Distributed teams and Remote teams are not synonymous despite similar features. Today, more and more companies are hiring virtual teams to attract the best professionals from all over the world. In this article, we will tell you about what a Distributed team and Remote team is, and what the differences, advantages, and disadvantages they have.

The Distributed team is a bunch of specialists which works remotely, in different geographical zones, and have no central office. The office is the company that hires the team.

Remote teams, unlike distributed teams, have a central office where some employees continue to work. Because of the pandemic that has affected the world, more and more companies are moving to a collaborative format such as Distributed teams. According to research conducted by Harvard Business Review, the productivity of employees increased by 13.5% with a remote work format.

Employee’s benefits from working remotely:

• flexible working hours
• saving time and money on the way to the office
• the ability to decide when to start doing the task.
• work-life balance
• the ability to travel without interrupting the work process

What about the business?

Benefits of Remote Team for Business

For any company, the main task is to be able to attract high-quality specialists and keep them for business development. The distributed team is the opportunity to hire employees with unique experiences worldwide. In this case, you can use different models of cooperation – to hire freelancers for projects, use outsourcing, or create your own team with the best experts in its field. An important advantage of a remote team is the ability to save jobs even if the employee has to relocate. At the same time, the absence of office space reduces costs for businesses, leaving wages at a competitive level. The company often spends the savings on corporate events to create and maintain a culture within a remote team. The distributed team has another advantage – high maneuverability. Due to the fact that employees work in different time zones, the work is performed 24 hours a day, which greatly increases the competitiveness of the company.

Main advantages:

• Access to the market for upscale professionals without location restrictions.
• Access to new markets
• High independence and discipline of employees
• Savings on geographical salaries
• Reducing office costs

However, the distributed team has some risks:

• Communication problems due to time zone difference
• Difficulties with legislation in countries where employees are located
• This model is not suitable for all businesses types
• Difficulties with legal issues related to intellectual property
• Difficulty of tracking KPI
• Time for setting the cooperative process
• Costs for development of virtual team building

With the right approach, you can reduce some risks and increase KPIs for remote employees.

How to keep the Remote team effectiveness

The basis of an effective team is the right choice of employees, professional organization of the process, and trust. When you hire an employee, mutual trust is at zero.

The task of a manager is to establish and build trust on a continuous basis. Where is the best place to start? If the employee is new, you can start with a technical task. In this case, the manager is only responsible for the costs of the task. There are two options: either a prospective employee is not doing their job or they are doing it well. If everything has been successful, it is possible to make decisions about the quality of work, the ability to deepen the task, and compliance with deadlines. Paying for a test task increases the confidence index. The manager makes an opinion about the employee, the employee sees that the company can be trusted. In the future, the effectiveness of the employee can be measured by three important indicators:

• Ability to work without supervision, self-organization
• Constructive and regular communication
• Lifelong learning and skills development

Tips for organizing, controlling and maintaining the effectiveness of the Distributed team:

• Improve communication and conduct structured virtual meetings
• Provide staff with the necessary software (for conferences, documents, tasks and projects)
• Clearly formulate the requests, goals, and deadlines
• Track the adaptation process in your team
• Encourage communication between employees during off-duty hours – online and offline where possible.

Organization of Workplaces in Remote Work

How to become a demanded employee of the virtual team? In addition to the constant improvement of hard skills, you should pay attention to the organization of the work process. The right workplace will let you work more productively without distractions. There can be interrupted zones both at home and at the office – children, parents, household, pets, video games, etc.

How to build a workplace at home for the remote work:

• Select the location where you will busy only with work
• Provide a good light to your desktop
• Pay attention to choosing the ergonomic table and chair
• Separate the work area from the rest of the room – screen, large flower, book shall
• Train the time management. Work and rest according to schedule

If it is not possible to organize a workplace at home for certain reasons, it can be organized in any other place – coworking, cafés, libraries, etc.

Sum Up

Virtual teams have their pros and cons, but statistics show that more and more companies are embracing this model of cooperation. Thanks to the development of Internet technologies, companies can gather a staff of high-quality specialists, support KPI Remote Teams and reduce the risks of working in the format of a Distributed Team.