Essential Communication Tips for Remote Teams

Gone are the days when work predominantly takes place in an office building. In the last few years, corporate teams have experienced a big shift to remote work. And while this change has a lot of positives – including increased flexibility, more diversified teams, and the ability to work with customers across the country – it comes with a new set of challenges.

Remote teams now must address how to virtually adapt to limited face-to-face interactions, which means establishing effective communication methods beyond email. Additionally, these new collaboration methods must ensure that confidential and sensitive information is securely handled – particularly important for regulated industries. So, we’ve put together a few tips to help safely enhance virtual communication.

Use Virtual Collaboration Platforms

When you can’t simply walk down the hallway to ask your coworker a question, virtual collaboration tools make it quick and easy to stay connected. Platforms like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Google Meet allow teams to:

• Instant message individuals or groups

• Edit documents collaboratively

• Place voice calls

• Hold video conferences

Remote teams need to set up a variety of virtual collaboration occasions, such as all-employee meetings, project-related chats, and 1:1 check-ins to stay connected.

Of course, the tools your office chooses must be secure, especially for confidential document sharing and sensitive information collection. The risk of data breaches and unauthorized access is higher with remote work, but this risk can be mitigated by setting clear protocols for each virtual channel and implementing cybersecurity measures.

Establish Communication Protocols for Each Channel

Remote teams need to implement a few communication channels, including email, virtual meetings, and direct messaging if they want to ensure seamless communication with colleagues. To do this, it’s imperative to create communication protocols for each channel.

For example…

• Chat and Email Response Time Expectations: Teams that use direct messaging platforms, like Microsoft Teams or Slack, to collaborate should know what working hours they are expected to be online and active on chats. The same goes for email expectations. Also, encourage coworkers to use status update features, such as in a meeting, offline, available, or work-focused so everyone knows when they can be reasonably contacted.

• Threat Usage in Direct Messaging Platforms: Establish guidelines for when to use a group or company-wide channel to collaborate with more than one person and when to directly message coworkers individually.

• Video and Audio Meeting Etiquette: Provide expectations around camera usage, meeting recording, and audio preferences for more effective virtual meetings. Keep in mind that some team prefer everyone turn their camera on for smaller meetings to encourage real-time collaboration, while other times having everyone’s cameras and microphones turned off helps eliminate distractions during larger team meetings. Outline whether certain meetings, like company-wide calls or project check-ins, need to be recorded.

Additionally, security protocols must be clearly outlined. Customers entrust their personal, legal, health, and financial information to all kinds of businesses, which is why all brands have to be clear about regulatory requirements for each platform.

Employees must be cautious when sharing sensitive information across communication channels. The company’s compliance officer should provide clear expectations for secure file sharing, such as only allowing file sharing through encrypted platforms, like OneDrive or SharePoint.

Reflection Question: What were some of the most interesting discoveries you made while reading this blog article? About the problem? About yourself? About others?