63 www.virtual-teams.eu 8. Conclusions The Virtual Teams Toolkit was created through field research (online questionnaire survey and a focus group) implemented in each partner’s country. Through the analysis of the results each partner created a national report about the challenges and difficulties along with best practices that HR Managers, Team Leaders and Managers utilize in order to work effectively and productively remotely. The results are reported in the beginning section of the toolkit “Field Research Findings”. Based on the aforementioned results the Virtual Teams partners have composed the current toolkit to provide current and practical information about the teleworking environment, the necessary equipment, skills for effective team leadership, working remotely productively along with best practices and case studies. Teleworking is a broad term which includes all the forms of working outside of the office. Currently the term “teleworking” is most often describing remote working due to the shift of the workplace conditions caused by the pandemic. Thus, going back to basics and mapping the necessary equipment for teleworking and the infrastructure for efficient teleworking were considered essential and were added in the toolkit. The rise in teleworking has also raised the necessity to find new ways of working. An extensive list of the available tools for teleworking such as communication tools, design and development tools, writing and editing tools were added in the toolkit. Another area with a major shift was the role of team leaders, managers, HR professionals in supporting their team members and employers. To address this through the toolkit, a section about effective team leadership in remote working was added with the most important characteristic being flexibility and adaptability in the new working era. Aligned with this, the toolkit intends to be utilized as a dynamic tool, aiming for its users to be able to gain information and apply fast and efficiently appropriate tools and processes for their organizations. For this purpose, the partners have created a checklist containing a reflective scope of each module, along with assessment tools and handout materials after the completion of each chapter.
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