Hiring, Communication and Culture of Virtual Company

Hiring

Virtually, of course! Isnt cyberspace great? That's probably the best place to go in search of your very own Virtual Assistant or Virtual Employee. The best option; however is to find a good virtual staffing agency. An agency will save you a lot of time by screening the virtual assistant for you and choosing the best one to match your needs. As an added bonus, if the VA /VE doesn't work out for you, all you need to do is make one simple phone call and the agency should be able to find another one for you quickly and without additional time wasted, or extra charges.

Truth is told: I’ve never hired a virtual worker I haven’t met. Even though I’ve had some long-term work relationships with people exclusively online, I don’t recommend it for employees. Ultimately, face-to-face interaction is important to building (or solidifying) the kind of relationship people has working together. Some of the bases to cover in the hiring process are: some suggestions.

When you hire virtual assistance or outsource your complete office work to a professional Virtual E xecutive Assistant, you get relaxed of things you can't even imagine. Your virtual secretary or virtual receptionist will be there to take care of your tele phone calls, meetings, appointments settings, make presentations, billing and payments tasks, write content for your notices, press releases, blogs, real estate virtual assistance, medical administrative assistant, business virtual assistant, desktop services, legal virtual assistance and even take care of your research related works.

Communication

Communication in the virtual form is expected to be rapid and customized in response to customer demands (Davidow and Malone 1992). This implies that communication content and direction are likely to be more temporary, as links between organizational entities are formed and dissolved over time (Monge and Contractor in press). To the extent that lateral relationships in the virtual form substitute for hierarchical channels, greater volume of communication should occur, as two-way exchanges among a greater number of people are more likely. To the extent that communication volume is greater, there may be pressure to make some communication more formal or programmed in order to gain efficiencies and bring routine to otherwise customized work. Simultaneously, some communication is likely to become more relationship-based. Parties may seek a relational basis for transactions so that intimacy can be created in the face of distance, and trust can be established and maintained. Personal relationships and informal contacts are known to be more powerful than formal structures or reward systems in lateral organization designs (Joyce, McGee and Slocum 1997). Consequently, a likely tension in the virtual form will be simultaneous needs for more and richer communication, on the one hand, and pressures for greater transaction efficiencies, on the other.

Well, do you mean manage or micro-manage? No successful business owner can afford to micro-manage. If you need to micro-manage, you should find someone to sit right next to you in your office. If you can refrain from micro-managing and allow your admin to think and do on her own, you'll have no problems managing him/her from a distance. Through proper candidate selection, proper training, clear and concise instructions, and the daily reporting I mentioned earlier, there should be no serious problems. That's an easy one - ABSOLUTELY! It's as easy as ordering a "call forwarding" option from your phone company. You then punch in the code that your phone company requires and forward the phone to your admin. She'll answer your calls, answer caller's questions, and relay messages back to you.

Culture

Whichever combinations of media you are using to support a virtual team, you need to think through how those media will affect the culture of the team's environment. What metaphors are you using for the environment and the interactions? How will these metaphors cue team members to think about where they are and what they are doing? Keep in mind that you are creating an environment to support relationships, not just to exchange information. How can you help the group create a mental map of the environment so that members develop appropriate expectations? What norms, styles and behaviors would help or hinder the atmosphere you want?

A culture are the values and practices shared by the members of the group. Company Culture, therefore, is the shared values and practices of the company's employees.Company culture is important because it can make or break your company. Companies with an adaptive culture that is aligned to their business goals routinely outperform their competitors. Some studies report the difference at 200% or more. To achieve results like this for your organization, you have to figure out what your culture is, decide what it should be, and move everyone toward the desired culture.Company cultures evolve and they change over time. As employee leave the company and replacements are hired the company culture will change. If it is a strong culture, it may not change much.

Net Etiquette

In the past, the population of people using the Internet had "grown up" with the Internet, were technically minded, and understood the nature of the transport and the protocols. Today, the community of Internet users includes people who are new to the environment. These "Newbies" are unfamiliar with the culture and don't need to know about transport and protocols. In order to bring these new users into the Internet culture quickly, this Guide offers a minimum set of behaviors which organizations and individuals may take and adapt for their own use. Individuals should be aware that no matter who supplies their Internet access, be it an Internet Service Provider through a private account, or a student account at a University, or an account through a corporation, that those organizations have regulations about ownership of mail and files, about what is proper to post or send, and how to present yourself. Be sure to check with the local authority for specific guidelines.



Email Etiquette

Of all Internet activities, email is the most popular. Almost 88 percent of all Internet users in the U.S. use email. This information comes from a survey conducted by the UCLA Center for Communication Policy (The UCLA Internet Report: Surveying the Digital Future. UCLA Center for Communication Policy. 2001). According to the same survey, approximately 90 percent of those who use the Internet at work use it to access business email.

