One of the most difficult tasks in creating a virtual or hybrid team is building trusting relationships. Without it, you can’t create a workspace where people can work productively. The main goal is to ensure that your employees are understanding, engaged, and willing to interact effectively with their colleagues to be more productive on various tasks.
Only then can you create a coworking space comfortable for employees living in different cities or even time zones.
What Is Virtual Team Trust
Team trust consists of elements such as:
- Reliability;
- Credibility;
- Proximity;
- Orientation towards problem-solving;
- The authority of the employee.
Teams in which the management and members trust each other not only have high labor productivity but also reduce the risk of constant “turnover” of workers.
In virtual and hybrid teams, leaders should devote maximum time and effort to creating quality communication with employees and building interpersonal relationships. This is due to the fact that communication within virtual teams is different from that in the physical office environment.
It’s important that remote workers have the same level of engagement as those who work in the office. That is, they should get the same help and support from managers and colleagues when needed.
Why It’s Important to Build Trust in a Virtual Team
Employee confidence in management is win-win. Investing time and money in building trusting relationships in the workspace will pay off to the maximum extent possible. They allow you to get the following benefits:
- The team lead can be assured of a high level of self-discipline and employee responsibility. This includes the reliable accounting of working time, which workers keep independently;
- Team leaders have the confidence that all employees of the virtual and hybrid teams will actively participate in daily/weekly meetings and other events organized by the company;
- All workers, including remote ones, are fully confident that the management of the company or organization will pay salaries on time, provide training if necessary, provide equipment and other technical means necessary for work;
- Managers and workers are not afraid to make difficult decisions and take responsibility when they are confident about receiving the full support of their managers and colleagues.
Simply put, trust is one of the most important elements of interpersonal relationships, which makes communication and collaboration in a team as easy and effective as possible.
Effective Ways to Strengthen Your Virtual Team
Just like any other task, establishing team trust and maintaining credibility with workers requires a strategy. First and foremost, you have to make sure that all prospective employees, including those working remotely, share the mission/values and understand the goals of the company.
Only then will workers be as productive as possible because they trust the company’s leadership and are interested in building long-term business relationships.
Create a Remote Work Policy
The first thing a manager needs to do is to develop a flexible remote work policy, which will strengthen the trust within the team and provide clear rules of interaction within the workspace.
All employees on the virtual or hybrid team should be given the following basic information:
- The work schedule;
- The rules for holding business meetings with the team;
- Requirements that employees must comply with in terms of remote collaboration;
- Total working hours per week;
- Time-tracking software solutions to be used by employees;
- Channels of communication to be used by employees;
- Collaboration tools employees to be used by employees.
Preferably, this information should be in the form of a document that all members of the virtual or hybrid team can read.
Build the Strategy of Trust
Employee trust is a long-term project that requires a long-term strategy. For example, you can use the BRAVING Inventory suggested by University of Houston sociology professor, Brené Brown. It assumes the following seven points:
- Boundaries. This is a list of positive and negative behaviors that create boundaries for workers that are acceptable during business and interpersonal communication within teams;
- Reliability. If you make sure you keep promises made to employees and other commitments, you are perceived as a reliable business partner, colleague, or leader;
- Accountability assumes the need to take responsibility for your actions and decisions, including mistakes;
- Vault. Employees should be confident in the safety of personal data they provide to the company, including confidential information;
- Integrity. A manager should be as honest as possible with workers, choose courage over comfort, and act according to the initially declared values;
- Non-judgment. An important component of trust within the team is the ability to ask what you need and talk about your feelings (e.g., about the actions of your colleagues that cause discomfort, without being judged);
- Generosity. Trust between the team manager and workers is only possible if they share the same goals and values.
Make sure that communication within the team meets the above-mentioned criteria.
Introduce Company Mission and Goals
Next, make sure that all members of your virtual team are familiar with the company’s mission and work objectives. For example, if employees know that training programs and career opportunities for talented employees are priorities for the manager, they will be willing to work on projects and tasks that will ensure success for the company.
Meet the Team
A virtual or hybrid team manager should set aside time to get to know each employee personally. Alternatives to communicating in the office might include:
- A separate chat room in the virtual workspace for informal communication between employees;
- Regular team meetings via video conferencing tools or voice messages.
This way, remote employees can get a feeling of involvement in the team’s work. This is an effective alternative to communication in the office space.
Provide Communication Tools
As a leader of your virtual team, you want to create a list of high-quality communication tools that will be convenient for the team. These can be:
- Instant messaging apps that make real-time communication as easy as possible;
- Software for video conferencing software;
- File-sharing platforms;
- Project management tools;
- Time-tracking software;
- Online presentation software, etc.
If all team members have the tools they need to be productive, they will be able to fully focus on their work tasks.
Provide Constructive Feedback
It is important to have regular feedback sessions so that employees can report problems or voice important ideas. As a team leader, you want to regularly provide personal feedback on their performance. This will also help build trust within the team.
Remote employees will then quickly adapt to their new workspace. If they can have transparent and effective communication with their colleagues, as well as timely support from the manager, this will also increase their level of engagement.
Conclusions
Only if all team members can feel the trust and attentiveness of the company’s management, they are most likely to timely and efficiently perform their tasks, track their working hours honestly, and provide feedback.
