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By Chris Gay
May 13th, 2008
How to support and engage your virtual workers
Bridge Consulting has just completed a survey with over 60 organizations worldwide to learn more about the challenges people are facing and the best practices they are using to engage virtual workers as a highly productive and committed part of an organization. The survey was sent to communication professionals via email, with 63 organizations responding.
Size of organization and number of virtual workers
The size of the respondent organizations ranged from less than 25 to over 30,000 employees, with 65% of organizations with over 1,000 employees and 25% of respondents with organizations over 30,000 employees.
Half of the organizations surveyed classified at least 25% of their workforce as virtual employees, while over a quarter had up to 50% of their population made up of virtual workers.
Top challenges with virtual workforces
The survey asked participants to select the top challenges they face when employees work virtually. The following table outlines the challenges in rank order of number of responses for each:
| Challenge | No. of responses |
|---|---|
| Ensuring they feel part of the team | 51 |
| Communicating effectively and frequently | 42 |
| Sustaining high levels of engagement | 40 |
| Support and trust from their manager | 29 |
| Including them in team meetings and other formal communication | 28 |
| Acceptance of the situation by their co-workers | 28 |
| Methods for establishing accountability | 20 |
| Scheduling and/or conducting meetings | 19 |
| Establishment of policies and processes | 17 |
| Standardization and support of equipment | 12 |
| Confidentiality of information | 12 |
| Other | 10 |
Supporting virtual workers
Slightly over half (35) of the participants indicated that there are tools, policies and/or training in place to support virtual workers. The most frequently used means of support are detailed below:
| Method of support | No. of responses |
|---|---|
| Policies | 26 |
| Website | 24 |
| Training | 13 |
| Workbooks/guidebooks | 8 |
| Buddy system | 6 |
| Other | 5 |
The following provides more detail that participants offered for each of the methods of support indicated:
- Policies – The policies that organizations found helpful included: addressing flex time, criteria for working from home or telecommunicating, clear expectations for remote workers and what they in turn should expect from management and outlines of technological support.
- Websites – The content of these sites is targeted to remote workers to help make them feel more included on the team. They also include tools and documents that can be housed in a “virtual library” on a common portal.
- Training – Some examples include courses for managers on managing a virtual team and teams outside their home countries, technical and communication training for remote workers, and classes that apply to all employees that are administered through interactive modules or web meetings.
- Workbooks/guidebooks – These include, for example, remote worker policies, HR policies and guidelines for remote workers.
- Buddy system – These often use online communities to support virtual workers.
Other means of support include emails, IM systems and sharing best practice learnings of line managers who manage virtual teams.
See you next month.
Chris Gay
Partner, Bridge Consulting
engagement@melcrum.com
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Alex Manchester, Internal Comms Hub, May 12, 2008
Barely into your fourth month as CEO and you announce talks on the biggest financial merger in Australian history, with the proposed new company being the biggest bank in Australia...
RBC's 7 essentials of a strategic plan
The Source for Communicators, May 7, 2008
Seven essential components of a strategic plan recommended by David Moorcroft, senior vice president of corporate communications at Royal Bank of Canada.
Communication needs to move away from the "news paradigm"
Charlie Nordblom, Melcrum Podcast, 7 May, 2008
In the latest Melcrum Podcast, Charlie Nordblom, vice president of strategic internal communications at Volvo, says communicators need to follow corporate messages through, not put them out as "news", and watch them die out within a few days.
Mission Statement = mission impossible?
Sona Hathi, Melcrum Blog, May 12, 2008
"Mission Statement" was recently flagged up by some internal communicators as their most hated piece of corporate jargon. While it's a powerful idea, it's often ridiculed by employees. So, when does the mission statement become a gimmick?
The Source
for Communicators is a free resource for corporate communicators
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