How to Improve Remote Teams Collaboration in Your Business
The ongoing Covid-19 crisis has had a major impact on the entire world, forcing many businesses to change their operating methods in order to stay afloat — changes which could actually become permanent. One major change is employees working from home which, whilst undoubtedly helping to prevent the spread of the virus, does bring its own set of management challenges.
How, for instance, can colleagues communicate effectively with each other when they are not together in the same room, or in some cases, even the same state? Here are some ideas about how to improve remote teams collaboration in your business.
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Ensure that your workforce has access to remote working software
One of the most important aspects of going to work at a company premises is the easy access to files on the company hard drive, and using specific computer programs that you may not have on your laptop at home. However, with a few easy updates, you and your workforce can easily work from home.
Make sure that everyone has access to industry-specific software that your company uses, such as InDesign or Photoshop, through company laptops or business packages for the software. You should also ensure that your workforce are able to access files remotely, either by granting them remote access to the company hard drive, or ensuring that all necessary files are stored on a cloud such as Office 365.
Maximize communication between team members
When working in the office, you have the advantage of having your team working alongside you. This is obviously not the case when you are working from home, and often a simple question that takes less than a minute to answer in the office could instead stretch out for hours as you attempt to track down the answer via email.
Using unified communications monitoring software can help to replicate the office environment and maximize communication between colleagues by monitoring software usage. This ensures that team members are all working at similar times, ensuring quick communication between the team and boosting productivity. You can also monitor the overall activity of different teams so you can see who might be struggling to adjust to remote working.
Hold regular team meetings
By necessity, remote working involves having more team meetings in order to stay fully up to date with workloads and the challenges of working from home. This could have its advantages in that your entire workforce could be better informed about current issues affecting the business.
Zoom is the current popular choice for team meetings and video conferences, bringing together colleagues who live all over the country. To access a meeting, you usually have to download the Zoom app, and bear in mind that there is a payment required when the number of attendees exceeds a certain amount. However, the app is available on a range of devices, from laptops to tablets to smart phones, with an HD video that brings the feel of an in situ meeting from the comfort of your own living room.
Author: Carol Trehearn
