The next logical question, of course, is how do you onboard new employees when youre remote? Break the ice and help your employees build stronger relationships with easy but fun get-to-know-you games that spark conversation like: Collect facts and trivia about people on your team (and even the company in general) and see how well you each know your coworkers. We know if we need to get a hold of someone how to get a hold of someone. In other words, how, where, and when they work will look different from in-house employees (and maybe even from each other if they are on flexible schedules or different time zones). If there is one practice out of all the communication best practices for remote teams to try, it is this one. For example: PS: To house these asynchronous messages, we here at KYT use Basecamp a project management tool to have a committed, organized place for all our asynchronous writing. This no doubt happens with greater frequency in a remote environment, as you cant physically hear someones tone of voice or interpret a persons facial expression.

Thats how people get into a state of flow, which is critical to thinking creatively or generating something from scratch. This can translate to a positive culture of mutual trust and accountability. A positive remote work culture wont happen overnight. I understand and support our organizations mission and vision. Make employee recognition an integral part of your remote work culture and engagement strategy. And they want to see a future at the company that allows them to grow and develop. With remote teams, its nearly impossible to over-communicate. Now Live: Our Guide to Rethinking Performance Reviews, New: Our Guide Rethinking to Performance ReviewsGuide, An endless barrage of Zoom meetings. Documenting how people should ideally communicate isnt just a nice-to-have, but a cornerstone document to align your staff and help onboard new folks as the company grows.

Need help getting access? Stay connected and involved with regularly scheduled one-on-one meetingswe recommend at least once a month, but for remote teams, more frequent check-ins can be especially beneficial. As more and more of our interactions happen digitally, we will continue to experience new forms of miscommunication and misunderstanding. But others have embraced a digital nomad lifestyleworking and traveling across multiple locations. We have a culture of (recognition, feedback, transparency, etc.). Make sure you have clear processes in place for how and when your team will communicate with each other. This can be as simple as taking 5 minutes at the beginning of your weekly team meetings to share about your weekends or scheduling virtual team breaks together to get to know each other. People want to know that they matterand this doesnt change when they work outside the office.

In other words, its not enough to throw in virtual happy hours or remote perks. Consider creating team acronyms for digital communications like Four Hour Response (4HR) and No Need to Respond (NNTR) that bring predictability and certainty to virtual conversations. While we often tend to regard human predictability as a defect, few qualities are more sought-after at work, especially in virtual collaborations. Real, lasting engagement goes deeper than that. Work with your team to establish clear expectations and boundaries so everyone is on the same page and can take ownership of their work.

Employees want and value the flexibility and autonomy that remote work affords them. CEO of Know Your Team. On the weekly team conference call, a remote team member is confused about whether her colleague is really on mute when she delays a response to a question or if shes just not paying attention and is using this as an excuse.

