October 17, 2019 | 1 minute read

Virtual collaboration with your colleagues

NHS Horizons

Virtual collaboration is not a trend, it is here to stay.

Organisations are embracing the quiet revolution of virtual collaboration. With the ability to work remotely, there has been an evolution of the tools we use at work to communicate and collaborate. This is especially true for knowledge workers.

At Horizons we have been working on the role of virtual collaboration in healthcare improvement and exploring some of the barriers that are the biggest struggles for remote working.

"A recent Harvard Business Review study of US Patent and Trade Office workers found their output increased by 4.4 percent after a transition to remote work, with no significant increase in having to rewrite patents due to appeals".

Surprisingly, the Buffer State of Remote Work report found that only 3% people found reliable WiFi to be an issue.

The issue which really stands out from this report is loneliness. As we think more about our own mental health and the mental health of our colleagues we must find ways to ensure we address this. I loved the Google approach of actually eating lunch or breakfast over a virtual chat.

Unplugging after work is another issue which has been highlighted in this report. Anecdotally people find that working virtually means they will check that one last email rather than turning their computer or phone off for the day at 5pm. Alan Felstead and Golo Henseke have detailed research on this subject.

We want to hear from you about how you find virtual collaboration, what you see as the benefits and challenges and what you see for the future of work?

In its State of Remote Work survey, social media management company Buffer found that 99 percent of remote workers would like to continue working remotely at least part of the time for the rest of their careers, and 95 percent would recommend it to others.