Working remotely is something that took everyone by surprise. While it came with many benefits employees were looking for such as flexibility, not having to commute, or silent working spaces, it also came with many challenges. There was already a percent of workers who shifted to remote work and embraced it with the benefits and challenges it came with. They learned to adapt to new working environments, collaboration policies, and space and time management.
And now, remote work has become the new normal. Even those who were against it were forced to adapt to it, as the threat of the pandemic is still very present in our societies. Leadership during these tough times has also changed. As teams are now meeting only during video calls, connecting with all the team members, supporting, and helping them is even more challenging than before.
So, helping remote teams collaborate more effectively is a challenge many leaders and businesses need to face. However, people have the power to adapt and after a year of remote work, they become more used to it. There are a few things you can do to help remote teams be effective.
COMMUNICATION & COLLABORATION TOOLS
As expert writers agree, communication and collaboration are essential for every team. The tasks are shared between members and many of them are intertwined with others. This means that the progress of the team depends on the collaboration between team members. With remote work, this has become more difficult to happen. Before, it was easier to stop by your colleague’s desk and quickly discuss tasks or misunderstandings. Now, this does not happen anymore.
To support remote teams in their pursuit of goals, it is important to make sure they have all the tools necessary to communicate and collaborate. Communication might happen mainly in written forms, but having the possibility to call or have group video calls is equally important. At the same time, team members must be able to collaborate. This means that they should have the tools that allow them to share and edit files.
It is important to take into consideration all the departments of your business. While some teams might have already established some remote work protocols within the team, they might be needed to collaborate across teams as well. For example, if the laptop of an employee gets broken, how will he reach the IT department for support? Make sure that you also have a remote control tool to increase collaboration across teams. If team members have the tools they need to communicate efficiently (chats, online meetings, calls) and to collaborate across and within teams, remote work will be more effective.
TRANSPARENCY
According to a study by experts who offer assignment writing help and write essay service reviews, transparency is one of the most important factors that could fuel the effective collaboration of remote teams. Now that team members are not seeing each other face to face, the trust within the team might be eroded. When you do not see what your team members are working on, it is natural to assume and feel that you might be working more than them.
Transparency is important in remote work because it keeps employees motivated and focused on their tasks. And it also helps build trust between team members, which in turn fuels effective collaboration.
But how to do this while working remotely? Well, you could have some tools used for goals and tracking progress. There are many project management apps, some of which are free for use, which can be used to track the activities and tasks every team member is responsible for.
This is helpful both for the entire team and the leader. Making team members trust each other when working remotely is a challenging task a leader has. You also need to earn their trust, as you are the one who is there to help and support them along the process. There is a tool called Team Huddle that became popular since remote work has become the new normal. Every team member notes there the tasks he will be working on during the day. So far, it may seem it has nothing special. But team members can also ask the leader for help and note down the challenges they need to overcome.
This increases transparency within the team, as every team member has access to the tool and can see the progress of team colleagues. But it also contributes to a higher trust within the team as the leader can intervene and support team members whenever they experience difficulties or challenges.
SOCIALIZING & HAVING FUN
Remote work has increased the level of loneliness many people might be feeling. Not seeing your colleagues for such a long time can also erode trust and collaboration. It is therefore important to save some time for socializing and having fun. Even though face-to-face meetings are still not allowed, you can organize online meetings to celebrate different things or catch up with updates. You can celebrate the release of a product your team has created. You can celebrate the birthdays of your colleagues. Or you can just gather, drink a beer, and catch up with the news. Socializing and fun are some of the things that help remote teams collaborate more effectively.
Why? Because team members get to spend time in a non-working context, which helps them bond and get to know each other better.
FINAL WORDS
Remote teams might experience some challenges that are normal to the situation they are in. All of a sudden, from working in an office, everyone has shifted to working from the comfort of their own homes. But as beautiful and dreamy it may sound, it came with difficulties and consequences for many teams and their leaders. To help remote teams collaborate more effectively, you should not forget about having fun and organizing online meetings that are not for work purposes. Transparency is equally important, as the lack of it can erode trust and negatively affect the collaboration of the teams. And last but not least, remote teams should have all the tools and apps they need to communicate freely, share files, and track progress. These are just some of the ways you can help remote teams collaborate more effectively.
