Keeping your tech team unified when everyone is working remotely can be a big challenge. Working from home adds an extra layer of distance that can make your tech team members feel isolated, which may ultimately lead to miscommunication and company culture issues.
Source: Forbes – To avoid this, we asked members of Forbes Technology Council for their advice. Below they share some of the most effective ways to communicate with remote tech team members to keep them on the same page.
1. Choose the right medium.
Communication is the key to success, but the magic is in the medium. Face-to-face online meetings are great for brainstorming, team building and socializing. However, too many can create video fatigue, and too often performance metrics and key data are missed. Communicating via automated workflows for certain processes can help eliminate time-consuming email ping-pong and engage remote teams. – Mirko Holzer, BrandMaker
2. Set clear expectations.
Be clear about expectations and measures of success. You can’t look over people’s shoulders, so you need to be clear about what you are measuring to get it done. – Tal Frankfurt, Cloud for Good
3. Invest in value stream management.
Basic collaboration tools can’t communicate the complexities of a software pipeline. Value stream management provides a single source of truth across all remote software development teams so that everyone can still work effectively with each other. It’s the foundation for work transparency, providing team members access to self-service learning and ensuring everyone will always be on the same page. – Bob Davis, Plutora
4. Hold brief interdepartmental meetings each day.
At the beginning of each day, holding a quick daily meeting of departments that features daily goals and impediments allows for quick and efficient team collaboration. At the end of the day, holding a meeting on what’s been accomplished and what’s holding people back is also useful for maintaining momentum. – Mark Hobbs, Fundmetric Incorporated
5. Develop an ‘asynchronous’ communications model.
Employees’ schedules have been impacted by necessities like childcare and remote schooling, while the frequency of Zoom calls has gotten intense. Move non-urgent meetings to email so people can respond when their schedules allow, and embrace more flexible work hours. This “asynchronous” communications model allows employees to still do their best work while accommodating their new circumstances. – Sudheesh Nair, ThoughtSpot
6. Embrace technology to drive collaboration.
The most prepared IT leaders will now start to reassess processes and workflows, embrace technology to drive automation and collaboration and develop new programs for engaging staff who may feel disconnected. We are embracing video conferencing, going all-in on SaaS project collaboration (e.g., Asana) and increasing the frequency of one-on-one employee check-ins. – Sean McDermott, Windward Consulting Group
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