Working from home is far from a monolithic experience. But, broadly speaking, most people who work from home will fall into one of two camps – they will either be self-employed (freelancers, gig workers, and entrepreneurs) or they will be remote workers, employees of a company who are working remotely full-time or part-time.
No matter which camp you fall into, NOT being face-to-face with the people you do business with (customers, clients, co-workers, supervisors, vendors) affects communication.
While clear, constructive communication is essential to the success of the remote worker and the in-person worker alike, for those who work remotely it is particularly important to implement communication strategies that promote engagement, productivity, and effective collaboration.
Effective communication strategies for remote workers.
• Fostering employee engagement
• Functional communication for remote teams
• Tech tools and communication platforms
• Professional boundaries and opportunities
Fostering Employee Engagement
Most Americans love the idea of working remotely, but not all aspects of telework have been positive.
Where casual conversations by the water cooler once played an important role in team cohesion, remote work often relies on digital substitutes. The technology that makes remote work possible can’t always fill the void created by physical distance, however, and many remote workers wind up feeling isolated and detached.
Sixty percent of people working remotely report feeling “less connected to their co-workers,” observes the Pew Research Center.
And, according to Gallup, the physical separation of remote work ALSO manifests in decreasing engagement between employees and the companies they work for.
Engagement.
"Engagement" refers to the mental and emotional bonds between employees and their employer. It is a measure of an employee’s loyalty and commitment to their employer, of their “connection” to their employer’s “mission and purpose,” as the 2023 Gallup article “Are Remote Workers and Their Organizations Drifting Apart?” puts it.
Why is engagement important? Employees need to see how “their work connects to the organization’s mission or purpose,” the Gallup article observes.
“The more engaged a person is, the more likely they are to exhibit improved efficiency, job satisfaction, and to go above and beyond in their job whenever possible,” writes online learning platform Upskillist.
In other words, for employees, engagement positively correlates with professional wellbeing and, for companies, engagement positively correlates with productivity and profitability.
Improving employee engagement was one of the principal reasons given by companies insisting that employees return to the office post-pandemic. Companies felt, with some justification, that the physical separation of remote work was manifesting in psychological separation between employees and their companies and that that was damaging the bottom line.
But while remote work presents an obstacle to employee engagement, it doesn’t preclude it.
Gallup found that the best way to offset waning engagement was for managers to hold intentional and regular conversations with remote workers.
Regular conversations provided an opportunity to communicate expectations, recognize employee contributions, and discuss “collaboration, goals and priorities” preventing employees from “[fading] into isolation,” Gallup found. When managers committed to holding meaningful 15-to-30-minute conversations with employees weekly they were able to maintain “high-performance relationships.” That “single habit of one meaningful conversation per week” Gallup reported “develops high-performance relationships more than any other single leadership activity.”
Communication via intentional, regular conversation is an effective strategy for fostering engagement even in remote work situations.
Perhaps, the first conversation to be had should be the conversation about where you work. Yet surprisingly, Gallup found that “only 12% of remote-ready employees decide where they work based on a discussion with their team.” Most employees simply decided on their own or were told where they could work by a manager, despite the fact that deciding where to work was “highly related to employee engagement.”
Functional Communication for Remote Teams
By providing an opportunity to recognize employee contributions, give meaningful feedback, and clarify expectations, well-managed conversations between employers and remote workers boost engagement. But this is not the only type of communication that must occur.
The functional communication that handles daily business and moves projects forward must also take place. In remote work situations this communication will mostly occur via digital platforms.
What’s missing from most digital mediums? Body language.
In “How to Collaborate Effectively If Your Team Is Remote” published in the Harvard Business Review in 2018, authors Erica Dhawan (author of the book Digital Body Language) and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (organizational psychologist and professor of business psychology) summed it up as follows:
What’s missing from our texts, emails, conference calls, and other digital communications? Body language. Even when we’re co-located, the tone of a text or the formality of an email is left wide open to interpretation, to the point that even our closest friends get confused. These misinterpretations create an anxiety that can become costly, affecting morale, engagement, productivity, and innovation.
