During the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was faced with a new challenge: working from home, which used to be mostly a perk some companies offered their employees, was suddenly a mandatory way of working. With this unexpected change in how teams and individuals should have been working since Q1 of 2020 at Roche, the challenge for leaders have increased as leading teams has now transferred mainly to virtual leadership.

In order to understand how employees are coping the home office situation, which challenges have arisen and how the future of virtual leadership can be improved and enhanced an empirical study was conducted at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

Working in virtual teams brings several opportunities to employees and an organization. On the other hand, there are a couple of challenges that need to be considered as well. The empirical study at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., where most employees have worked remotely for nearly one year at the time when the online survey has been conducted, has assessed that employees are satisfied with the situation of remote work. In addition, they are also very satisfied with their management and feel recognized and supported. The lack of personal contact with colleagues and line managers has been estimated as challenging. However, in the end it did not lead to dissatisfaction among employees. Therefore, the opportunities and positive influences of remote work seem to over-weigh the challenging aspects. One aspect in regards to virtual Leadership that can be improved at F. Hoffmann - La Roche Ltd is to increase the offerings and trainings for employees and managers to understand which technologies are best to select for which type of communication or build social competencies in a virtual space.