84% of Global Employees Not Prepared for Today's Work Requirements

According to a study conducted by RW3, an intercultural communication training organization, 87% of white collar employees of multinational companies conduct at least part of their work virtually. The study went on to find that while the vast majority of these employees encountered challenges in virtual work, only 16% had any training to prepare them. 

The 2012 Virtual Teams Survey Report – Challenges of Working in Virtual Teams found that:

In the virtual workplace decisions take longer and are harder to make; That the absence of visual cues makes it more difficult to collaborate, and that building team trust is more difficult.

The survey also found that working across time zones rivaled communication and other culturally based challenges for being the biggest hurdle facing corporate workers.

The survey unearthed some surprises. 41% of virtual team members never met their colleagues in a face-to-face setting. Other key findings:

-- 87% of respondents indicated at least 25% of their productivity depended upon working virtually.

-- 33% said at least half of their virtual teams were outside the home country.

-- Respondents reported virtual teams were most different from face-to-face teams in managing conflict (70%), expressing opinions (55%), and making decisions (55%).

-- The top five challenges during team meetings were: insufficient time to build relationships (79%), speed of decision making (73%), lack of participation (71%), different leadership styles (69%), and the method of decision making (55%).

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