Are These Types of Remote Teams Right for Your Business?

Michele Warg
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Remote teams help businesses run more flexibly, allowing people to work together on projects even when they are not physically located in the same place. However, not all remote teams are the same. There are in fact three types of remote teams, and it pays to understand the differences between them to work out which type is right for your business.

Fully Remote Team

The first type of remote team is known as a fully remote team. In this type of team, every individual works in a different location. This kind of team is common in businesses that use a lot of home-based workers. Although each member of a fully remote team is physically isolated from every other person, the team members can use online communication tools such as forums, instant messaging systems and email to communicate.

Hybrid Team

Another type of remote team is a hybrid team. In this kind of team, some members of the team are gathered together in a single location, but other members are scattered. For example, the core members of the team may be located in a company's main office, while other collaborators are scattered across a number of remote sites. These remote team members may need to gather information and report back to the rest of the team.

In general, the leader of a hybrid team is located in the same place as the core part of the team. Being co-located with other team members makes it easier for the leader to supervise the team's activities and get an overview of how the project is progressing. This leader must have the necessary communication skills to reach out to all members of the team, including those who are working remotely.

Flex Team

The third type of remote team is a flex team. In this kind of team, people are located in the same place for part of the time, but at other times, they work remotely. For example, employees may work together in the office three days a week but work from home on the other two days. Flex teams are becoming very common in many businesses as companies adopt flexible working policies or ask some employees to work from home to reduce overhead. When managing this kind of team, it's important to use scheduling software that lets each team member know where everyone will be located at a particular time. With good scheduling, team members can plan in-person meetings when everyone is in the same location, while using technology to communicate during periods when some people are working remotely.

Remote teams are a part of many modern workplaces. Each type of remote team requires a slightly different form of management, so it's important to know which types of teams you have in your organization.


Photo courtesy of Tom Edwards at Flickr.com

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