Top 5 Communication Practices for Remote Teams

Effective communication is a great way to keep the remote team motivated. It also boosts production. Since remote employees are located in different locations globally, maintaining effective remote team communication can be a big challenge. 

Ineffective online meetings, miscommunication, and even scheduling challenges can easily affect collaboration and the company’s production. So how do you make communication work for your remote team? 

The following are some of the best ways you can improve communication among all your remote employees:

1. Utilize the Best Communication Tools

Once you’ve set up your remote team, the next step is to decide on the communication channels you’ll be using. While Email and WhatsApp may be enough in an office setting, you’ll need better communication tools when your employees are located in different countries. Diverse communication tools for distinct purposes will come in handy.

For instance, tools for project management, file sharing, holding virtual meetings, and regular workplace communications improve visibility and collaboration among all remote team members. It is precisely what your company needs to boost productivity and increase revenue. 

Fortunately, there are multiple practical communication tools and platforms you can adopt for remote team communication and file-sharing purposes. These include Dropbox, Slack, Zoom, Google Drive, Loom, Office 365, and CloudApp. 

2. Set Specific Guidelines For Remote Communication 

Just because your remote employees have the right communication tools doesn’t mean that effective remote communication will happen without trying. You need to set clear guidelines that explain which communication tools employees should use for what purposes. 

These guidelines will help your remote employees avoid common communication mistakes, such as involving the entire team in a conversation meant for a few individuals. You could reserve Email to send messages that don’t require urgent responses and Zoom to hold virtual meetings. 

Consider using Slack for messages that require urgent input from every team member. When setting these specific guidelines, put into consideration the differences in time zones for most of the remote employees. 

In addition, listen to your remote employees’ feedback to verify their satisfaction with the communication tools and effectiveness. Ask them to point out issues that need addressing. 

3. Hold Better Virtual Meetings 

For most people, remote work is great until it’s time to attend a virtual meeting. Scheduling the session, getting every remote employee to log onto the right platform, and dealing with connection issues can easily make a virtual meeting a nuisance instead of a necessity. 

Therefore, all virtual meetings should be brief and result-oriented. In other words, you should never schedule a virtual meeting with the entire team unless it’s necessary.

To save time in your next Zoom meeting, ensure that you send out an agenda beforehand and listen to suggestions and concerns from all your employees. Additionally, create a time frame for the meeting to avoid wasting time. 

If you can handle some of the issues with a quick email, you should do that before scheduling a virtual meeting. It will prevent convening the entire team to an unproductive virtual meeting. 

4. Use Pictures and Visuals in Your Documents 

Many people do not like reading long texts, especially when there is much work to finish. Instead of writing long texts, encourage your employees to use diagrams to explain various concepts. Diagrams are easier to understand, and you can use them to simplify complex ideas. 

Before sending out a document to your remote team, ensure that you use infographics, colours, headers, and some pictures. Such features improve the quality of your documents and make them more appealing to read. 

However, be careful not to overuse the colours, especially around diagrams. It can make the document untidy and illegible.

The best thing about incorporating visuals and pictures in your documents is that you can send them to new remote employees during their onboarding process. It will help them grasp some of the complex work-related ideas quicker. 

5. Encourage Your Remote Team to Work Out Loud 

Working out loud makes it easier for all team members to remain updated on one another’s progress. When your remote employees are located in other countries, it can be difficult to tell whether any work is getting done. 

Everyone updating fellow team members on their progress will increase visibility and reduce the need for unnecessary virtual meetings. You can also adopt effective project management software to stay updated on every remote employee’s progress. 

Summing Up

Your remote team won’t accomplish as much as you’d want them to without effective communication. Applying the strategies above will help improve communication among all team members and increase collaboration.