When relying on digital mediums for communication extra effort must be made to ensure that communication is clear and constructive.
Synchronous communication
The immediacy of face-to-face communication can be replaced by video conferencing tools such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Skype. Video conferencing enables remote communication in real-time, so-called synchronous communication.
But while Dhawan and Chamorro-Premuzic assert that video calls “are a much better vehicle for establishing rapport and creating empathy than either e-mails or voice calls,” certain subtle social and non-verbal cues of in-person interactions will still be missing.
For video calls and virtual meetings to be effective and productive it’s essential for all remote workers to learn and practice good video conferencing etiquette.
Would you show up for an in-person meeting in sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt? Spread work unrelated to the meeting out on the table? Fail to make eye contact? Interrupt another speaker before they are finished? No way! But all these things and worse can and do happen during video conferencing (and the videos are out there to prove it!). At some level with no human bodies around us we feel as if we are alone … and behave accordingly.
To promote positive, productive, and professional communication during video calls and conferences, adopt the following best practices.
Best practices for video calls and conferences.
• Before the call or conference, make sure you are familiar with the technology you need and that it is working.
• Make sure your camera is positioned properly so that you are in the center of the frame.
• Dress appropriately.
• Be on time.
• Focus. Don’t try to do other work during the call or meeting. Listen actively and maintain a present mindset.
• Make eye contact. Look into the camera lens and not at the screen.
• Minimize distractions. Communicate with housemates letting them know in advance when you will be in a digital meeting. Eliminate background noise by muting your microphone if you are not speaking.
• Use tactics like signaling in chat when you are ready to speak to avoid interrupting others.
Asynchronous communication
In remote work situations, written communication via emails, instant messages, and project management platforms often dominate. While such asynchronous communication enables respect for different time zones and personal work rhythms (a crucial element for remote teams), it places added emphasis on conveying messages succinctly, yet thoroughly.
In the introduction to his classic, On Writing Well, author, editor, and educator William Zinsser writes:
Millions of e-mail messages every day give people the information they need to do their job, and a badly written message can cause a lot of damage. Employers have begun to realize that they literally cannot afford to hire men and women who can’t write sentences that are tight and logical and clear. The new information age, for all its high-tech gadgetry, is, finally, writing-based.
When we’re not face-to-face, the risk of miscommunication escalates. Before hitting send, ask yourself if your message is clear, complete, and considerate. And remember, an ounce of empathy goes a long way—especially when you’re reducing a conversation to text on a screen. Effective remote communication involves not only clear writing, but also being mindful of subtleties such as tone and context.
Tone and context.
I am self-employed, not really part of a team. Just the same, my work depends of digital platforms for communication and much of that is written communication.
One company that I do work for noticeably uses the word “kindly” in its written communication with clients and contractors (such as myself). “Kindly” typically precedes firm instructions or some professional scolding; it’s meant to negate the sting of the ensuing chastising words.
When I read “kindly” in the written communication of that company I hear: “This is really important, and you need to address it and the fact that you haven’t done so already despite my having brought this to your attention several times is really irritating me … you unbelievable dumb ***!”
Tone and context.
Just because they are writing “kindly” doesn’t make it kind.
When teams exchange ideas clearly and effectively, project outcomes often exceed expectations. Conversely, miscommunication can lead to frustration and an erosion of trust, causing not only project delays but also impacting team morale. While this is true of both remote and in-person work, maintaining productivity and a positive team atmosphere from afar necessitates embracing strategies tailored for remote environments.
Tech Tools and Communication Platforms
For remote workers technology is essential to communication. But effective communication comes down to more than just having the right tech tools.
First, it’s important to understand that not all remote workers are equally tech savvy. Allow space for the technology learning curve of your colleagues and co-workers. Being kind and helpful will go a long way toward creating a positive remote work environment. If the luddite is YOU, try not to succumb to frustration. Rather, take this as an opportunity to master some new tech skills and ask for time in your workday to do so.
Second, it’s important to establish communication protocols. Consider creating a communications charter. A communications charter is a summary of agreed-upon guidelines for team communication, typically outlining best practices for expressing ideas, expected response times, and preferred tools and platforms for different forms of communication. By specifying communication protocols and the medium to be used you prevent messages being missed, information being scattered, and everyone feeling overwhelmed.
