4 Practical Ways to Foster Working and Teaming in aVirtual World

For many reasons, we all find ourselves increasingly working across distances. We might be working from home, a sharedoffice space, or even a coffee shop. And we might be working with teammates in other locations—perhaps even in otherparts of the world. Virtual and remote work can be just as effective as working onsite with teammates in an office. Butworking at distance does bring unique, complex challenges that can require different strategies and different mindsets inorder to be successful.

Now more than ever, enabling people to work and team effectively in a remote or virtual environment is critical. Manyorganizations are faced with a need to quickly equip their workforce and leaders with skills, tools, and resources to makethe shift from an in-person work environment to a virtual or remote one. HR can play an important role to support workers

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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Kathi Enderes, PhD, Vice President, Talent & Workforce Research LeaderDeloitte Consulting LLP

Nehal Nangia, Talent & Workforce Research ManagerDeloitte Consulting LLP

and leaders to work effectively, productively, and in a connected manner. Organizations can deploy four practices to getstarted.

1. Understand the work.Reinventing the workplace should start with the work itself. Our 2020 Future of Talent research revealed that 100 percent of high-performing organizations consider the work to be done when redesigning the workplace, compared to just 48 percent oflow-performing organizations.1 Starting with the work means understanding the work that needs to be accomplished, whatinteractions are needed, and how customers are impacted.

The workers that do the daily work are best equipped to provide insights into collaboration requirements (who they work witheach day) and accessibility needs (what tools, resources, and / or information are essential).

Call to ActionEstablish a clear understanding of what work in its current form can be accomplished in remote or virtual environments—•and what work cannot—by mapping out access and collaboration requirements for that work.Involve the workforce in identifying opportunities to innovate work which is traditionally accomplished in in-person•environments—calling on workers who are closest to the customer to reinvent the work for new value and meaning.Determine new capabilities and digital technologies needed to make accomplishing work remotely feasible and scalable.•Iterate along the way for continued value generation for all stakeholders (the workforce, customers, and the business).

2. Focus on the workforce experience—especially what’s different at a distance.The workplace—physical and digital—should serve the organization’s workforce. Workforce experience—defined as all theconnections between individuals and their colleagues, leaders, and employer, encompassing personal, physical, digital, andorganizational elements2—is key to a human-centered approach, and should be front and center in the remote workplace. Ourresearch showed that high-performing organizations are 4.2 times more likely than low-performing organizations to consider theworkforce experience in workplace redesign.3

Leveraging digital tools and technologies to facilitate accomplishing work in new ways is not sufficient unless organizations cananchor the workforce through an experience that is dynamic and inclusive—one that evolves in tandem with broader changes inthe business environment. A holistic workforce experience places the worker truly at the center, supports wellbeing, and isanchored by core behaviors such as inclusivity, trust, and humanity.4 To advance in this area, organizations should consider:

Prioritizing workforce wellbeing. Leaders can drive wellbeing within their organization by taking an inclusive approach•to work flexibility and offering options that meet a variety of diverse needs. For example, some workers may have anenvironment that is more suited to video-based conferencing than others. By providing options to either use a call or avideo conference, workers don’t feel pressured to immediately jump to new ways of working. Through adaptable programsand supportive leadership, workers will feel empowered to use flexible work options without fear of consequence.5

Additionally, talent and technology leaders can expand the scope of wellbeing to digital wellbeing by leveraging artificialintelligence (AI) to mitigate the perils of always-on technology. For example, some email systems now use AI to sort emailsinto categories, making urgent emails easier to locate and only pushing primary emails to a user’s phone.6

Articulating and reinforcing behaviors vital to virtual collaboration. The most successful organizations consider•workforce experience to be collectively owned—by the organization, its leaders, and its workers. As an organizationembraces remote and virtual work, HR plays a critical role in articulating and reinforcing behaviors that are vital for workersand leaders7 (see the following figures) to effectively collaborate virtually. HR also acts as an enabler by working with IT andthe business to explore and implement tools and platforms that can support dynamic work locations and asynchronouscollaboration.

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4 Practical Ways to Foster Working and Teaming in a Virtual World

Workforce Behaviors Vital to Effectively Collaborate Virtually

Deloitte Consulting LLP, 2020.

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4 Practical Ways to Foster Working and Teaming in a Virtual World

Leadership Behaviors Vital to Effectively Collaborate Virtually

Call to ActionApproach flexibility and remote work with a focus on worker wellbeing and productivity. Empower workers with supportive•leadership and adaptable programs to deliver their best work while addressing diverse needs.Expand the scope of wellbeing to digital wellbeing by being sensitive to the fact that the workforce can be overwhelmed•with always-on technology.Articulate and foster expected behaviors that are vital to collaborating effectively in a virtual environment. These behaviors•are modeled by leaders and shared across the organizations by workers and teams.

