Vedika discovers the downside of remote working

Vedika worked as part of an IT project team whose members worked remotely in a number of remote locations across Kashmir. The 30-member strong team were responsible for introducing a key roll out of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

At the beginning of the project there was very little communication from Vedika’s line manager. After the initial email welcoming Vedika to the team, she had not had any communication from her line manager for nearly two months and the communications she had had from the team members were transactional in asking for specific tasks to be completed.

Vedika began to feel increasingly isolated and the team miscommunication led to significant dysfunction with regard to alignment of team goals and priorities.

The team interacts
After several months the line manager began a practice of asking the whole team to take part in an online meeting once a week for 30 minutes. The team also began using video chats as a regular team communication tool to increase team interaction, information sharing and investing in team development. This increased Vedika’s sense of belonging and helped align team members to key priorities and goals.