COVID 19 is affecting the lives of people and businesses too. The spread of this deadly virus has forced numerous businesses and organizations to adopt policies of ‘work from home’. For some organizations, this work from home culture is affecting productivity and business growth. Do you know why their productivity is affecting? Because they are not making utilization of business work from home tools as well as not planning everything in a better way.
Even, many organizations face issues like difficulty with communication, trust issue when their team is working from home, difficulty in maintaining a productive schedule, managing conflicts every day by sitting so far from each other and many more.
So, how can you resolve all these issues is the question here! How can you improve employee collaboration as well as communication during this situation of COVID 19? To get the answer of this question go through the entire post as it will help you in knowing about the same. Let’s get started! Happy Reading!
Communicate Clearly
When team work from home, it’s obvious to face problems with communication. You won’t be able to communicate with them in the same way like you use to do in the workplace. Right? In such a situation, it’s vital that everything should be communicated in a clear and concise way to all the team members.
Whatever you communicate make sure it’s clear and they can easily understand what you are trying to convey through your message. You can make use of bullet points if you are explaining something to your team rather than writing everything in a lengthy paragraph. Since it may become difficult for them to understand the message clearly.
Invest in Communication Tools
Investing in correct communication tools, no doubt is the vital part of remote team. Every employee will probably have their cell phone and they can access emails on it. For majority of organizations, project management software’s such as Slack and Basecamp are daily part of their workday.
Slack is perfect since it enables one to integrate with different other file sharing as well as communication tools such as Zendesk, Trello, Google Drive and so on. If you wish to keep all files, important assets as well as communications under one roof then Basecamp is also an ideal choice that you can go for.
Whatever type of messaging/project management or communication tool you select to use, ensure all team members can access such tools from their home easily. Encourage all your employees to continue their chat in a similar way they use to do inside the office.
Schedule Regular Team Meetings
In the workplace, how frequently you arrange meetings with your team? Do you have debriefing meeting on every Friday? Don’t try to quit the process of meetings that you use to carry on in the office. Try your best to continue the meetings even when your team is working from home.
For that, you can make use of video conferencing apps like Zoom or Skype which are quite popular these days. This will help them in clearing their doubts easily face to face. Video conferencing likewise helps in bridging communication gap.
We all communicate a lot with our face as well as hands, so it will help your team to see you at the time of conversations. This, in turn, will avoid miscommunication which is good for you and your team only.
Set Boundaries
While working from home, no doubt its quite simple to remain in work mode all the time i.e. 24*7. But this is not a good idea! Set proper boundaries! For instance, decide with each other that you will be available from 9 am to 5 pm.
Ensure the members of your team know when you will come online and during what time they can expect responses of email from you. You can also share your contact number with them in case of any kind of emergency; however, don’t forget to describe emergency before giving them your number.
Be Human
Just because you are not working in the office doesn’t imply you will not maintain fun traditions. No doubt, it’s not possible to share doughnuts boxes or sing birthday songs together. However, you can send cool virtual birthday cards, songs as well as doughnuts. Or you can deliver treats directly to their home.
Also, make sure to appreciate each other’s work. Stay updated on what team members are doing and track their performance. This way, they will feel that you value their work during this tough time too.
Make sure your all conversations should not be related to work only. Sometimes best thoughts come from funny conversations too. This, as a result, will improve morale as well as creativity only.
Wrap Up
Hope you have enjoyed reading this guide and it helped you in knowing more about the ways by which you can improve employee collaboration and communication during this time of COVID 19. You have to patiently deal with everything so that things can go smoothly without any difficulty.
Many organizations are making use of different business work from home tools during this time. No doubt, they are helping them and their employees in every way. If you have not started using those tools then start utilizing them from today only! Don’t forget to keep few things alive in case of work from home too- fun traditions, good communication and so on.
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