Teleworking has been around for quite a while. In 2009, the census did a teleworking survey and found that of the organisations that had implemented teleworking previous to 2009, 82 percent found that it was a positive affect on their business, 1 percent said there was a negative affect, and 17 percent said no real impact. So, that’s a huge positive affect for 82 percent of businesses.
Building your own virtual business team allows you to save on staff costs and avoid added overheads.
But if you’re getting ready to accept a virtual team member into your organisation, there is a bit of preparation that you should know about.
Outcome: Rather than how they will do it, or what way they’ll work, or anything else, you need to concentrate on the outcomes you want your virtual team members to achieve.
If you tend to micro-manage, you’ll probably find that you won’t have as much benefit, time-wise, in hiring your virtual team members as you thought. Micro-management means that you’re not really letting go of responsibilities, so you need to have that shift in your mindset to understand that the person you’re bringing on and working remotely needs to have your trust that they’ll do the right thing.
Focus on what outcomes you want the virtual team member to achieve, rather than how you want them to do it, you’ll get a much better result.
Technology: The other thing to think about is the technology that you use in your organisation at the moment, and how you can change that technology so that it is cloud-based, or so that it can be shared between virtual team members.
Today, we have lots of cost-effective technology that wasn’t available five or ten years ago – things like Dropbox where you can share files, online CRM, online accounting packages – so do an audit of the technology you’ve got at the moment, and think about how you can change that technology so that it’s accessible, but still secure.
Eliminate, automate, and delegate: Before you even think about bringing on another staff member, do an audit of what you do at the moment and eliminate the things that you don’t need to do.
It’s amazing how an organisation’s history of something keeps it going in that direction for a long time, until someone thinks about why they’re doing it and thinks about maybe eliminating it all together; the original reason it was put in place may not currently apply.
Consider the things that you can automate.
There are a lot of auto-responders on the web now that you can use. In the past few years, automation has become much easier to bring into your business. Having the right technology in regards to eliminating and automating things is very important to your business and worth spending some time on.
Communicate: Communication with your team also becomes important, because communication is what will keep the team operating positively and healthily. Bring in all sorts of communication, because you can’t do it face-to-face with virtual team members.
However, services like Skype or Google Hangout (which feature video as well as audio) makes a big difference to how you communicate with your team. Use video. I know a lot of people shy away from it because they don’t like to see themselves on video – but because you’re not seeing each other face-to-face, video allows you to communicate naturally through body language. It’s a much better way to communicate with your team and will help avoid misunderstandings.
Prepare: You also need to prepare your existing team members, if you have them, because they have to see this as a positive move. If your existing team members see it as a threat to their existing position, for instance, then they won’t be motivated to make it work. They’ve got to see it as a way for them to benefit.
In small business, everyone is under a lot of pressure to meet deadlines; they’re always busy, busy, busy… so you can introduce a virtual team member as someone who will help them.
Prepare yourself as well. Thank about which tasks would be best for virtual team members.
Don’t forget: You pay them only for the time they work on your business! What needs your full attention? What should you delegate? Do you have projects on the backburner that a virtual assistant could bring to fruition?
Selection: There is a risk factor in selecting who you’ll be working with as a virtual team member.
Under the legislation in Australia, there are three different jurisdictions that have different definitions of what an employee is, and what an independent contractor is.
There’s the ATO, there’s WorkCover, and there’s Workplace Health and Safety.
I think the most important one is the ATO. The risk is always on the Employer, so it’s not on the virtual team member that you’re retaining. How the virtual team member is set up will impact on whether they are considered an employee or independent contractor – whether they are offshore or not. Make sure that they are set up correctly to avoid penalties.
Often when new clients come to our service, we suggest that they test their new virtual assistant with a small job, because that makes them more aware of how it’s all going to work.
The virtual assistants are used to working in that space. A lot of them come with the technology that they like to use, if you don’t have any that you prefer. And they’ll also help you get to the stage where you’re feeling quite comfortable with that.
When selecting virtual team members, look at their testimonials, look on LinkedIn, look on their website, look at past clients that they’ve supported, and, if applicable, ask them for samples of previous work.
The personality of your virtual assistant and how their personality works with yours is the most important factor. So think about the type of personality that you’d need for that particular job, and the type of personality that will work well with you.
Induction: I’ve found that the organisations that take the time to invest in doing induction and training to get the new virtual team member up to speed results in a much longer-term relationship.
Talk to your new virtual team members about your business goals and vision. Often. That information could be on your website, so it’s not something that you have to reinvent. But get them to read your website and ask them questions about it. You should also introduce them to your team and have a group discussion.
Be very explicit about where you see them fitting into the team, because if they see themselves as part of a team, then they’ll work really hard to help you meet your goals and vision for your business.
Another important aspect of the induction process, which can often be overlooked, is your work habits, and your team’s work habits. For instance, do you prefer to work early in the morning or late at night? Your virtual team member must be able to fit in with your work habits.
The level of authority and autonomy that you give to a virtual assistant can also impact on their success. For instance, I went overseas for several months last year, and my virtual team ran the business while I was away. I was very, very particular in giving them levels of authority and the amount of money that they could actually make decisions on. So, my bookkeeper was given the authority to rectify any issues up to $300, but anything over that then she had to contact me. My virtual assistant was given the same sort of level as well. So, I made it very clear to them where their authority stopped.
Think about your preferred method of communication. Is it SMS, email, telephone?
I’m definitely an SMS person. Don’t send me an email because it will take me a while to get around to it. You have to be very clear with your virtual team members about this.
Training: When you hire a virtual assistant or virtual team member, you’ll be able to assess whether you do have to provide training.
If there are areas within your business that you’d like them to progress to, then you can say to the virtual team member, if they’re an independent contractor, “Look, eventually I’d like for you to use Photoshop.” And often they will go off on their own bat and do that training themselves, because it’s very important to them that they keep you as a client.
Ongoing Management: It’s important under the definition of an independent contractor, if you hire them on that basis, that you do a regular review on their status.
We’ve already talked about focusing on outcomes. Years ago, we called it management by objectives, but it’s the same thing. Let them know what you want them to achieve over this week, this month, and they’ll focus on achieving those goals and they can then report on progress.
In the United States, some larger businesses have found that they’ve saved hundreds of millions of dollars by incorporating virtual workers into their workforce.
As one example, 40 percent of IBM’s 355,000 employees are mobile workers, and in real estate savings alone IBM saved $100 million a year. There are many positive reasons why you should look building your own virtual team.
