Just like real estate, location is everything. You can apply the same principle to communication: when you are with someone in the same location, you’re bound to communicate more frequently.
In the days of remote working, this is becoming much more difficult. Sure, Slack and Teams messages were fun at first, heralding back to a day of instant messaging. Now, the chime of incoming messages is an overwhelming distraction. Zoom freezes are no longer a funky quirk of working from home, but a huge hindrance to the pace of meetings.
Remote work continues to be both a blessing and a curse. Many employees are enjoying the flexibility that #WFH gives them, while others yearn for the days when they could simply walk to their co-worker's cubicle and ask them a question, rather than sending it in an email and wait for a response. Despite these challenges, productivity levels for US workers remains high.
Maintaining good levels of communication across teams is always important, especially when working remotely. After all, the average employee spends 28 percent of their work week staying on top of their emails.
Check out these quick tips for helping your employees communicate more effectively:
The Medium Matters
This should come as no surprise, but there is an order of priority to communicating. Face-to-face will always be the best. Did you know people are more likely to respond “yes” when you ask something of them face to face? Body language and presence definitely plays a role in communicating and relating with one another. Plus, sarcasm just doesn’t translate the same over email.
After speaking in person, a video chat or phone call is best. And lastly, email or messaging for low priority communication or for larger amounts of information.
When communicating remotely, picking the right medium is key. Time-sensitive information or something serious, private or delicate should be delivered face-to-face, when possible, but there are some things that are fine to be delivered by email.
These are all things you can include in office communication best practices for your teams.
Be Authentic
Want people to take your message to heart? Be authentic. Your employees and colleagues can tell when you don’t mean what you’re saying. Picking the right medium is one of the best ways to make sure your emotion is being conveyed correctly.
Use video calls for messages where you can invoke emotion you genuinely feel, and choose audio or phone calls for when you need to convey an inauthentic message. Also, make sure to give employees the option to turn their video off when on a video call, many are feeling the effects of burn out and will appreciate being able to sit and listen without ‘looking’ like they are listening too.
Keep it Light
If we’ve learned anything from working remotely, it’s that we all need a break sometimes. That’s why it’s a good idea to incorporate some light conversation in your everyday messages. Some teams like to keep a ‘water cooler’ channel on Slack or Teams, while others like to organize occasional virtual coffee breaks.
When your company partners with Bundle, we can help facilitate fun and low-stress opportunities for your teams to take breaks and bond through exercises such as trivia or by learning a new skill.
Bundle is the only 1:1 live skills development solution that specializes in human-centered skills, designing and delivering curated content facilitated live by experts and driven by interactive instruction. Bundle training programs weave together the techniques and perspective learners need to step forward with confidence.
Speak with a Bundle Human to learn how we can help support your remote teams today!
