Wellesley, Mass. — Feb. 21

The virtual workforce in the U.S. ballooned from 9.5 million in 1995 to 13.4 million in 2010, growing to an estimated 20-30 million people currently working remotely at least once per week.

However, according to new white paper from global consulting firm PI Worldwide, despite more employees embracing — and even expecting — a distributed work environment, research indicates low levels of confidence in the ability of managers to adequately motivate, coach and develop employees within a virtual environment.

The white paper, “Managing the Challenges of the New Virtual Workforce: The Use of Personality Data to Build and Develop High Performing Virtual Teams,” examines the pressures facing leaders to manage and develop teams operating virtually and the benefits behavioral assessment data provides for enhancing communication, collaboration and efficiencies across different time zones and cultures.

According to a Forrester survey cited in the white paper, "effective communication" is a top concern for managers of remote teams (49 percent), followed by "managing projects and deadlines successfully (43 percent)" and "creating consensus during decision-making (43 percent)."

Source: PI Worldwide