Benefits Of Hiring Virtual Employees

Due to the change many organizations realize the need for offices in various geographical locations. Therefore, the concern is how to ensure that employees located off-site are constantly connected to their counterparts. Virtual teams were developed to answer the call to ensure the ability to stay tied to the main office of any organization. As one can see a learning organization at times it may encounter difficulty in ensuring that virtual teams are learning according to the guidelines as set forth by the learning organization (Boone, 2015). A simple way to fix these issues are to ensure that communication is consistent, through the use of technology and employees are given the chance to build relationships with their virtual team members, team empowerment is necessary for virtual teams to be involved in the decision making process. Because of the diverse backgrounds of the virtual teams conflicts will arise and a leader must determine ways of handling these conflicts. Also, barriers involve the geographical, time, cultural/language, communication can be handled at each individual level and proper enhancements as needed will aid in ensuring that the team remains viable and productive. For example, cultural differences can be handled by ensuring that employees are trained to comprehend what is or not acceptable to each

During the last decade, organizations have been working more with technology making it their master. Technology is not only about new equipment; it is mostly about new ideas and techniques used. Virtual team is a new approach used today. Virtual groups or teams have been used from parent to keep contact with teacher to corporations to create new international business relationships. How far can virtual team be more efficient than face to face relationships? Society incorporates this method to different activities not only at work, so virtual team seems more beneficial these days. If we are going to incorporate virtual teams to our system, we have to know its advantages and disadvantages, and how it can affect our organization.

Virtual-based business have great benefits but can have downfalls as well. Even though it would seemingly cost less money, the headache in communication would weigh out the same. In a regular office, everyone is right there in the same building. Meetings held in person are more engaging and easier to understand. Even though there are many

| Employees in geographically dispersed locations can work together in virtual teams using video, e-mail, and the Internet.

Is anyone out there? A Guide to Virtual Team Working and Leadership’.Training Reference, viewed October 2011

These groups rely on technology to communicate with one another and to accomplish the tasks allocated by the organization. One benefit of a virtual team is that they use technology and this can help increase efficiency and productivity of the members. The virtual teams also assist in the development of intellectual capital. The composition of the virtual groups helps improve quality as well as the outcome. The other benefit is the efficiency of communication. Some of the challenges include the distance between the members. The significant distance may dilute leadership, weaken human relations as well as amplify dysfunction. Virtual teams are hard to manage especially when it comes to goal setting, task distribution, coordination and member motivation. Virtual organizations rely on trust that the other members will fulfill their roles since it is not possible to monitor them closely (Hoppe, 2011). The virtual teams may face some internet challenges such as slow internet or disconnection. This problem can be handled through the use of alternative methods of communication such as mobile phones. While making a virtual team, the team members should address all challenges which may hinder communication by coming up with all possible substitutes of means of communication. These organizations rely heavily on the internet for video conferencing and sending emails. However, when the internet fails, they

In today’s modern company virtual teams are interacting in different ways tan with traditional physical teams. Bock lists three ways virtual teams are getting their assigned activities accomplished, and what the company must provide for them to be successful.

Virtual and mobile teams (also known as distributed teams) are individual members or groups of a team working independently without a common work location, to meet collective organization goals. Virtual and mobile teams can be spread out as far as across town, to all the way around the world. Virtual and mobile teams allow businesses and teams can work effectively work apart, and achieve the benefits of being in different key locations. Some benefits of virtual and mobile teams are the ability to bridge organizational and geographical boundaries and offer organizations the ability

Another option to holding a course, is to allow the employees to participate in an online course which includes a one hour long web based simulation and a one and a half hour practical practice conference call. The final practical is completed on a conference call with a one-on-one

Earlier this year, I took ORGL3500, Leading Virtual Teams & Organizations, and it changed my entire perspective on virtual workplaces. Being a traditional 9-5 office worker, at first it seemed that the concept was better suited for IT or customer service departments. Although my company uses technology for audio and video conference calls, we have not adopted a true virtual workplace where employees work from flex schedule that would may include working from home a few days a week, working from smaller remote offices or eligible for certain positions based out of the corporate offices.

A virtual team is the network of diverse individuals in multiple locations working in this evolving economy. Challenges the team faces include isolation feeling, lack of trust, unclear goals, direction and priorities, and lack of engagement all due to no face-to-face contact. Therefore, Associates may leave the company through attrition. In the Marketplace simulation our team will make effort to have face-to-face meetings. We will focus on input from each team member and ensure everyone feels they are contributing to the team.

Aggregate results for the questions indicated generally positive attitudes on the part of the participants regarding their role in virtual teams and related activities. However, individual responses indicated some variation. Questions four and five pertained to employee understandings of their role in the organization and whether information relating to their tasks were clear. Responses for question four indicated that approximately 28 of the participants agreed with the statement that organizational duties were clear in virtual teams. Another 26 strongly agreed with the statement while only 1 and 2 of participants, respectively, responded that they strongly disagreed or disagreed with the statements. Similarly, 30 of respondents indicated that they agreed that information was clearly stated and explanatory for their employees` relevant tasks. 17 strongly agreed with the statement while 3 and 9 disagreed and strongly disagreed. Question 6 asked participants if

In our current age of technology, societies have been given the opportunity and capability of connecting across distances in ways that were impossible not too long ago. With computer applications such as skype, people can connect from opposite sides of the world. This has created a unique advancement in the way that businesses are run. Handling business with others who are far away is now easier than ever. Curtis (2011) says virtual teams have become so common due to their "potential for flexibility, responsiveness, as well as for cost and production efficiency" (p. 97). Virtual teams are an effective way to bring employees of companies together within the comfort of their own office or home. .

Hertel, Guido, Susanne Geister, and Udo Konradt. 2005. “Managing virtual teams: A review of current empirical research.” Human Resource Management Review 15 (1): 69-95. doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2005.01.002.

Ebrahim, A., Shamsuddin, A. & Taha, Z. (2009). Virtual Teams: A Literature Review. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Science, 3(3), 2653-2669.