Therefore, rewriting your communication playbook is key to success in a virtual team, and one way to achieve this is by knowing what not to do.
1. Using Email as Your Primary Mode of Communication
Although email still has a role to play in today’s remote workplace, it should not be your primary mode of communication. You can quickly lose track of messages when they’re buried in your inbox, leading to decreased productivity.
You can still use email to communicate with clients and target leads. However, there are other practical communication tools that are better suited for messaging and collaborating with your remote colleagues.
Instant messaging tools like Slack are good for quick back-and-forth conversations and creating channels for specific topics or projects. You can also leverage messaging apps like Twist to communicate asynchronously, while project management tools like Trello or Asana let you create, assign, and track tasks.
2. Failing to Plan for Time Zone Differences
In a traditional office setting, people usually work in the same space and during the same work hours. However, when you have virtual team members across different time zones, things can get more complicated unless you plan for it.
You need to be aware of the time differences and find overlapping hours to schedule meetings. However, you do not need to memorize your colleagues’ time zones or locations to achieve this. You can use timezone converters like Timezone.io or shared calendar apps like Calendly to help schedule and manage meeting times. This allows you to block out time that is convenient for everyone.
3. Over Relying on Text-Only Communication
Text-only communication is devoid of nonverbal cues like body language, eye contact, and facial expressions, which can easily lead to misinterpretations and conflicts. In a virtual setting, it’s essential to use various communication media to get your point across, including video conferencing tools like Google Meet or Zoom.
Considering that you might not be able to meet physically, these tools offer the next best thing by allowing you to see and hear your colleagues. Besides creating more personal connections, video calls also better explain complex tasks.
However, you can’t always jump on a video call, especially when working with people in other time zones. In that case, you can use an asynchronous video tool like Voodle to record and send video messages.
4. Expecting Everyone to Be Available All the Time
As a result of all the communication tools at our fingertips and the adoption of remote work policies, the lines between work and personal life are increasingly blurred. This has given rise to the “always-on” culture of work: the unrealistic expectations that people should be available to answer work-related messages or respond to work demands at all times.
To avoid this, you need to set some boundaries. This includes creating a customized remote work schedule, setting your availability in your workplace communication tools, and turning off notifications for non-urgent messages outside work hours.
5. Not Being Mindful of Cultural/Religious Differences
Due to the fact that remote work allows you to recruit talent from various parts of the world, you need to be aware of the cultural and religious differences that can adversely affect communication and team dynamics.
For example, people from distinct cultures and religions may observe specific holidays, and they may be unavailable to work or have different working hours during these times. So, you might need to track these days and adjust deadlines or communication plans accordingly.
6. Not Creating Room for Casual Conversations
In a work-from-home setting, it can be easy to overlook the need for social interaction between colleagues. However, remote work loneliness is a serious concern that can decrease productivity and job satisfaction.
To combat this, you need to find ways to encourage casual conversations. You can achieve this by creating virtual water cooler opportunities. For example, creating a distinct group for casual conversations in your workplace chat tool. This is where you talk about non-work-related topics, like your weekend plans, your favorite show, or hobbies.
You can further boost engagement within your team with these coffee break ideas.
7. Having Too Many Meetings
While it’s important to have regular check-ins with your team, you don’t want to overdo it with meetings. The reality is that some meetings are not worth your time, and they can even be harmful to your productivity.
So, before scheduling yet another meeting, ask yourself if it is really necessary and if there are no other ways to communicate your message. When you choose to have a meeting, try to ensure that it is as productive as possible by creating an agenda and sharing it ahead of time, keeping it brief, and only having the necessary people attend.
In addition, assign someone to properly document the meeting minutes and save them in a central location where everyone can access them. This will help reduce the need for future meetings to discuss what happened in previous sessions.
8. Not Recognizing Milestones and Celebrating Successes
Recognizing and celebrating your team’s successes is essential to boosting morale and engagement. Working from home is no reason to overlook this vital team-building activity.
You can rely on employee recognition tools like Bonusly to celebrate your team’s successes and recognize individual accomplishments. You can also integrate it into your Slack workspace, so team members can give and receive kudos more easily.
Avoid These Mistakes to Improve Remote Team Communication
While the remote work environment has its challenges, it also offers many opportunities for growth and success. For the most part, we are still learning how best to navigate this new way of working.
Knowing these common pitfalls can help you avoid them and create a successful remote work environment for you and your team.
