The advancement in technology particularly the evolution of the Internet has given rise to the virtual team setup. Oftentimes, the graphic designer might be in Israel while the programmer is in India, the sales team in Toronto while the project manager is in Utah.
There is no need of bricks and mortar for the new world of virtual teams dominate the project teams. These team members and their project manager don’t even need to see each other face to face. It happens not only in project teams but also with independent contractors or employees.
Six tips to manage virtual teams training
For teams that are newly formed with people who are starting to know each other and the way the project manager leads the virtual team, it is imperative that project managers need to provide and manage virtual teams training properly. Here are a few tips to remember when managing a virtual team training:
- Ensure that your training management solution works with all types of operating systems and devices. The team members come from different countries and even if they are in the same place, they will use different devices, systems and browsers. Ensure compliance across different devices, operating systems and browsers.
- The learning management solution supports multiple languages. With the differences in the languages of your team, it will be helpful to use a training software that supports more than one language.
- Solicit feedback from training immediately. To learn what the team has taken in, conduct surveys or getting the member’s thoughts and insights about the effectiveness of the training.
- Be mindful of the differences in culture and time zones. Some expressions may mean differently to one culture that is a part of your team so be careful of these cultural flaws. Also, make your content available all the time because the team has different time zones so the training materials must be accessible 24/7.
- Test, test, test. Testing should be an essential part of the training and without it, it should be considered incomplete. It is the only way to know how much the participants have absorbed.
- Organizations require different ways of reporting and ensure that the virtual team knows about these various ways and that they use a training tool that can meet the requirements.
The training manager should also know what specific training should virtual teams receive such as technology, group processes and cross cultural training. It is necessary that these relevant topics are included in the actual training because only then can a project manager be effective in his desire to manage virtual teams training. With the team members all dispersed around the globe, the differences in background, languages, and culture need to be addressed because without understanding each other, the virtual team cannot function as a collaborative enterprise. If they can’t communicate and collaborate properly, then it will be difficult to stay united and committed to achieve the virtual team’s goals and objectives.
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