Remote work seems to be the way of the future, and in recent news of the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses and organizations are currently having employees work from home–their job permitting. With such a sudden change in pace, it can be difficult to keep up with what’s going on with your team members.
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How can your team communicate effectively with each other while working from home?
By planning for regular online meetings and using your work-time to motivate your team, you’ll find that working remotely comes with many benefits for team communication. Follow your business’s communication guidelines and best practices, be open to different methods of communication and project management, and don’t be afraid to overcommunicate when you need to (which might be quite often!).
- Schedule Online Meetings
- Inspire & Motivate Each Other
- Follow Communication Guidelines
- Be Open to Different Methods
- When in Doubt, Overcommunicate
1) Schedule Online Meetings
Planning productive team meetings and scheduling them through video conferencing allows you to all take a moment to touch base with your team. Make sure everyone is included in the video calls, ask questions about their project updates and give useful feedback.
2) Inspire & Motivate Each Other
While you’re not physically in the same office with your work team, you’re all in this together! Give constructive feedback to your team members and let them know of the great work they’re doing that your clients appreciate. If you come across useful articles or videos for inspiration, send them to the coworkers you think will be motivated by it as well.
Pro Tip: Company retreats can be a great team-building experience. Consider planning one for your team in the future to get out of the work from home slump and build strong relationships.
3) Follow Communication Guidelines
Not all company cultures are the exact same, so you should have a good understanding of what the communication guidelines for yours are. Digital marketers use a plethora of communication channels, so you should know which specific situations call for chat messages, emails, and phone calls.
4) Be Open to Different Methods
Some project management tools might do wonders for remote workers, or they could make things more difficult depending on the tasks at hand. Work with your team to find collaboration tools that do well for everyone. If certain methods of work are more productive for a remote working individual, it’s best to work with those methods, not against them.
5) When in Doubt, Overcommunicate
Your teammates can’t see your body language or hear the tone of your voice via text. If you feel something might be misread online, don’t be afraid to overcommunicate to get your exact point across. After all, information is everything!
Keeping Your WFH Team on the Same Page
Solid communication with your remote team will help everyone to stay on the same page and up-to-date with what’s going on with your company’s projects. Use these tips to build your work relationships online and in the office!
Join the conversation for more communication tips and remote work tactics!
Alanah Beebee Brown is a Web Content Writer at ITVibes, Inc. She received her B.A. in Mass Communication from Sam Houston State University with an emphasis in film. Alanah found her love for writing throughout her years in college writing essays and research papers, and outside of school while writing film scripts, short stories, and song lyrics. Outside of writing, she enjoys singing, playing guitar, and video editing.
