Remote working offers employers the ability to cut on costs and to source from a much broader talent pool. However, it can be harder to really create a united company culture or even to effectively communicate when the online world is the only tool you have. Or so you might think. By using a broader variety of said tools, you might find misunderstandings become much less common, goals are more broadly understood, and your team is actually able to engage in real communication.
Meetings are still a thing
You don’t have to be face-to-face to have a meeting. Using Google Hangouts or other online meeting software, you can still address the biggest concerns of the business as a team without having to share documents. A weekly meeting should be kept short enough to stop participants from getting bored and unengaged, so try to keep only the biggest news or questions of the week in there. Discuss format beforehand, putting together an itinerary and making it clear when it’s time to listen and time to talk. Online meetings can be awkward, but a little forward thinking can make them much more effective.
Maintain communication wherever you are
Ensure that communication is regular and easily accessible. Rather than having to catch someone when they happen to be at their desk, you can stay organized and manage communication better using tools like project management software. This way, people can see a dashboard of conversations and new information relevant to them and see updates to those topics all in one place. It’s much easier to keep track of a single dashboard than it is to manage emails, IMs, text messages, and other inconsistent methods.
Make sure everyone has the same resources
Even if they’re not in the office, your remote employees are part of your team. When they communicate, internally or externally, they should bear all the hallmarks of your business. Smart document solutions can offer them access to the resources that they can use to give any emails or content they produce the official seal. It’s also a much easier way to store and share documents than they can access without having to constantly ask you to send it over. Don’t waste your time being the gatekeeper, use software that does it for you.
Measure emotional engagement
Emotion is key in communication. The line between a reprimand and a simple tease can be blurred in text-only form, but much easier to see when you’re face to face. When you’re communicating informally or naturally building a rapport, using emojis can actually be a great help. They are hard to misconstrue and harder to inadvertently use in a way that’s inappropriate. They can keep the tone light when you need to, so that your team doesn’t take a message the wrong way.
Communication is the core of any team’s success. If you’re not offering your remote working team the tools they need to communicate, you will find them less engaged, more prone to error, and simply unhappier in their position.
