Discover the 3 best practices for creating a successful virtual team in today’s virtual workforce.
For almost two decades, there has been a growing demand for virtual talent. As competition for talent increases, progressive small businesses are deploying work-at-home models to attract better talent.
Today’s job candidates expect more flexibility. Forty percent of all employers now allow at least some employees to work from home regularly, according to the 2016 National Study of Employers conducted by the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM). Powerhouse recruiting platform, Indeed, indicated that job searches for flexible work, such as working from home, jumped more than 58 percent.
Despite the growing demand for virtual talent, some small business owners are still reluctant to tap into the powerful virtual work community.
Serial entrepreneur Terri Maxwell, co-author of the New World of Work: From the Cube to the Cloud, noted that:
“Small businesses who adopt a virtual work model create a competitive advantage for their company. A virtual work model increases flexibility, attracts better talent, and lowers overall cost – WHILE improving their ability to scale.”
The best way to increase scalability AND profitability is to outsource non-core functions first. From administrative and accounting to social media or marketing as well as some project management, if the activity is not core to your product or service, it can be outsourced.
“The benefit to outsourcing non-core functions is that you get specialized talent, available on-demand, but at reasonable prices. Because they don’t need to be local and can work only when needed, you’re don’t have to pay for a full-time resource when you only need part-time support,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell explained that the biggest mistake small businesses make is trying to manage freelance workers as if they were employees.
She added, “The beauty of what I call “virtualpreneurs” is that they don’t need to be managed the way most employees do. By setting clear goals and outcomes, freelancers can manage their own work product. As an entrepreneur, I learned that it’s easier to manage results rather than people, and now I get better output in less time.”
For this to occur, knowing how to select a qualified freelancer is key.
“What I love about ResultsResourcing is that they help define the job outcomes IN the role description, so I don’t have to figure that out on my own. Then, they vet the qualified candidates for me, saving time and avoiding the costly mistake of choosing non-qualified freelancers,” Maxwell noted.
Experts at Entrepreneur.com agree:
“Culture is one of the most powerful differentiators small businesses have. When you combine a good culture with a flexible work model, you become a magnet for great talent,” Maxwell said.
Some key ways that your organization can build a virtual culture include:
Maxwell added: “Once I started thinking about what it would be like to work in my own company, I realized that building a great culture wasn’t hard. Simply build the type of company that you would want to work for.”
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