There are two reasons I decided to write an article about email etiquette. The first one is the sheer number of people using email, especially those using it for business communications. Since you are reading this article which appears on the Web, there's a good chance you use email to communicate with others, including your boss, colleagues, clients, or prospective employers.

So, what's the second reason? Well, as the Career Planning Guide here on About, I receive a lot of email. A lot of it is well written. A lot of it isn't. Some messages go on and on and on, until finally the question is asked. Sometimes the length is necessary -- other times the writer could be more concise.

Some messages get right to the point ... a little too quickly. The writer wastes no time asking for what he or she needs without bothering to be polite. Some of my younger readers (I assume) use what I can only describe as some sort of shorthand, i.e. "Can U plz send info on careers?" This may be appropriate for communicating with your buddies through instant messaging, but not for writing to someone you've never met. Besides, being a little more specific might help me find the information faster.

Sometimes there are glaring errors, such as misspellings and very poor grammar. While this annoys me some, I can only imagine what a prospective employer would think when receiving a poorly written message. Because your correspondence says a lot about you, you should be aware of some basic email etiquette, sometimes known as netiquette.

Forum Etiquette

Below are a few guidelines for use of Moodle forums. Some definitions you may need:

• Post: Any message posted to the forum
• Subject: The title of a post
• Thread: A string of posts, all replies, or replies of replies, to an original post
• Topic: The subject of the original post that starts a thread - i.e. what the thread is about

Be nice

• No 'flaming' - in other words, avoid personal attacks, pettiness, abuse. Respect other users, and if you disagree with them, explain why.
• No 'trolling' - trolls are posts deliberately designed to provoke an angry response. That doesn't mean you can't be controversial, if you really mean it.
• No personal disputes - if it gets personal, take it offline.
• Don't be patronising or sarcastic. It comes across about ten times worse online.
• Avoid typing in ALL CAPS, which is considered shouting or yelling.
• Learn to let go - don't keep harping on about the same thing, or harking back to previous arguments. It is rarely productive to do so, and you always end up going round in circles.
• If someone else's post offends you, don't immediately fight back online. Consider whether they really meant to cause offence. It can be easy to sound rude without meaning to, especially if English is not your native language. However, if you really are troubled by the post, don't respond - take it to your lecturer instead.

Be effective

• Post in the most appropriate forum (and only in one forum).
• Stay on topic - try to focus on the original topic. In particular, don't change subject in the middle of an existing thread - just start a new topic.
• Conversely, don't start a new topic if your post relates to an existing one - reply to the existing thread instead. Make sure you reply to the appropriate post, not just the last post in the thread
• When starting a new topic, make the subject line clear and informative. It makes the topic easy to find.
• Make sure you're understood, even by non-native English speakers. Try to write full sentences, and avoid text-message abbreviations or slang.
• If asking a question, provide as much information as possible, what you've already considered, where you've already read etc.
• Read what's already there before posting. You may be repeating what others have already said or asked.

Chat Etiquette

Chat etiquette is not limited to just online games. I mean, it’s universal. Aside from in-game chat, there are IMs, private and public chat rooms, etc. In this day and age, chat is now a valid medium of communication. You use it everyday.

If you want to be respected, you have to respect everyone you chat with. It (respect) is not bought, it is earned. This is especially true in chat since the written word carries “no tone”.

Allow me to share with you some few pointers and tips on chat etiquette.

More after the jump, amigo!

GM T’s CHAT ETIQUETTE TIPS AND NOTES

• No Tone - like I said, chat has “no tone” (not unless you’re using voice, of course). You have to be careful with the manner in which you use your words. Pay attention to how you construct your sentence and be wary of your punctuation.
• Don’t shout - ALL CAPS IS SHOUTING. Got that? Don’t do it. It’s impolite.
• Always be polite - Don’t be an @$$! Remember to say “thank you” and “Please”. That goes a long way.
• Don’t be sarcastic - never comment just for the sake of commenting. Respect each others’ opinion. If you have to explain something, do so in a polite and professional way.
• Think before you hit enter - put yourself in the shoes of the one who will receive it. If you wouldn’t want to read such trash. Don’t send it.
• If they don’t want to chat, don’t force them - players (and of course, people) do things differently and on separate times. I mean, they MAY be busy. So if they don’t answer. Don’t force the issue. They may be AFK (Away From Keyboard) for all we know.

If you need to remember one rule, it is this - R-E-S-P-E-C-T. That’s all there is.

So, next time you chat or are in a chat room, whether it’s inside an MMORPG, just respect the person and you won’t get in trouble.