How many times have you written an email and, immediately after hitting send, felt concerned about how it would land? This can create an unhealthy burnout culture that stretches your team thin and makes employees feel like they have to be available to each other at all times of day or night. How to Convince Your Boss to Let You Work from Home, How to Stay Focused When Youre Working from Home, How to Work Remotely Without Losing Motivation, I'm a subscriber, but I don't have an HBR.org account. The solution lies in building a skill set that reflects the demands of our digitally-driven age. They are also starting to reap the added benefits and improved productivity that remote work can bring. While we may have become used to these types of asynchronous interactions, they can still conflict with our normal rules for social interaction. Luckily, remote work expands an organizations opportunities to embrace diversity and inclusion because the talent pool is no longer limited to a specific location. Based on our survey with 297 remote managers and employees, insights from working with 15,000+ people in over 25 countries with Know Your Team, and the research weve done across dozens of remote companies, I share the most essential communication best practices for remote teams below. In their remote manifesto, they write: Choose the right channel of communication according to the necessity of the task youre working on.. one upper case letter, and one special character. Thats an excellent first step. Developing your remote employees requires strategic planning, honest communication, and consistency. Spend the time to communicate with the intention of being ultra clear, no matter the medium. Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor. If youre new to remote work, it can be a big shift from working in an office. And organizations benefit from happier employees who are more productive, engaged, and excited to work with the company. Throughout the workday, be it using video more often or assuming greater positive intent in communications, looking to establish more empathy is a key best practice of remote communication. However, you need to watch out for virtual unconscious bias, where punctuation, grammar and word choice might reveal prejudiced attitudes towards certain groups. Its about knowing what your employees need and want and making sure your culture, processes, and policies support them. For example, distance and differing schedules can cause misalignment and miscommunication. Clarify early on how your team will communicate and the best channels for different types of work and topics (e.g., performance reviews vs. project updates). Spend the time to communicate with the intention of being ultra clear. Here are a few simple ways to get the ball rolling. Enter your email address and we'll send you a link to reset your password. Help keep your remote employees happy and well by setting healthy boundaries around work: Just because you arent all gathered in an office doesnt mean you dont have a team or company culture. From team collaboration and meetings to performance management and schedules, remote work is transforming how, when, and where we work. Lacking an immediate response, we can become distracted, second-guess ourselves, or even grow frustrated with our teams. They want to know their work is valued and that their contributions matter. Of course, the dynamics of a remote team are different from an in-house team. GitLab, a remote company with 700+ people, perhaps espouses this better than anyone. Bottom line: Remote work is good for your bottom lineand your people. One path to overcoming this obstacle is to cultivate as many opportunities for you and your team to receive those in-person cues. Confirm your subscriber information and enter your password. Quiet time, as a result, is indeed a communication best practice. There are also challenges to remote work that can impact culture. We apologize for the inconvenience. But managing employee performance remotely can be daunting. People who work on remote teams face communications challenges consistently. In a remote team, if we want to communicate well, we should be conscious of how our communication pulls peoples attention in too many disparate directions.

People want to be trusted to do their work, they want to be recognized for their contributions and feel a sense of purpose in their work, and they want regular feedback so they can continue to grow and develop. After a long and liquid client dinner, an advertising executive opens an email from his boss reminding him to submit his expenses on time. Communication in a remote team doesnt have to be as overwhelming or all-consuming as it currently exists in your organization. Processes and communication in remote teams can be sustainable and well-thought-out not merely hurried and duct-taped together. Ask for feedback during one-on-ones, team meetings, and through surveys to get insight on how your team members are feeling and identify ways you or the company can improve. Dont drop them in and let them sink or swim. This will streamline your workflows, build trust, and ensure accountability across the board. Unfortunately, that means we have to temporarily suspend subscriber syncing. Meetings are your most expensive management tool. Want to see the other articles in this list? One company we worked with celebrated new talent by creating a personal emoji for each employee who had been there for six months. How you do it is less important than whether you do. When teams work remotely, culture can be harder to define and implement. I feel informed about the organizations goals and priorities when working from home. Even when were co-located, the tone of a text or the formality of an email is left wide open to interpretation, to the point that even our closest friends get confused. Fantastic! With remote teams, collaborating must happen virtually. This is your new normal, and it feels bleak. Companies such as Merck have created acronyms for their digital communications like Four Hour Response (4HR) and No Need to Respond (NNTR) that bring predictability and certainty to virtual conversations. Remote work isnt new, but it is newly widespread. The leaders of the organization contribute to the positive culture of this organization. Here are some other examples of other companies How We Communicate documents: Or, for something less intensive, you can create a little Communication Cheat Sheet for folks to reference. The number one way to effectively manage remote teams is to prioritize effective communication. What are the exact communication best practices for remote teams? Free for a limited time! Send out an employee survey with questions and ranking statements like: A culture survey can give you insights into what is working well and opportunities to improve so you can target your culture-building efforts strategically. First, consider that there are three kinds of distance in remote collaboration: physical (place and time), operational (team size, bandwidth and skill levels) and affinity (values, trust, and interdependency). When you do need to use real-time communication, youll want to have a method to your madness. They give people leaders valuable insight into whats working and whats not, and help identify gaps or opportunities in performance and engagement initiatives. One method is what I call, matching the message to the channel. This simply means that all messages are delineated specific channels, based on their importance or urgency. Plus, when workers have fewer organic opportunities to connect with their team members in person, they may be more engaged with team-building activities that foster connection. Small steps like these go a long way towards creating a welcoming, inclusive, and positive hybrid team. This continuing shift calls for a new range of behaviors and skills. These are the building blocks of engaged and productive employees no matter where they do their work. When people arent sharing an office space, they dont have the same opportunities for connection, communication, or collaboration. People who work on remote teams face these challenges consistently.

