• How can you communicate effectively with your team if you will never be together?
• How will you overcome intercultural and language barriers to understand each other?
• Will this continue or is it a temporary phase?

Questions Entrepreneurs and Businesses Around the World Are Asking As They Align to the New Paradigm of Remote Work!

According to a report by Upwork, the number of telecommuters in the US is expected to double from the current 16.8 million to 36.2 million by 2025. That’s a significant part of the workforce.

As business models change, so does the way entrepreneurs need to communicate with their teams, especially as more people choose to work remotely rather than from the office. This is what we aim to address in this blog through our insights from the hundreds of customers and executives we interact with at Wishup.

We’ll also look at the strategies, tools, and techniques business leaders worldwide use to communicate with their teams who aren’t even present on the same continent as them!

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The central theses

• It’s not just about the work. Take the time to learn more about your team members.
• Routine video calls are passe. Instead, make your online meetings more interesting by using different topics.
• Be transparent and consistent in your communication.

Take communication online!

With water dispensers no longer a conversation hub, nor the ability to find their way to an employee’s desk to resolve amicable issues, online communication seems like the only viable option.

While there are many online tools like Zoom, Meet, Slack available to facilitate remote communication, how we use them to bond with other team members is important.

Look for a platform that is easy to use and will help you scale easily when needed. Creating groups, sharing documents and images, and organizing real-time meetings are some of the features to look out for when choosing an online communication for your business.

My personal recommendation is Slack for communication and Google Meet for online meetings.

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Set the ground rules for online meetings

As with working in an office environment, you need to hold regular meetings with your team to keep up to date on the company’s various projects and share information/updates about the company.

Since work productivity is a priority, make sure you set the ground rules to better manage the online meetings remotely.

Here are a few tips you can follow to ensure more productive meetings in a remote organization.

• While their presence is essential, try to limit meetings for key employees to just 2-3 per day to allow time for other tasks.
• Checking in with your team regularly through meetings is a great way to let them know you’re there to help them with any issues they may be facing in their job. It will also help you bond with them better.
• While written communication is the best, nothing compares to the empathy of having a video call with your boss and being able to explain/share your work details to them.
• Make it a point to personally reach every key team member via video call and discuss work-related and personal matters with them. It will brighten their day.
• People need to be free of distractions and focused on work to ensure only those people who are necessary and can contribute positively to the meeting are invited.
• If possible, distribute an agenda well in advance of the meeting so people can prepare for it. It will also help keep the discussions focused and provide direction to the meeting.
• Better yet, schedule the business updates towards the end of the week when people are more relaxed and less stressed after dealing with customers and employees.
• Keeping the meetings on a firm schedule gives your team ample time to prepare.
• Not all online meetings need to be formal to be productive. Instead, be more responsive to your team’s needs and maintain a light, informal tone during meetings. You can also play music during your meetings to create a relaxed atmosphere. God knows your team needs it at home after all the pandemic and work-related stress.
• Don’t be afraid to share bad news! The pandemic has caused enough turmoil in people’s lives to prepare them for any eventuality. However, if it’s something that affects the entire organization, make sure they hear it from you first and not from outside sources who might add their own touch.

Communicating transparently with employees will ultimately help build trust between them and the organization.

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Create an internal newsletter for employees, by employees

Office canteens have always been the hub to keep all employees up to date with the latest happenings inside and outside the company.

With meetings and canteens a thing of the past, your business needs a reliable, trusted, and efficient medium to keep all employees informed.

An internal newsletter

Do it wholeheartedly and make sure you email it regularly and consistently to all employees every two weeks or every month.

Get every department, from HR to Finance, to contribute at least one update/article per newsletter so it’s a team effort. Newsletters not only give teams a way to share their latest happenings, but they’re also a quick way for new hires to learn more about the company’s culture and history.

To make the newsletter more engaging and informative, you can even hire a content writer to help you with the content.

A dedicated intranet/website for sharing the latest updates, documentation, forms, etc. is also a good idea and goes a long way in providing employees with a resourceful medium to refer to whenever they need something have to refer.

A good technique to ensure newsletter consistency and regular publication is to hire a virtual marketing assistant who not only coordinates and designs the newsletter but also assists you with other marketing tasks related to your business.

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Effective communication is an ongoing two-way process

Make sure communication flows both ways by actively soliciting feedback from your employees on their projects, local work, etc. Conducting polls and polls is a great way to anonymously gather information and act on issues before they escalate into bigger problems.

Holding a monthly meeting where employees can randomly attend and air their grievances is also an excellent team building exercise and will help you build a stronger organization in the long run.

Remember, the need for effective, transparent, and consistent communication is far greater in a remote setup where team members can connect online and not spend physical time together to get to know each other and the company better.

As an entrepreneur, establishing an effective communication strategy should be one of your goals and something you must diligently follow in order to be successful with your business model.