Virtual Office Resource

Tips for Developing an Effective Virtual Office

The virtual office has gone from a neat trick among footloose and tech-savvy twenty-somethings to a concept that even conservative businesses are starting to embrace.

This is no surprise: Technology has made it easier than ever to work remotely, and there are now services in the cloud that have developed to smooth out the kinks that used to exist with running a virtual office. With the rise of smartphones and tablets, people are also growing more used to working outside of the office.

A study by researchers at Stanford University earlier this year showed that workers gain an average of a 19 percent productivity boost when they work remotely. But this productivity gain only happens if a business does the virtual office right—not all virtual offices are created equal!

One of the most important things that businesses must do to create a successful virtual office is make the virtual office the hub, not a spoke. Instead of a tack-on to a physical office, the virtual office needs to be the home base for the business. This means all documents and communications must route through this virtual office. Services such as Phone.com can help facilitate this process, as it lets the business phone travel with employees no matter where they are.

A second way to create an effective virtual office is to recognize that it is all too easy to create an isolated work environment where every employee is a little silo connected by e-mail. It is crucial to recreate the social part of the office environment digitally, and this means video chat, presence and collaborative software that builds employee interaction and face time, even if employees are not physically at the same location.

This can be greatly augmented by effectively using cloud services, which now can deliver just about any business function through the Web. Therefore, leverage cloud services to make the virtual office less disconnected.

Further, software such as LogMeIn (News - Alert) can be useful in letting employees share screens with each other and otherwise bringing another level of connectivity among employees.

Part of making a good virtual office means understanding the challenges, too.

Chief among the challenges is making sure that those who work remotely are able to work independently. Employees who need a boss to babysit them will not succeed in a virtual office environment because it takes initiative and self-direction to make the most of the virtual office.

This means not only knowing employees well enough to know which are ready for a virtual office and which are not, but also having clear written objectives that the remote employee can work against. The move from a traditional office to a virtual office is about moving from time-based work to outcome-based work as much as anything, so setting clear goals will ensure that employees know what is expected of them and can work accordingly.

If these practices are put into place, however, the virtual office can be a boon both for employees and productivity alike. But the devil is in the details, so make sure the right virtual office environment is in place first!