And speaking of feeling overwhelmed, don’t bombard co-workers and colleagues (or anyone for that matter) with messages. Using every digital medium available to you for every message is abusive and annoying, write Dhawan and Chamorro-Premuzic admonishing, “Choose your digital volume wisely.”
Remote work thrives on a blend of communication tools tailored to different needs. Messaging apps provide quick updates, video conferencing enables face-to-face interaction, and project management software keeps everyone aligned. Picking these tools requires us to consider the nature of our work, the size of our team, and the personal preferences of its members. With that in mind, here are the basic tech tools needed for remote work communication.
Tech tools commonly used in remote work.
Digital tools are the “bedrock” upon which remote work interactions are built, write Dhawan and Chamorro-Premuzic. “The tools we choose can make or break effective remote communication.”
With that in mind, here are the tech tools most commonly used for remote work communication.
Chat Apps. Chat Apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams allow remote workers to exchange files and messages in real time. Chat apps can also be used to create “channels or groups for different topics, projects, or departments” writes LinkedIn.
Video Conferencing Platforms. Video conferencing platforms like Zoom make it possible for remote workers to communicate as a team in real-time. Video conferencing platforms enable you to “see and hear” co-workers and colleagues and are commonly used for “meetings, presentations, brainstorming, and training,” writes LinkedIn.
Project Management Tools. Project management tools such as Asana and Trello facilitate individual time-management and team collaboration. Project management tools help individuals “organize, track, and manage … tasks, deadlines, and progress,” writes LinkedIn and teams “assign roles, set priorities, and monitor performance.”
File Sharing Apps. File sharing apps like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft OneDrive help team members share documents. File sharing apps enable remote workers to cooperate and facilitate “efficient, secure, and simple” workflows, writes Tom’s Guide.
Don’t rely too heavily on a single form of communication. Too much real-time talk can lead to “Zoom fatigue,” while an overreliance on asynchronous communication can slow down decision-making. Strive for balance and fine-tune your mix to best suit your workflow.
Professional Boundaries AND Opportunities
As I wrote this article, I repeatedly read advice that suggested using digital communication platforms to provide forums for talking about “non-work things” as a means of building camaraderie among remote workers.
LinkedIn, for example, suggested using messaging apps to share “casual conversations, jokes, and memes” as a way to “boost morale and create a sense of belonging.” Workplace culture expert, Great Place To Work, recommended using digital communication tools to “to encourage non-work-related chat” suggesting creating a “virtual ‘water cooler’” and conducting online team-building events such as virtual trivia nights, virtual happy hours, and virtual coffee dates.
My advice? EXCERCISE CAUTION! Digital mediums are notorious for lessening inhibitions. Frankly, in my experience, so are many in-person corporate social events. Are we having fun? Or are we at work? Who knows?!! Not the fool who’s dancing drunkenly on the picnic table. (No, it wasn’t me but, yes, that’s from a real company picnic.)
Sharing jokes, memes, and cocktails virtually doubles the risk of unprofessional behavior. If you choose to engage in non-work online activities, be extra careful that you are adhering to professional etiquette and respecting the boundaries of professional relationships.
While it’s important to be vigilant about maintaining healthy professional boundaries when communicating online, the diminished inhibition that can accompany remote communication can also have a positive effect.
Reserved and introverted workers who might be less inclined to speak in in-person settings may feel more comfortable expressing themselves via digital communication mediums. “Research shows that introverted individuals are less inhibited in online versus offline interactions,” write Dhawan and Chamorro-Premuzic. “Text-based communication places less importance on interpersonal skills and physical appearance, offering an effective way to share power and decision-making.”
Final Thoughts
The success of remote work depends to a great extent on the effectiveness of the communication tools and strategies used.
With the right platforms and practices in place, individuals can work cohesively and collaboratively from home. They can remain engaged and highly productive, tackling any project successfully, regardless of physical distance.
Have a question or a thought you’d like to communicate? PLEASE SHARE in the comments below.