As modern employers, we need to learn how to boost communication within a remote team, as this is the new reality. It seems that remote work has been on the rise in the last few years. And one of the changes that remote work has brought is the way the management talks to their employees. Whereas communication was primarily downward in the past, from higher levels to the lower ones, the new, improved communication is more two-way than ever. The mindset of both employers and employees has changed.
It goes without saying that good and quality communication is the basis for almost every field of life: from personal relationships to business ones. The possibility to openly communicate about problems and bottlenecks with the higher levels in a company seems even more relevant and essential when it comes to remote work. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of physical presence, the inability to just check up on your employees behind their desks, and the lack of body language. Not to mention that all of a sudden, most employers had to adopt a less micromanaging system. To be fair, the transition to remote brought challenges for both parties, employers and employees alike. And that brings us back to the importance of communication. What’s more, the importance of employee communication.
Let’s first see what employee communication means. It isn’t only communication between peers and colleagues but the communication between the management of an organization and its employees. Employee communication is essential for fast delivery, transparency, and achieving business goals.
Before we suggest some of the best ways to boost communication in your remote team, let’s first see what the most common challenges of remote communication are.
Boost Communication Tip #1: The Feeling of Loneliness and Isolation
Remote work can be lonely. The lack of an office where you can physically meet and catch up with your colleagues leaves a lot of remote employees feeling lonely. As a consequence, it can affect productiveness, motivation, and optimal performance.
Tip #2: Cultural Differences
Although working remotely brings people from every corner of the world together, it can create a challenge at the same time. Lack of cultural understanding and not transparent communication can lead to unpleasant situations that you, as an employer, definitely want to avoid.
Boost Communication Tip #3: Different Timezones
Related to the previous point are different time zones. Having remote employees scattered around the globe is definitely a challenge. It is much harder to schedule meetings, and appointments and have real-time communication.
Tip #4: Technical Issues
If you work remotely, this is probably one of the most frustrating issues. Be it the weak Internet connection, noise in the channel, a platform that crashes, or issues with your equipment, these technical issues are indeed a nightmare for remote workers.
It’s high time we talked more about the best ways to avoid or lessen the impact of these most common challenges. So, without further ado, we share with you some of the best ways to boost communication in your remote team.
Boost Communication Tip #5: Collaboration Tools
First and foremost, decide which collaboration tool you will use. Luckily, there are so many options out there. Let’s just name a few: Slack, Basecamp, Range, Asana, Zoom, etc. The biggest trap companies encounter is to end up with one tool too many. This leads to confusion that your team/employees will probably find overwhelming. Lots of these tools have overlapping features so it is really important to carefully select them according to your needs. Furthermore, You should also define how to use these tools. In a nutshell, your team needs to get clear instructions which tool to use and when.
Tip #6: Internal Messaging
Internal messaging is one of the greatest collaboration tools you could use. This intranet solution is super handy. You will be able to communicate with your team quickly and efficiently. It is much better than loading your team’s inbox with tons of emails. It might be hard in the beginning for the team to embrace the idea, but you should set the example yourself. Once your team gets more comfortable with it, it could easily expand to a great virtual hang-out place, the place for entertainment and getting to know each other better. It helps glue the team together and it is time-zone friendly.
Boost Communication Tip #7: Make It Personal
Whether you’ve been working remotely for a long time or not, there would always be new team members coming, some of them not that tech-savvy. Some of them were perhaps using different tools. The transition process is always stressful and hard. You can definitely smooth it by showing empathy and understanding. This will help new team members open up, which will inevitably have a positive impact on internal communication.
Tip #8: Celebrate Good Times
When people work in offices, usually they mark their birthday by bringing small treats or even organizing an after-party. There is no reason why the celebration of special days should stop when working remotely. It could be birthdays, sports events, or personal and business achievements. Just because you can’t physically share a cake or attend some festival, it doesn’t mean you can’t find a way to do it. A plain Happy Birthday song or sharing photos from some nice festival can be done online. Sharing special moments is definitely a nice way for team members to open up and start communicating more. The more people feel they can connect with other team members, the more they will communicate with each other. You could even send “old-fashioned” cards or small gifts. It makes so much difference.
Boost Communication Tip #9: Virtual Coffee Breaks
Since you are lacking an office where you can meet with your employees, why not organize virtual coffee breaks with individual team members? It is a great way to check how they are doing, and if everything is ok. Ask them about challenges at work they might face and if there are any impediments. This way your employee would feel heard and understood. It is all about relating to one another, and what better way than a cup of coffee?
Tip #10: Team Building Activities
We know it might sound impossible, but remote doesn’t mean there can’t be team building. Depending on where your employees are located, it could even take place in person. But what if they are too far away? In today’s digital age, there are so many activities you can come up with: online games, quizzes, trivia nights, karaoke, etc. They are all great ways for your team to open up and communicate more.
Tip #11: Virtual Water Coolers
This one is similar to the virtual coffee we mentioned a few lines ago. The only difference is that this one involves the whole team. Set an internal channel that would be dedicated to off-work topics. It is a great way for people to learn about each other. They can share holiday photos, post about the food they cooked, and share interesting posts. They can post jokes, and what they are binge-watching.
But you can’t just expect to set the channel and expect it to burst with conversations. You need to encourage others to use it and make it a regular routine until the others pick it up. And they will. It might just take a bit of time.
A lot more could be said about the ways to boost communication. We’ve handpicked the 3 best ways to boost communication within a remote team, but don’t forget that these ways aren’t set in stone. As you could see in the above paragraphs, it all depends on the type of your organization, the team, and internal affairs. Use these ideas as an inspiration, adjust them and then adapt them to meet your organization’s needs. And remember that just because you and your team might be working from distant corners of the world, it shouldn’t mean that employee communication should be distant, either.
