them.
Virtual Teams Pros and Cons (The PROS)
Happier Employees
This is one of the biggest benefits of a virtual team. When you’re working remotely as an employee, you have the flexibility to balance work/ life tasks that are otherwise harder to manage around.
You don’t need to take a day off of work for a dentist appointment or a child’s teacher meeting; you just work around those personal tasks.
Studies by GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics show that 79% of people actually want to work from home, and 36% would choose that as a job perk over a pay raise. I personally know people who would literally take a pay cut from their salaries to keep their telecommuting benefit.
More productive employees
Happier employees produce more, which means employers get more out of their employees.
In fact, the productivity of effective virtual teams increases between 10% and 43% depending on the organization or industry they’re in. Part of this reason could be attributed to the fact that most people do their best work when they’re not in the office, as Jason Fried outlines in “Remote: Office Not Required.”
Cost Savings
Employers also save on real estate costs, which means more money in the bank.
They don’t have to worry about office space or leasing new facilities as their team grows. Even if a team is not entirely virtual, having a partial remote workforce could mean a ton of savings for a company. Cisco Systems (the company I work for) is one example of that, and it saves $277M dollars per year because of telecommuting.
This makes an organization more competitive because it can use those savings for more strategic initiatives.
Bigger Talent Pool & Extended Hour Coverage
When a company builds a virtual workforce, the talent pool opens up to candidates all around the world.
Employers are no longer restricted to hiring in their own geographic region, and don’t have to worry about relocating people. This gives them access to a much bigger skillset at a fraction of the cost.
An added bonus is that they get to strategically hire resources in other countries to have extended time coverage on business hours (including a 24-hour cycle for functions such as customer service.)
Lower Carbon Footprint
Cost savings also mean environment savings. Employees commute less, which means they produce less greenhouse gas emissions. Workers at Xerox save 4.6 million gallons of gas and 41,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions due to teleworking.
Employers also use less office space, which means lower usage of heating, cooling, water, and electricity utilities as well. All of that reduces the carbon footprint and contributes positively to the environment.
Virtual teams Pros and Cons (The CONS)
The Trust Factor
A top issue that managers have about virtual teams is whether they can trust that their employees do the job they’re supposed to do.
This is a valid concern.
If managers can’t see what their employees are doing, then how can they trust that their employees are not wasting time on personal tasks?
Some studies have shown that trust is the glue that holds a virtual team together and is a major determinant of success in virtual settings, so a lack of trust is a huge negative factor.
Solution: Understand the secret formula for trust and how to increase it among your team using 9 easy steps
Reduced Team Collaboration
Another issue is the lack of team collaboration.
Virtual teams can be very transactional by nature where everyone is off doing their own job in their separate silo.
Some teams feel that the lack of face-to-face interaction in virtual environments adds to the problem of communicating or collaborating effectively. That’s because they miss out on reading subtle cues such as facial expressions and body language signs by their team members.
Solution: Make sure you frequently over-communicate with your team members, constantly use video conferencing, and leverage the right virtual team tools that help you do the job.
Social Isolation
Virtual teams can feel very lonely, which leads to social isolation of team members.
Some refer to this as the loss of the “Water Cooler” effect, where employees in offices get to hang around the water cooler to chat about things unrelated to work. In a virtual team, this luxury is lost, and feelings of detachment increase among team members.
Time zone differences also exacerbate this problem because of minimal overlap during working hours.
Solution: Put in the effort to increase social interactions with your team. Here are 3 fun and easy virtual team building activities that you can implement.
Virtual Teams Pros and Cons (Conclusion)
When looking at those virtual teams pros and cons holistically, I believe that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
I’m personally biased because I manage virtual teams for a living and think the world is heading towards that direction.
However, I do understand that virtual teams are not for everyone, and that there are certain industries or situations where focusing on a non-virtual model could make more sense.
– Hassan
P.S. If you enjoyed this article, check out my #1 Amazon Bestselling book “Influencing Virtual Teams”
