6 Ways To Improve Remote Team Collaboration In Workplaces

You are in the right place if you’ve been wondering how to improve collaboration in your remote team. Collaboration refers to a project whereby a communication management approach is used to achieve a harmonious atmosphere for different departments, skill levels, and positions.

To achieve the best out of a remote team, collaborate as if employees were in an actual office. Employees must feel secure at their remote office and feel free to share their opinions and challenges with fellow team members and management. The transition might not be easy, but with excellent tips, you can be assured of more extraordinary performances compared to the previous years of operation.

Remote team collaboration significantly contributes to a positive public image and company culture. To make remote team collaboration work, managers and team leaders should implement several best practices. Here are six ways to make remote team collaborations work effectively:

Invest In Digital Workplace Solutions

The world is going digital in nearly all aspects, and remote working couldn’t afford to be left behind either. Digital workplace solutions typically replace traditional office setups, especially for remote workers. The development provides remote teams with new tools and ways of communicating and getting work done efficiently.

A digital workplace solution is what every organization should embrace for their remote teams. Besides enhancing workflow, it’s ideal for top-notch employee experience, customer satisfaction, productivity levels, and company culture. Some practical digital workplace solution programs include communication, productivity evaluation, enterprise, and team collaboration tools.

The goals of digital workplace solutions go beyond a virtual organization’s numerical performance. It increases productivity levels regarding the quality of services and goods offered. Team collaboration also raises profit margins, usually facilitated by the reduced operation costs regarding the rent of physical offices, stationery, and cleaning services.

Embrace Virtual Team-Building Activities

Too much work without play makes Jack a dull boy. A virtual team can quickly turn into Jack when the employees stay constantly engaged with work and nothing else. You can introduce plenty of team-building activities to a virtual team, creating opportunities for collaboration.

Some ideal team-building activities for virtual groups include:

• Online game, which lasts thirty minutes to one hour.
• Virtual coffee and lunch breaks.
• Fast quiz sessions (with non-work related questions).
• Storytime sessions include general life experiences but exclude personal and confidential ones.

Maintain Open Communication

While effective communication might be challenging in remote teams, a lack of open communication can worsen everything, including attracting mistrust between departments.

Open communication entails equipping your remote team with the right tools, clearly defining team schedules and goals, and being audibly transparent when communicating with team members. Also, you can embrace different communication channels. With that, you can be assured of nothing less than a collaborated remote team and a lot more.

Connect Physically Once In A While

After years of video chats and online meetings, a physical meeting would greatly enhance collaboration in a remote team. Besides catalyzing healthy and long-term relationships between employees, a physical meeting generates more practical ideas, improves focus, and breaks the monotony.

For more excellent outcomes, physical discussions for remote teams can be undertaken at least once or twice a year, adequately organized early enough to avoid last-minute rushes.

Issue And Monitor Rotations Among Employees

It’s natural to feel overwhelmed or bored with your position of work, especially if you’ve been undertaking the same activities over and over for years. For that reason, managers and team leaders should administer healthy rotations among the team members.

The mechanism also enables the employees to display their strengths and creativity in different fields, contributing to the organization’s general performance. As employees train one another in various roles (during rotations), it also builds a sense of collaboration in a remote team.

Focus On The Company Culture

A benefit of team collaboration in a remote team is that it creates and maintains better employee relationships, thus creating a satisfying work experience. With a collaborative work environment, managers and team leaders can be assured of constant creativity and innovation from their team members.

Regardless of its mode of operation, every organization strives to incorporate team collaboration to be part of its company culture at all costs. When a small company exhibits healthy connections, team collaboration will likely follow suit without much pressure.

The video calls and online meetings should be more like friendly catch-ups and not harsh-lecturing sessions. An organization should undertake every other activity collaboratively (not just during special occasions, and that’s it), and all shall be well.

Read Also:

• How to Manage The Risk Of Remote Employees
• How to Protect Employee Relationships When Working from Home