3. Provide extra help for workers and leaders.Creating a virtual or remote workplace means change—sometimes significant change—for the workforce. Leaders should leadtheir teams in new ways without connecting with them in person. Team members should collaborate differently and engage withcustomers in new ways. New technologies for collaboration and remote work should be used to enable success in new workplacesettings.

Deloitte Consulting LLP, 2020.

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4 Practical Ways to Foster Working and Teaming in a Virtual World

For example, team members and team leaders should be able to run successful virtual meetings. A key tenet of a human-centeredapproach is understanding the intrinsic needs of workers as human beings. Human beings have an inherent need for socialcontact, and organizations should collectively strive to instill a sense of belonging and community through ways in which work isaccomplished. Optimizing and personalizing meetings is a powerful means of preempting and addressing isolation while workingremotely and to create a more personalized and engaging experience. For instance, leveraging video during virtual meetings isas close to a personal, face-to-face interaction as is possible in a remote setup. As added benefits, it encourages attendees to befully present rather than being distracted by multitasking. The following figure outlines additional tips for creating successful virtualmeetings.8

Tips for Creating Successful Virtual Meetings

Call to ActionAssess workforce and leadership readiness for workplace changes—using a variety of instruments like surveys, pulse•checks, or focus groups—and determine where the biggest gaps are.Communicate the reasons for workplace changes clearly and transparently—specifically home in on the benefits for•

Deloitte Consulting LLP, 2020.

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4 Practical Ways to Foster Working and Teaming in a Virtual World

workers.Preempt and address isolation. Create opportunities and capacity for workers, teams, and leaders to build relationships•and personalize interactions.Support the workforce and leaders with tools, resources, and training to enable them to work and manage effectively in a•remote / virtual environment.

4. Use data to inform decisions and uncover opportunities to tweak and tune.Our research showed that high-performing organizations are an astounding 15 times more likely than low-performingorganizations to use data to inform workplace decisions.9 Today, there is no shortage of data—that, of course, includes peopledata. High-performing organizations use an average of seven data sources (compared to only three for low-performingorganizations) to understand the complex requirements of their workforce and the resulting workplace needs.10 These datasources can be from within their organization (e.g., human resources information systems, employee survey data, operationalwork systems) and from outside (e.g., customer requirements, broader talent market trends, or data about the remote potentialfor jobs). Examples of future-of-work metrics related to the workplace include the effectiveness and utilization of alternativeworkplace opportunities; the engagement, diversity, and inclusion ratings of remote / hybrid workers; mobile tool availability andutilization; and collaboration tools analysis or organizational network analysis to identify where connections are existing andwhere they should be strengthened.11 All of these data points should inform the organization’s decisions about workplace optionsand how to transition toward those options.

Call to ActionFacilitate discussions with the business and IT to identify and prioritize opportunities to solve workplace issues with data.•Utilize data from external sources as applicable (e.g., the remote working potential of specific job codes based on O*NET•data).Start small and experiment with different types of data and analysis to find what works best for the organization and then•iterate and scale those metrics.

Recommended ReadingPeople Metrics for the Future of Work: Preparing for What’s Next•Interactive Workforce Transformation Framework•4 Ways to Future-Proof Your Organization with Workforce Transformation•

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4 Practical Ways to Foster Working and Teaming in a Virtual World

Copyright © 2019 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved. Not for distribution. Licensed material.

4 Practical Ways to Foster Working and Teaming in a Virtual World

EndnotesFuture of Talent research, Deloitte Consulting LLP, 2020.1.Interactive Workforce Experience Framework, Deloitte Consulting LLP / Christina Rasieleski and Matthew Deruntz, 2019.2.Future of Talent research, Deloitte Consulting LLP, 2020.3.The Workforce Experience Maturity Model, Deloitte Consulting LLP / Christina Rasieleski and Matthew Deruntz, 2019.4.Deloitte Survey: Most Professionals Take Advantage of Flexible Work Options Despite Perceived Consequences to Professional Growth, Deloitte Consulting LLP, 2020.5.“A new inbox that puts you back in control,” Official Gmail Blog, Google / Itamar Gilad, May 29, 2013; https://www.blog.google/products/gmail/a-new-inbox-that-puts-6.you-back-in/.Increasing Organizational Resilience in the Face of COVID-19, Deloitte Consulting LLP, 2020.7.Increasing Organizational Resilience in the Face of COVID-19, Deloitte Consulting LLP, 2020.8.Future of Talent research, Deloitte Consulting LLP 2020.9.High-Impact People Analytics research, Deloitte Consulting LLP, 2017.10.People Metrics for the Future of Work: Preparing for What’s Next, Deloitte Consulting LLP / Kathi Enderes and Zack Toof, 2020.11.

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Publication Date : April 1, 2020

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