When COVID-19 took the world by storm, nobody could have predicted its impact. For businesses, it meant switching to remote work overnight. Truth be told, even without the pandemic, fully remote work was already there and was picking up speed. However, this sudden transit raised many challenges that companies needed to address immediately. One of the most significant challenges was how to boost collaboration within a remote team. With that in mind, we’d like to share useful internal communication examples that will help immensely in tackling this challenge.
Let’s dive in!
Communicate With Your Team
One of the best ways to boost collaboration within your team is to improve internal communication. When team members feel safe and relaxed and where there are no impediments to communication.
What are some of the ways that you can achieve that?
- Set clear goals and objectives from day one
This is crucial in achieving effective team communication. Not having set clear goals and objectives leads to disorganization and confusion. When people aren’t sure what they need to do and feel like they are running in circles, it triggers a lot of stress and anxiety within the team. This, of course, directly influences relations in the team. Instead of unity, you have an out-of-the-focus team that doesn’t communicate and pushes the project in their own direction.
Many tools can help you delegate tasks better: from intranet channels, which we’ll cover shortly, to team charters, project management tools, to collaboration tools.
Another essential benefit of having clear objectives is that it will allow managers to take a step back and not micromanage. In addition, when the team has all the necessary information and resources, that will boost their internal communication and confidence. Why? Because they would be in the clear, they would know exactly what they need to do and how they can collaborate with other team members.
- Be supportive and transparent
If a team works in the office and, for example, one of the members is having a bad day, they will share it within the team. So why not share it with a remote team as well?
We all have bad days when we can’t focus or when there’s just too much on our plates. That’s why managers must maintain open communication to get to know their team. One of the most important things you need to create is trust. If you take into account sentiments within the team, if you learn what motivates your team, you’ll be able to foster a productive and collaborative team.
Once the team feels safe in terms of sharing whatever work blocks they might have, it will boost team collaboration because most team members will be able to relate to that.
Furthermore, apart from sharing the impediments, make sure to celebrate all the milestones and small victories.
For your team to communicate properly, you need
Collaboration Tools
When people work in an office, it is much easier to talk to each other, meet during the breaks, and have a chit-chat. After all, we are social creatures, and spending a day without communicating with our peers is just not in our DNA.
This innate need to socialize and communicate grows even stronger when it comes to remote teams. Ironically, the need is bigger, but it’s harder to satisfy unless you properly implement collaboration tools.
Why did we emphasize the word ‘properly’? Because having collaboration tools without your team really using them is just the same as not having them at all.
An increase in remote work led to the increase of various collaboration tools to suit every business need. We’ll just name a few here:
- Slack
- Zoom
- Asana
- Trello
- ClickUp
- Notion
- Airtable, etc.
We leave it to you to see which of these suits your team and your business most. If possible ( this would hugely depend on the size of your team), check your team’s preferences. Check which tool they feel most comfortable with. After all, they are the ones using it.
Apart from the regular communication channels above, you should definitely consider setting up an internal communication tool. An intranet channel kills two birds with one stone.
It helps you to:
- Set clear goals and objectives
- Keep your team informed about the latest changes, news, and all the relevant info
- Get your team better and boost communication within the team
- Stir up the conversation within the team by discussing off-work topics, too.
In a nutshell, the intranet channel represents a little bubbly hub where team members can get direct access to all the work-related info and, at the same time, collaborate with their team members.
Last but not least when it comes to collaboration tools, are video tools. Video calls are the closest you can get to meeting your team in person. They add a real-life element to the conversation because we can catch subtle things like body language.
The video tools are an excellent way to introduce
Virtual Team Buildings
It is so important to engage with your team. The more you engage, the more the team will engage between themselves. Virtual team buildings are great assets to boost team collaboration and prevent the team from feeling disconnected and isolated.
Let’s see how video calls can boost team collaboration:
- Ice breaker rounds
Ice breaker questions work great regardless of how well you know your team. Start a team meeting with them. Not only do they reduce the pressure or anxiety, but they are an excellent way to find out more about your team. Moreover, your team will find out more about their peers, too.
- Quizzes, trivia, game nights, karaoke
What better way to add the element of fun than to organize non-work-related activities? No matter how old we are, we love to play. Vary the activities your team would be doing so each member can shine. For example, Escapely offers many interactive games that enhance team members’ ability to bond, problem-solve and collaborate.
- Celebrate important holidays and festivities
Naturally, you’ll celebrate the company’s milestones. But why stop there? To boost team collaboration, celebrate special days that aren’t work-related: birthdays, special holidays, and festivals. Since we do speak about remote teams, the chance is quite high that your team members live in different regions of the world. Celebrating important dates or holidays in their countries will bring the team even closer together.
You can also discuss music, books, and films the team likes. This will provide a further chance for the team to connect because they will find another person with similar tastes or values. If it weren’t for these off-work activities, it would be almost impossible for the team members to truly connect. Engagement is the key.
Some Final Thoughts
One of the most significant advantages of having a remote team is getting a much more diverse talent pool. It would be a shame that you don’t use this potential.
Good team collaboration will get you so much closer to creating a healthy work environment, where every team member will shine in their own respect. In return, the team will contribute more effectively and efficiently to the team or company’s goal.
Listen to the needs of your team, keep the workflow precise and clear,boost internal communication and engagement, and you’re there.
