How to Improve Remote Team Collaboration in Organizations

When the COVID-19 pandemic intensified in 2020, nearly 80% of businesses adopted remote working to keep their operations running. The pandemic wasn’t the only factor that motivated remote working; with the current economic challenges, many people are seeking ways to save an extra penny that would otherwise be used for transport and rent.

Collaboration remains a vital tool in every industry, whether you’re working physically or remotely. However, the latter carries several challenges, especially in uniting your team to achieve collaboration. While some organizations have adequately benefitted from remote working, others fail soon after starting for various reasons. You need to understand the nuances of a a collaborative remote team as a leader or member.

Let’s learn how to improve remote team collaboration in organizations:

Implement open communication channels

As an organization, your remote team needs an open communication channel where they can freely air their business-related issues. Communication regarding upcoming business meetings should be made on time through WhatsApp group chats, newsletters, emails, or calls.

Open communication keeps employees alert on what they are required to do and when to do it. You can also provide your employees with the means to communicate amongst themselves. Additionally, requesting regular feedback from your team keeps them motivated to work harder, knowing their grievances or complements have been openly welcomed.

Embrace remote team collaboration software

With the current technological advancements, team collaboration software has become common within businesses’ remote teams. These tools are key to achieving maximum collaboration. From Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram to Snapchat and LinkedIn- these platforms significantly contribute to remote team collaboration.

Video chats improve remote team collaboration, with the same impact as physical meetings or even better. Another advantage of embracing these platforms is that they are easily accessible and less demanding- just a mobile smartphone, and you’re good to go.

Collaborative tools are software platforms that enable team members to interact effortlessly in less time and more effectively. Some modern collaborative tools include:

• Go To Meeting for video conferencing.
• Slack for instant messaging.
• WebEx for personalized video meetings.
• Asana for assigning tasks.
• Quip for working on different files simultaneously.
• Google Docs for editing and saving files.
• Igloo for sharing ideas.
• Trello for assigning and monitoring projects.

Make the company goals and objectives clear

Remote working doesn’t mean your team is free to do things privately without specific goals and guidelines. A constant reminder of the company goals and objectives keeps your team aware of what is ahead of them and how to work towards it efficiently.

Regular performance evaluation on your team lets you know where to change or complement your team. Your employees are also free to understand their performance after a specific time frame. This improves their morale towards the job, hence, better yields and profits.

Make regular rotations

Another tip for improving remote team collaboration is to conduct regular member rotations for different tasks. Monotony is natural; keeping the same employees for the same tasks for a long period brings monotony, which in turn means low morale towards the job.

A regular rotation schedule reduces physical strain on employees, identifies different skills and interests, boosts innovations, reduces boredom, and increases productivity. Many well-performing companies have embraced regular rotations for their remote team members.

Encourage brainstorming sessions

Your employees would feel more valued if given a chance to showcase their ideas and opinions about improving the company through brainstorming sessions. In most cases, the members will conduct a brief meeting before the session, in addition to collaboration and unity.

Times are changing, and so are businesses; brainstorming sessions don’t have to be so traditional. Allow your members to air their opinions away from a working setup to break the norm; it could be during their morning runs, cooking time, gym time, at the mall, or out on a walk.

Provide the essentials for remote team collaboration

Remote working requires different equipment, from office furniture, a laptop to a phone, and a stable internet connection. Providing your employees with the above requirements means they won’t have to incur extra charges and ensures quality returns on the job.

Additionally, these requirements, especially the laptop, phone, and internet, enhance communication between you and your employees, thus building a collaborative company. While choosing equipment for each member, it’s essential to consider disabilities (if any) and other preferences.

Encourage outside-work activities

Remote working shouldn’t prevent you and your members from meeting and interacting away from work-related issues. The unity and collaboration from such activities are then transferred to work, boosting employee morale and productivity.

As an organization, set a day for such sessions; it could be a semi-annually trip, yearly vacations, home visits, coffee or lunch dates, team games, and movie nights. Technology has made it even more accessible; some of these activities can happen virtually but significantly impact collaboration.