After the pandemic, remote working has grown by leaps and bounds. Plus, the digital nomad lifestyle is serving as the icing on top of the cake, further enhancing the concept of remote work in various countries worldwide. It does have several advantages as per the professionals, like not being bounded by the office times, avoiding office jargon, working from within the comfort zone, and many more. However, despite many benefits, remote work is not a stable idea, especially since it creates numerous communication and data silos within the organization.
Due to the lack of communication, work quality, individual and team performance, and organizational efficacy are hampered to a great extent. So, unless this issue is addressed at the earliest, it won’t be possible for organizations to support remote work in the coming years. Considering this, the following discussion will illuminate remote employees’ significant communication challenges and the best strategies to overcome them.
Importance of seamless communication for remote teams
Often people working from remote areas are inconsiderate of the communication gaps at individual and team levels. As a result, they have to face dire consequences later on, impacting personal growth, organizational performance, and deliverability. Therefore, the following pointers will briefly explain the need to maintain a streamlined communication channel within and outside the remote teams.
- Effective communication can break the ice between existing and new employees, making everyone feel at ease. This way, no one will have an excuse to be reluctant to intermingle and collaborate
- Data flow can be organized thanks to appropriate communication between remote team members. In other words, everyone will know about the events, plans, and many other aspects
- A proper communication channel enhances the efficiency of the remote team, propelling them forward to deliver results within their best capacity.
- Also, establishing a communication channel promotes digital work culture and helps employees cultivate their skills to help one another for the best outcomes
Top communication challenges most remote teams encounter
There are numerous communication challenges a remote team can encounter when they have only virtual mediums to talk with one another. Knowing these hiccups beforehand will help determine perfect mitigation plans in the coming years.
- Since people work remotely from different locations, time differences create a significant hurdle. It primarily happens when the team members are from different time zones, and finding a common time frame is challenging.
- Also, remote teams face difficulties continuing meetings for long hours due to network problems, power outages, system issues, etc.
- Over-communication is another challenge remote team members have to handle that disrupts the focus on work and creates an imbalance in the lifestyle.
- It is not always possible to reach out to the team members working from remote locations as and when required. So, people do have to wait until others are available to take the call, which is a considerable disruption.
Strategies to have streamlined communication while working remotely
- Planning communication with clarity: First, remote teams should draw clear plans about communicating between them. It can include discussing the hours when everyone will be available to take the calls or join a group meeting. The plans can also address communication mediums, like virtual meeting software, VoIP software, and many more.
- Conveying the message properly: Every individual working in a remote team must ensure they relay the message to others appropriately. As others cannot see the facial expressions or body language, the clarity of the message relies on how the person formulates the words and portrays them.
- Promoting virtual socialization: Team members should practice virtual socialization since it is difficult to know what the person is doing or thinking while working remotely. The more one gets to know the other members, the better it is for that individual to communicate without any boundaries. Socialization can be promoted through feedback channels, one-on-one communication, and forums.
Remote work life: Make it a successful endeavor with no communication silo
While it is hard to maintain a streamlined communication channel within a remote team, it is not something that can’t be achieved. With appropriate plans and the use of different communication tools, team members can overcome the time and geographical barriers and reduce the siloes. This will further enhance the team’s performance and productivity, with reduced errors due to communication gaps.