10 Advantages of Virtual teams

Once upon a time I had an office.

I used to visit it from time to time to check on the business and to see how everyone was going. It seemed at the time to be the right way to run a business.

Doesn’t every serious business have an office? Is it truly possible to run a business virtually?

The world is changing, and I believe that an “office” is a 20th century concept ready for disruption.

Advantage 1: Lower office costs

That’s an obvious one, but did you realize how the costs of an office can add up? The lease, electricity, computer equipment etc, it all adds up to a very significant ongoing cost.

 
Advantage 2: Greater availability of talent

If you hire locally in your own city you are greatly restricting the available talent pool that you can draw upon. You can also use the cost savings from virtual teams to pay more to your team members. The combination of being able to hire from anywhere, and potentially pay more will greatly increase the level of talent that you can attract in your business.

 
Advantage 3: Retention of employees

There are a lot of people who want to work from home. When you give them this benefit they are going to be more loyal and stay with you for the long term.

 
Advantage 4: Lower employee costs

You can access cities or countries with the same level of talent but with lower living costs. An employee in New York or San Francisco is going to demand far more than someone in South Carolina, let alone in India or in the Philippines.

 
Advantage 5: Less unnecessary meetings

Unproductive meetings are a common office productivity problem. Get rid of the office and you will also get rid of this problem! You can still meet virtually on Google hangouts for example, but there is less temptation for instant and potentially unproductive meetings.

 
Advantage 6: Reduced travel time

This is a substantial benefit for staff who do not need to travel to work each day. Also a great benefit for the environment!

 
Advantage 7: Increased productivity

Team members working from home can increase their productivity significantly by eliminating office distractions, eliminating travel and allowing some flexibility in working hours. A recent Stanford study showed a 13% productivity increase when employees worked remotely.

 
Advantage 8: Access multiple markets

You can hire sales people in multiple locations without the cost of opening an office. This gives you the ability to access a new market without significant costs.

 
Advantage 9: A 24-hour work day

With a global team you can operate your business on a 24 hour schedule with shifts in different countries. This speeds up your implementation and time to market.

 
Advantage 10: Greater workforce flexibility

Hiring flexible remote teams means you can scale up or scale down your team more easily than if your business runs at a fixed location.

 
About the Author:

Rob Rawson is a co-founder of Staff.com, a global recruitment platform where you can access very talented staff at affordable rates. They also have a technology called Time Doctor which is software to improve productivity and help keep track and know what your team is working on, even when working from home.

Rob resides in Sydney, Australia but can also be found in major cities around the globe, like Paris, Kiev or San Francisco.

Find Rob on Google Plus