Communication with your co-workers becomes a lot more difficult when you aren’t physically side-by-side. But although it’s difficult, it becomes more important, too. Here are a few tips to communicate well while working remotely.
Share Your Working Hours
Once you’ve figured out what time of day you’re most productive and what your work-from-home schedule is going to look like, share this information with your colleagues and your boss.
A quick email saying, “I’ll be working from 8:00 AM EST to 4:00 PM EST every day this week” can prevent potential confusion about unanswered emails or calls.
Set Your Status
Many chat tools, such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier, allowing you to set a status. You can update this status periodically to notify people when you’ll be eating lunch, taking a break, or in a meeting.
That way, any member of your team can see at a glance what you’re doing right then and whether it’s a good time to contact you.
Recommend Daily Team Check-Ins
A brief daily video call can help your team stay connected while working remotely. Suggest that your team starts each day with a 15-minute check-in.
During this time, you can recap the day before and outline priorities for the coming workday. This is also a collaborative space where your team can discuss projects and bounce around ideas.
Utilize Video Chat As Much As Possible
Phone calls are nice. But there’s something about face-to-face meetings that can’t be replaced. When your co-workers are scattered and working from home, it’s important to still cultivate personal connection opportunities such as video calls.
Periodic video chats can help your team stay strong and connected. Meetings also tend to be more productive when you can see everyone face-to-face.
Don’t Let Distance Be An Excuse
When you aren’t seeing your co-workers in person, it can be tempting to put less work into communication. Don’t make this mistake! You should still be expending the same amount of effort, if not more, to communicate with your team.
Don’t worry about bugging or annoying them — when it comes to the workplace, over-communication is impossible.
If you are worried about bothering a fellow co-worker too frequently, try their ideal communication style such as email, phone call, instant message, and adapt to their preference.
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