Has your company recently embraced remote work? Are you contemplating the transition? How you continue collaborating effectively is a key consideration. In fact, collaboration among remote teams is one of the most-cited concerns of upper management.
However, many leaders fear that remote work provides a barrier to collaboration. The good news is that working together in a remote setting can be simpler than you might imagine. It can do that even when your team is spread across cities, nations, or even continents.
Here’s all you need to know about improving your collaboration among remote teams.
Why is remote work so popular?
The rise of remote work isn’t just a passing trend. In fact, it’s a paradigm shift in how we approach our professional lives. The pandemic was a black swan event that triggered the global adoption of remote work. That being said, this shift can be attributed to several other factors:
Technological advancements
The advent of high-speed internet, cloud computing, and collaboration tools has made it possible to work from virtually anywhere. Tools like Slack, Zoom, and Trello enable real-time communication and project management. They bridge the gap between team members scattered around the globe.
Work-life balance
Employees increasingly value the flexibility that remote work offers. The ability to work from home or any location of their choice can lead to a better balance. This can work between professional responsibilities and personal life. In turn, it can enhance job satisfaction and productivity.
Cost savings
For both employers and employees, remote work can result in significant cost savings. Companies can save on office space, utilities, and other overhead costs, while employees save on commuting, work attire, and meals.
Global talent pool
Remote work allows companies to tap into a global talent pool. This means businesses can hire the best talent regardless of geographical limitations. Nowadays, hiring specialists in a market such as India is as easy as Googling “employer of record India”. In 2024, top-tier talent is never more than a few clicks away. With EOR services, onboarding overseas workers is remarkably straightforward.
4 ways to improve collaboration among remote teams
As a remote team, it’s more important than ever to ensure that everyone is on the same page. However, when it’s not possible to simply pop over to someone’s desk for an update. In fact, you’ll need to find other ways of staying connected as a wider team.
Here are 4 simple yet effective ways of improving collaboration among remote teams.
1. Use communication tools effectively
Communication is fundamental when it comes to collaborating effectively. Fortunately, since the widespread adoption of remote working (over a quarter of full-time US employees now work from home), there are plenty of communication tools available.
It’s certainly worth investing in an instant messaging platform such as Spike, where you can share ideas, provide progress updates, and ask questions about ongoing projects in real-time to keep everyone connected. There’s also a handy ‘channels’ feature so you can create dedicated spaces for discussing particular topics.
Project management software is also great for collaborating on work within your team and wider departments. This will make it much easier to assign tasks, keep track of who’s completing what, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. A tool such as ProjectManager, for instance, allows you to build task lists, create dashboards, and access in-depth reports.
2. Establish clear goals and expectations
It’s essential that you ensure that each team member has a shared understanding of the team’s overall objectives and their individual responsibilities. It’s easy for messages to get lost in translation when you’re not under the same roof, so always clearly define project goals, deadlines, and deliverables to keep everyone aligned.
When goals are well-defined, remote teams can plan their work more effectively — they can break down larger objectives into smaller, manageable tasks, assign responsibilities accordingly, and set realistic timelines. This level of clarity helps teams prioritize their work and stay organized, leading to improved collaboration and productivity.
You should also regularly communicate progress updates and address any blockers or challenges that may arise, while it’s equally important to give your employees a platform to share feedback, as this will allow you to identify areas for improvement and keep engagement levels high.
3. Encourage knowledge sharing
One of the best things about having a remote team is that you don’t have to stick to one geographical location when hiring. Using an employer of record service, you can take on staff remotely from anywhere in the world, providing new perspectives and encouraging an innovative, forward-thinking approach.
With new skill sets and approaches being immersed into your business, this can be shared among the team, which can aid collaboration and enable your team to gain new knowledge — and that’s why it’s so important to facilitate (and actively encourage) knowledge sharing.
Monthly training sessions via video call can be a great way of sharing skills and ideas among team members, for example. Alternatively, using something like an annotation tool can invite team members to share feedback remotely, whether that’s making suggested improvements to a particular piece of work or generally sharing helpful advice.
4. Create non-work related channels
Often, collaboration can be improved by fostering better personal relationships between team members. Doing this remotely is admittedly more challenging when compared to an in-person team — as there’s less opportunity for off-the-cuff discussions or ‘water cooler’ chat — so creating non-work-related communication channels is important.
This might entail scheduling a weekly virtual ‘coffee morning’, where team members get together for a general chit chat, or even something a little more creative like a virtual quiz or scavenger hunt. Alternatively, just having a channel or two dedicated to non-work chat in your instant messaging platform can encourage closer connections.
When teams feel more comfortable with each other on a personal level, collaboration often comes more naturally. Not only will they feel more confident asking questions or raising concerns, but it’ll be easier to provide constructive feedback — which is important for effective remote collaboration.
Collaboration among remote teams?
Establishing good collaboration among remote teams habits among your remote team needn’t be an impossibility. Setting clear goals, communicating well, sharing knowledge, and fostering great relationships among your team will help to ensure your teams can work together effectively and productively.