Additionally, the lack of nuanced expression in remote communication means that youll want to offer your team more grace and generosity when giving and receiving communications. If a remote work cardinal sin exists, its relying on real-time communication. Becoming a better managerstarts here with Know Your Team. HBR Learnings online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Team Management. Regular, constructive feedback from managers, coaches, and peers can help remote employees understand what is expected, identify areas for improvement, and better align their efforts with the overall goals of the team and organization. Explore our solutions page for more information below. Err on the side of communicating clearly. Quick tip: Many remote managers use Know Your Teams Icebreakers and Social Questions to help build this empathy and social connection in a remote team, so communicating in absence of in-person cues can feel more fluid. Establish communication norms: Remote teams need to create new norms that establish clarity in communication. And remember to create space for celebrations and socializing with remote teams, which can strengthen relationships and lay the foundation for future collaboration. Sometimes work breaks and meetings are too stuffy for people to open up and connect more genuinely. If your Slack app looks something like this, Or if your calendar looks something like this with Zoom meetings. One of the biggest fears and challenges for remote managers is how to lead their teams from afar. Create intentional space for celebration: Old school birthday cakes are still important for remote teams. on How to Manage a Remote Team Well, Basecamps Guide to Internal Communication, sign-up for a free trial today to see for yourself, The 13 best questions to ask during the remote onboarding process, The best way to hold a remote one-on-one meeting, Instead of holding an announcement meeting online, Instead of holding a project kick-off meeting online, Instead of having a decision discussion in a meeting online, Instead of brainstorming ideas in a meeting online, Instead of asking a question via online chat.

People need quiet, uninterrupted time to get work done. Build a better team and achieve more of what matters. When you add remote work into your company dynamics, that will impact how employees and leaders work together. Experiment with different tools and strategies for collaboration. Heres how to get the most out of your time out of the communal office. Annual team or company retreats are a great way to bring people together in person for some deeper team bonding. But you cant take professional development for granted. Naturally, you have things you also want to communicate remotely via email, chat, video call, phone call. In The Watercooler, our online community of leaders in Know Your Team, one manager mentioned how his team always turns their cameras on for video calls be it one-on-one meetings, team meetings, discussions, or brainstorm sessions. And its affecting what we hear, as the jumble of information coming at us can lead to frequent misunderstandings and confusion. by 2025, 36.2 million Americans will be working remotely, 61% of employees prefer being fully remote, remote work expands an organizations opportunities, remote workers also tend to work more hours, recognition strategy based on employee preferences, Build wellness into your team activities (e.g., host regular mindfulness breaks), Share about family life or personal interests outside work.

After all, attention is finite. Although remote workers tend to report having a better work-life balance as a result of greater flexibility (including time to visit the doctor), lack of a grueling commute, and more time to exercise and get outside, remote workers also tend to work more hours than their office counterparts and are less likely to take time off. In other words, its the heart and soul of your company and its people. For most, this means working from home or a favorite coffee shop. Get our latest insights on leadership, as they're released, directly from our CEO Claire Lew. This document should answer questions such as. Effective remote leaders recognize this, respect this, and encourage this. Your transition to asynchronous writing does not have to be a waterfall but a slow drip. Instead, the solution is in understanding the new rules of engagement; in building a communication skill set that reflects the demands of our digitally-driven age. Additionally, with the line between home and work blurred, workers may end up working long hours and have difficulty taking breaks and signing off at the end of the day or on weekends. Say hi to me on Twitter at @clairejlew. Dont let that happen. Indeed, you can never be too clear, but it is too easy to be less clear than you should.