Most organizations have adopted a fully remote work culture post-pandemic. This rapid prevalence of “work from anywhere” has reshaped the workspace norms. No morning hassle, flexible hours, saving time in commuting, and better work-life balance! Ah! What a bliss it is.
Well, that’s the half-truth. It comes with some real challenges. And communication is at the top of the list.
To fulfill the dynamic needs of projects, companies hire a virtual workforce with varying skill sets from different parts of the world. Finding remote teams is easy, but the problem arises when it comes to managing. Establishing coordination between a team spread across different time zones is a herculean task.
To manage virtual teams successfully, it is highly required to boost your communication game. Establishing the latest communication software, setting clear guidelines, and utilizing technology is vital to a productive remote workforce.
This article covers communication challenges/issues a virtual team faces and the strategies to make remote team communication less stressful and smooth.
Here we go!
Communication Challenges in Virtual Teams
1. Handling Asynchronous Communication
Imagine you’ve some query regarding a recent product launch. You ping your colleague. And wait for the uncertain time. It is a harsh reality of asynchronous communication.
Hiring a team from different physical locations can give rise to several management and communication issues. Indeed, you get a multi-functional team with different skill sets (making it a 24-hour workday). But managing it requires another ballgame.
The concept of asynchronous communication says, “Work doesn’t happen for everyone at the same time.” Your remote team is working in different time zones; hence, an immediate response is not expected in such a form of communication. Delay in getting responses is quite frustrating for everyone.
2. Language Barriers
The language barrier is one of the major challenges a virtual team faces. This causes miscommunication and misinterpretation of information.
Learn some innovative ways to bridge the language gap and ensure the seamless flow of information between remote employees.
3. Lack of Trust
A report by Owl Labs states that 49% of employees believe that management/organization has more trust in on-site employees than remote workers. This adversary affects team spirit and productivity.
Trust is an essential element that encourages a free-flow exchange of information and ideas between teams. Due to the lack of face-to-face interaction, building trust in virtual teams becomes even more complex. It takes extra effort to foster genuine collaboration when working remotely.
Strategies for Better Communication Among Remote Teams
1. Right Digital Toolkit/ Right Communication Channel
The remote workforce relies on technology to collaborate and coordinate, which may sometimes lead to unclear project expectations, false assumptions, random conclusions, or misinterpreted emails.
So, it’s crucial to set up the right communication tool for your virtual teams to eliminate miscommunication and confusion.
You need a comprehensive platform packed with all the features, as there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Your communication tool should be:
- easy to access
- functional
- compatible with the devices and software that your employees use
- reliable and affordable
You can use various communication tools to stay connected with your team members, including video conferencing software, project management tools, messaging apps, etc. In this context, Zoom, Slack, Trello, Google Meet, and several other tools have gained immense traction.
2. Conduct Team Building Activities
In a remote work culture where employees do not see each other regularly, a lack of interaction with co-workers can make remote teams feel separated and disconnected. This may even increase staff turnover rates.
Virtual team-building activities are a one-stop solution. These can quickly be conducted using platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. You can conduct virtual game sessions, informal coffee meetings, weekly activities, happy hours, icebreaker questions, virtual campfires, group fitness classes, and fun challenges. Such activities encourage better interpersonal communication.
3. Schedule Virtual Team Meetings
Online meetings serve as a lifeline to build connectivity among teammates when working remotely. According to a survey, 87% of remote workforce feel more connected and engaged with their team during virtual meetings.
Virtual meetings let managers share project updates, resolve conflict, track progress, and highlight problem areas. You can also share lessons learned, the latest industry trends, and best practices with the team through such interaction.
To make meetings more interactive and meaningful, you can involve all attendees and encourage them to share their inputs and feedback.
Pro Tip: Try to keep virtual meetings short and informative to make good use of everyone’s time
4. Define Clear Remote Communication Standards
Setting clear guidelines helps team members understand what is expected from them in terms of communication. It gives a standard framework for how and when a remote team will interact with each other.
In your communication policy, you can also highlight login and log-off hours (if any), the timeframe within which one has to respond to a video or phone call, etc. Put these guidelines and standards in a written format and share them with virtual team members to avoid potential miscommunication.
5. Explain the Work Process through Visuals
Explaining complex concepts and work processes is not possible over phone calls. You need data visualization tools for this process. You can also deliver engaging presentations using pre-designed templates comprising high-definition charts, process diagrams, infographics, and other relevant visuals. It will bring all team members on the same page and save you time in explaining the same things again and again.
6. Rewarding Effective Communication
There are so many ways that can distract a remote employee during the video conference. How will you establish an effective communication system with so many distractions and keep the team engaged and interested?
One way to keep the attendees involved, motivated, and appreciated is to reward and recognize their communication skills. You can reward the chat champions of your team and ask them to reveal the communication hacks they use. It will help encourage the active participation of other team members.
Final Thoughts
Managing remote teams is not a one-time job. It is an ongoing process that requires efforts from everyone involved. Whether you hire a new remote team or shift your entire organization to remote work, you need to inculcate highly interactive communication strategies to make it successful. It will also support the development of a strong and transparent remote work culture where employees feel trusted, valued, and empowered to perform their best work.
We hope you find some useful strategies in this article to make your virtual team function seamlessly.
