7 Ways to Foster Collaboration Among Remote Employees

Remote team collaboration can be difficult to achieve without the proper tools and methods of management. Not only are you all physically separated from one another, but it’s also possible to have miscommunications due to delayed messaging.

However, when remote teams learn to collaborate properly, the results are impressive. Progression in projects and maintenance of the business becomes flexible and scalable to an increasing degree. The employees themselves become more independent workers who learn to collaborate properly with one another, thereby speeding the process of each project and enhancing it.

In order to gain these effective results, communication in remote teams must be handled properly. If not, it’s more than likely that the team themselves will create setbacks and even stunt growth.

Preventing such situations is simple. Fostering collaboration and team building is all that’s needed to ensure quality assurance and increase employee engagement.

Challenges of Fostering Collaboration Amongst Remote Employees

Remote team collaboration has its challenges and setbacks that must be resolved to reach its full potential. A big issue involving remote work culture is the lack of relationship building.

Many teams may become distrustful of one another and may have issues contributing to one another’s projects. Another issue is the difficulty of reaching communication seamlessly. Productivity is halted when communication setbacks happen frequently. It could create a loss of morale and a negative mindset within work.

Lack of team building, engagement, and productivity are the sources of these issues. Fostering collaboration won’t be successful if the team members themselves have difficulty connecting with one another.

In order to solve this issue and prevent long-term effects on your company, it’s best to use prevention measures and methods that can create an opportunity to alleviate any misunderstandings. Listed below are seven ways to create growth in collaboration with your remote employees.

7 Ways to Foster Collaboration Among Remote Employees

Fostering collaboration with employees won’t happen organically. Management must learn to expand and enhance teamwork and productivity through strategic methods. Listed below are seven tools and ways that remote teams can utilise to foster collaboration.

Establish Clear Communication Channels

Remote team collaboration can only succeed with clear communication channels established. It’s important to set realistic expectations with each other and define which communication channel you wish to discuss the project on.

Meetings where multiple people must be informed can be held on Google Meets, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom calls where video chatting is seamless. 

However, it’s important to have a singular channel for instant messaging and quick video calls such as Skype, WhatsApp, or Slack. These instant messaging channels can provide quick video calls and easily tag your members with the “@” feature if you need their attention immediately.

Everyone from the team must be mindful of the instant messaging channel. This can provide quick responses, open communication, and share needed information between different teams. It’s also a place to announce important company-related events.

Utilise Collaborative Tools and Technologies

Many instances of misunderstandings and setbacks are caused by miscommunication and lack of collaboration tools. This is more likely with remote employees than onsite ones. Without a clear project management tool that all employees can access, there could be an overlap between tasks or errors caused by multiple members working on conflicting tasks. 

A successful remote team collaboration can’t rely on communication channels alone. Consider using project management tools such as Asana, Trello, and Monday to create a continuously updated project board and prevent clashes with tasks.

Not only will it be smoother to assign tasks to employees, but you can also see what they’re working on, which projects are finished, and what other deliverables are assigned to them.

Project management for remote teams also includes file sharing and document collaboration. Companies should utilise cloud storage platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive for easy access between members.

Promote Team Building and Social Interaction

Remote team collaboration also includes building the relationships of the team members. Misunderstandings will lessen by creating a form of social interaction between employees

and encouraging teamwork.

It’s easier for employees to become more comfortable and open with each other if given a sense of communication and companionship. To achieve this, management can arrange remote team building for remote workers.

Virtual team-building activities are the best option for remote employees. You can use different options that promote events where all employees can participate. However, it’s also possible to gather all employees together and hold physical events such as outings, luncheons, and physical escape rooms.

Social interactions daily should be encouraged within the workplace. Consider creating an informal section from your instant messaging channel where employees can share their knowledge and discuss their interests together.

Set Clear Goals and Expectations

Before any project is started it’s important to set clear goals and expectations for a successful remote team collaboration. Each individual should be aware of their responsibilities when their deadlines are, and what the goal of the project is.

Having an organised team aware of their tasks and each other’s tasks can make it easier to collaborate and reach out for each other’s help. It will make it less likely to have delays in work and make it easier for everyone to reach out to the person who should know the most about the specific task in question.

To create a productive environment, team members should regularly track their progress and optimise their time management to efficiently deliver outputs. Once these goals have been achieved, it’s best to celebrate the achievements and maintain the motivation of the employees.

The employees, managers, and employers should take note of setting realistic expectations. If the work output is beyond what is possible within the set deadline, collaboration may be hindered due to burnout and lack of motivation.

Recognise and Reward Collaboration

Acknowledging individual and team contributions can encourage members to collaborate further. Simply appreciating their efforts and understanding the extra miles they put in for the company can increase remote employee engagement. 

However, putting in an extra mile from employees should also be rewarded. Consider implementing incentive programs that reward successful remote team collaboration. This can create a reason for employees to become motivated.

It does not have to be expensive either. Companies can give out free luncheons or small prizes that the team can enjoy together. Not only will it increase motivation, but it can also be a gateway for team building and close relationships between employees.

Create an Ideas Board

Every remote team collaboration starts with an idea. These ideas can be further enhanced by other members of the team and created to their full potential. It can also be a place where like-minded employees can encourage one another.

Utilising project management tools and mastering their uses can give you the option to create an ideas board. These boards should be accessible to everyone and can allow them to post their innovative ideas and suggestions for the company.

Future possible projects, better strategies for processing, and other suggestions can be posted on the board for everyone to look into and collaborate with. Not only will it encourage employees to participate in the company’s growth, but it can also be a place where their ideas can be enhanced by management.

Encourage Trust

Speaking of encouragement, relationships that can increase remote team collaboration also start with trust. Company culture must have this established so that any negative mindsets that may sow misunderstandings can be removed.

Trusting other employees and their abilities is a large requirement for collaboration. Imagine if one employee doesn’t trust their fellow team member with their tasks? Constant misunderstandings and clashes could occur.

Lead by example by ensuring that all employees are qualified, understood, and respected by management. Especially since employees will follow the goals and virtues of the company first and foremost.

If the company itself establishes trust with its employees, the same can go both ways for all co-workers. In order to create trust, transparency must be implemented. Being honest with what they know and what they don’t know creates opportunities for discussions.

Allowing the employees to be heard is also an important factor. Consider allowing employees to give feedback on their concerns and find solutions to increase engagement and employee satisfaction.

Conclusion

Remote employees can be cost-efficient, productive, innovative, and effective workers for startup businesses. Their ability to independently move about and express their specialised skill set to its potential can create opportunities to expand your business to greater heights.

However, without the proper methods for motivation, teamwork, and management, it’s possible to lose all that hard work with a single misstep. The methods we’ve discussed can prevent such damage to your company’s growth.

These seven ways to improve remote team collaboration are methods that can increase your company’s growth. However, if you wish to further enhance your company’s productivity and employee satisfaction, consider learning more tips for remote working on our Blogs.