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A virtual office is one practiced by most companies today, characterized by employees who don’t have to report to the physical office. It enables a remote working arrangement where employers can even hire team members from other locations.
Although it’s only been recently that a virtual office like Workspace365 soared in popularity, it’s been around and utilized by others for some time now. Presently, there seems to be no stopping companies from enabling a virtual working arrangement for their teams, given all the benefits it brings from the perspective of the employer and the employee.
Switching to a virtual office is a big move to make. You have to give it a lot of thought so you can be sure that doing so is the best choice for your office. Thus, before jumping right into the transition, take note of this checklist of factors you first have to consider:
1. Assess Your Willingness To Deal With Unforeseen Technical Difficulties
Setting up a virtual office has many advantages, but this doesn’t mean it’s safe from a couple of hurdles too. Your remote workers can experience unforeseen technical difficulties.
Hence, before making this change, assess whether or not the type of business you have can still turn out fine for a day despite technical difficulties. If not, it may be best to halt those plans at the moment and stick to a physical office, where your team may better deal with and fix such difficulties on time.
2. Check Your Ability To Cope With Digitization
The root core of a successful virtual office is one that’s equipped to be digitized. Besides, having a virtual office doesn’t necessarily mean that every employee will be working remotely. There could still be business processes that require employees to stay in the head office. You need to ensure you have a smart office for these business functions.
For example, old and slow computers may not work anymore in a virtual setup. Therefore, you’ll need high-powered ones and a strong Internet connection to stay connected with everyone else who is working remotely.
3. Check The Conference Room Capacity
Virtual offices each have their respective features, including a conference room for most. For some companies on a virtual working arrangement, it may be the case where they don’t require a head office anymore if no employees no longer have to work at a physical office.
So, the better arrangement for such a situation is to rent a virtual office with a conference room they can use when necessary. Usually, this would be in instances when your team would have periodic meetings, perhaps for accounting and tax season, or when a few of the remote workers meet for company day.
If that’s the case, then be sure that the virtual office you’re looking to rent also has a good conference room capacity. With one, you’ll no longer have to stress about renting a separate conference room at the last minute.
4. Consider Your Willingness To Abide By Collaboration Guidelines
Thanks to technological advancements, communication in virtual teams can now be as smooth and easy as it does in physical teams. However, note that there will still be limits on what’s allowable and what’s not in the work group chat.
Therefore, while making this transition, your team lead also has to meet with other department heads to make clear collaboration guidelines. Remember that in a virtual office setting, one’s chat box is akin to a physical desk in an office. So, unscheduled video calls to a specific employee constitute an invasion of their physical space.
The willingness to create and abide by collaboration guidelines can spell all the difference between a virtual office with happy employees and one where you’ll have a high employee turnover. This happens when your company is seen as one that no longer respects the essence of a virtual office.
Conclusion
As other businesses may have already succeeded in this type of working arrangement, it’s not surprising that you may also feel the need to switch to a virtual office as this might be your best choice to keep up with changing times. Yet before jumping right onto the bandwagon, remember that businesses have unique needs and preferences, so what works for one may not work for another. Thus, assess your needs and requirements first, study, and go through a few factors like the ones discussed here to ensure that a virtual office is the best choice for your company. The switch should work for you and your employees.
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