In the current pandemic planet Earth has found itself in once again, working in offices is not an option. Even if you take all the safety measures, you can still be a casualty of the coronavirus. This virus can mentally and financially drain you until you recover, which is why many workplaces aren’t taking any chances and have switched over to having their employees work from home.
These employees fall under the category of a virtual team, a team that is far away from each other yet works together remotely. A virtual team will be required to communicate through various apps on their laptops or home desktops, or any electronic communication device. Since virtual teams are located in different geographical regions, their communication isn’t necessarily what it could be if they were to work together in a confined space.
Some of the many crucial qualities of every team working in an office is their ability to trust each other while interacting with each other whenever they want. These qualities are sometimes not found with virtual teams. Being far away from each other, they don’t usually get along which can cause unproductivity in the workplace. Virtual teams are most commonly seen in the offices of an airline company.
Their planes are flying all over the world and to keep up with their competitors, they need people all around the world too. This is where virtual teams come in, having the ability to collaborate together to create new innovative ideas from the comfort of their home.
Since this pandemic has left many offices to shut down by having their employees work from home, the productivity rate in workplaces is at an all-time low. A great way to keep a virtual team focused and engaged in their work is by doing virtual team building activities. These activities were made for the sole purpose of keeping virtual teams happy and working hard.
Let’s talk about some of the many virtual teams that can get help from virtual team building activities:
- Networked Teams: This type of virtual team is only created when a specific issue needs to be worked on. While some issues might be easy to resolve, a networked team focuses solely on the issues that require their expertise and knowledge. Members of a networked team can join whenever necessary while also being able to leave when their job is done.
- Parallel Teams: Parallel teams, unlike networked teams are generally formed when an organization needs another perspective on resolving an issue. They’re formed for a short period of time and are let go of once they’ve successfully done their part. To make this process less time-consuming, many large companies all over the world opt for virtual team building activities so their virtual team is never slow on the job.
- Product Development Teams: When a large company is working on a product that is in the process of being developed, experts from all over the world are brought in to help out. This team is known as the product development team. A team that relies on communication and interaction, which can be made easier once they’re engaged in virtual team building activities.