4Corners Business Centers provides excellent alternatives to a traditional office space with our virtual office services and fully furnished meeting rooms. A virtual working environment, however, is still different from working at an office. Today, 4Corners Business Centers discusses some typical challenges of a remote workplace and how to overcome them:
- Lack of Team Spirit: The lack of face to face communication can make it difficult to build team spirit among employees who work remotely. Fortunately, you can counteract this with effective leadership. You need to encourage cohesiveness every time you communicate with your employees. For instance, use project wrap-ups to share lessons learned and to communicate or celebrate a success story. You also need to create a clear and compelling direction for your team.
- Reduced Social Interaction: Virtual team members might miss office banter and working friendships, two seemingly minor things that have a big impact on morale. As a virtual leader, you need to increase social interactions among your team to counteract feelings of isolation. As a virtual office space expert, we suggest encouraging your team members to regularly communicate each other’s progress and to interact with one another.
- Lack of Non-Verbal, Face-to-Face Communication: Virtual teams don’t have the informal everyday interactions that typical office workers take for granted. Team leaders also don’t have access to nonverbal cues that indicate whether a team member is driven or bored. Counteract this by increasing everyday interactions, developing partnerships, and creating smaller interdependent tasks. You also need to have a strong one-to-one relationship with each of your team members.
- Reduced Trust: If a person can’t see what other members of the team are doing and they don’t get immediate responses, then they might begin doubting the contributions of other members of the team. Prevent this from happening by making sure that everyone is aware of the contributions of everybody else. You can also provide constant feedback and showcase each member’s achievements.
With the right planning, you can overcome these challenges and enjoy all the benefits that our virtual office services can provide. 4Corners Business Centers can provide you with an excellent business address you can call your own and a completely furnished meeting room that you can use when needed. We can also provide you with a local phone number, a receptionist to greet clients and take your calls, and all of the technology you need. We serve many areas including Brooklyn, NY. Call us at (718) 280-5170 to learn more about overcoming virtual working challenges.