Since the 2020 pandemic, virtual teams have moved from a temporary fix to a permanent place in the modern workplace. Many companies have shifted from traditional office setups to remote models. Employees, too, are embracing the flexibility, autonomy, and work-life balance that remote work offers.
While virtual teams undoubtedly offer numerous advantages, creating a truly collaborative culture can be challenging for many companies.
According to recent statistics, around 23% of employees in the US work remotely.
How to Build a Virtual Team?
Building and managing a remote team requires deliberate, ongoing efforts. To ensure that you are putting efforts in the right direction, here is how you can build a high-performing virtual team in 2025.
Step 1: Hire the Right Remote Talent with a Thorough Recruitment Process
Virtual team-building begins with the crucial task of securing the right talent. These steps require much consideration and thought because choosing the right team will eventually impact your future hires.
Partnering with the right outsourcing partners streamlines virtual team building. They bring:
- Expertise in hiring and retaining top local talent
- Assistance with the latest tools and technologies
- Support with payroll and compliance issues
The right outsourcing partner will help you fill the seats and build a lasting team.
Step 2: Set KPIs and Clear Goals for Your Virtual Team’s Success
When working with virtual teams, setting clear goals and KPIs is essential for virtual team building. To ensure that all remote employees comprehensively understand deadlines and deliverables, you can set SMART goals that your virtual team can measure and track.
Tools like Notion and ClickUp can help you break down daily, weekly, and monthly tasks on time. This structured approach improves productivity by aligning everyone regarding due dates and tasks assigned.
Step 3: Select the Right Tools for Virtual Team Success
A common challenge most remote teams face is the lack of face-to-face communication and, consequently, no proper collaboration. One thing that can leverage this for you is the choice of the right tools.
Depending on your team’s needs, you can choose tools to help you with better communication, enhanced collaboration, better file sharing, and personalized learning management systems. Tools like Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams are great for communication, while Asana, Trello, and Miro work well for project management.
Step 4: Boost Remote Team Productivity with Continuous Feedback
Google was one of the first companies to adopt remote work in 2020, and its hybrid work models have been the most successful ever since. One thing they encourage, which enhances remote team productivity, is continuous feedback.
The best way to enhance productivity is to schedule one-on-one meetings regularly with your team. This will enhance productivity and foster accountability.
Research reveals that employees who receive one-on-one feedback from their managers are three times more engaged in their tasks assigned than those who don’t.
Have a well-defined feedback cadence so you can consistently provide input on project updates, address challenges, and discuss ideas for process improvement. It results in a better understanding of timelines.
Step 5: Strengthen Connections Through Virtual Team Building Activities
Don’t let the Zoom Fatigue kill your team’s spirit. Take a break from everyday tasks and schedule virtual team-building activities. Set a monthly target for such events and design remote team-building activities to promote communication and foster virtual team bonding.
Designate individuals within the team to organize these relationship-building activities to enhance team cohesion. Tools like Slack WaterCooler make it easy to spark spontaneous, non-work conversations, just like a real office breakroom.
Step 6: Upskill Your Virtual Team Through Continuous Training
Another strategy for virtual team building is to provide constant support through regular training and development. You can offer regular skill-building sessions on online platforms like Coursera or host monthly internal workshops. Schedule weekly or monthly training sessions to ensure your remote team is ready to face competition to the best of its capabilities.
However, training takes time and resources. So a viable option is to hire a virtual team through outsourcing partners like BPO Wizard. Their virtual assistants come pre-trained in the tools, skills, and workflows you need. So you can skip the onboarding delays and start getting results from day one.
Step 7: Lead with Empathy and Digital-first Leadership
Great remote leaders don’t micromanage; they empower. Be clear and present, but at the same time, lead your team with empathy. In virtual settings, it isn’t all about assigning tasks and getting them done. You need to build a connection with your virtual team across the screen that spans continents. This is what digital-first leadership is about: putting your team first and encouraging autonomy with accountability.
Bottom Line
Building a virtual team is an equal-part strategy and equal-part heart. You need to begin with the right leadership thoughts and goals and then work towards creating a connection with your team. Follow these steps, and we are sure your team will not only serve a function but flourish too.
Build a KPI trained virtual team with BPO Wizard. We specialize in offshore recruitment and have partnered with 500+ recruiting agencies. Our team of leads and operations closely monitors their performance. So, you don’t have to spend weeks explaining everything, just good results from day one.
Talk to an expert today and discover how easy scaling can be with the right virtual team behind you.
FAQ
Regular check-ins, one-on-one meetings, and feedback keep the team informed and aligned. For more detailed management, you can set KPIs and track team performance using tools like ClickUp and Asana.
The tools you use are based on your company’s requirements. But some basic tools which are generally used by virtual teams in the workplace are:
- Slack or Microsoft Teams (for communication)
- Zoom or Google Meet (for video meetings)
- Asana or Notion (for project management)
- Donut or WaterCooler (for team bonding)
To build a virtual team successfully, focus on building trust and a positive team culture. Using the right tech stack and establishing a strong set of KPIs also play a key role in enhancing productivity.
Some common challenges you might face with a virtual team are:
- Communication gap
- Time differences
- Lack of team engagement
- Difficulty in tracking progress