Work with a remote team? As long as you’re thinking about what your business needs to become more efficient in the long run, you might want to consider other ways to communicate with your team. As remote as we may be from each other, communication is at the heart of everything that’s going on in our personal and professional lives. Whether it’s email, IMs, social media, or even using a mix, there are plenty of ways for us to communicate effectively with our team members around the world.

Use the following tips to improve your remote team’s communication

1) Collaboration Tools

Collaboration tools are a great way to bring remote teams closer together. These tools, like MS Teams and Google Docs, can enable remote workers to actually “see” each other’s work and make their collaboration productive. Both of these tools make adding or revising documents easy by providing a single space for all team members to work from. Information on MS Teams can be found at www.avepoint.com.

2) Communication Apps

Communication apps are another way to improve your team’s productivity and communication. By using some of these apps, you can create an open line of communication that includes audio, video, text messages, and voice messages. These apps can be used when you have questions for your team members or would like to discuss issues with them in real-time.

3) Daily Stand-Up Meetings

Stand-up meetings have been around forever. It’s time to bring them up to date by using Google Hangouts or another service such as Skype. These visual interactions will show everyone on your team what’s happening in real-time at the same time! The beauty of this is that you can conduct stand-up meetings as often as required by each project to keep everyone on the same page and moving along at full speed.

4) Adopt core working hours

One benefit of remote working is the increased flexibility an individual has to complete their work. However, this can hinder teamwork when one team member ends up waiting on the answer to a question. Agreeing 2-3 hours a day when all team members will be online and working can alleviate most of these instances.

5) Effective Communication begins with Clear Expectations

Make sure your team members know what is expected of them and what they can expect from you. This may seem basic, but clear expectations of each individual will allow for more effective communication. Clear expectations also lend themselves to improving productivity, as there are fewer misunderstandings and more detail when it comes to each team member’s job responsibilities.

Communication with a remote team is hard work. However, the benefits and potential of collaboration tools like these can make it easier for everyone involved. Once you’ve established clear expectations, decisions can be made that will lead your team to success.