Improve Remote Team Communication Using Simple Tips

Ways to Improve Remote Interpersonal Contacts

Offshore development best practices also imply strategies that help service providers build a friendly and productive atmosphere in the units, where people are spread across different places. Usually, they are common for different companies, but every vendor also can have their own ways of making things work.

Establish Clear Deadlines and Expectations

Offshore or in-house — it is important for every employee to understand what the employer is expecting from them and in which terms. Сommunication for remote teams should include this information from the very beginning: clear, and approved in written form in addition to the oral message. It will help to avoid misunderstanding and underachievement.

Set Rules With Communication Guidelines

Usually, companies map out expectations from employees in the corporate guidelines. They include hours of work, corporate messengers, rules of data exchange, details of the working process like frequency of daily or weekly meetings, form of reporting, etc. If you have any additional communication and collaboration rules and recommendations, it will be useful to add them to the guidelines. Defined in the corporate documents, the guidelines become official rules, set in your company.

Make Things Easier With Technological Tools for Remote Contacts

How to communicate effectively when working remotely? Choose tools for virtual meetings and data transfers, that will be safe yet comfortable for everyone. For safety reasons in IT outstaffing services, it is better to give access only by the corporate email and use separate file-sharing tools.

It is a common practice for IT vendors to have their custom software for working, and for talking as well, but it is better not to overwhelm new people with too many extra tools to install for a new project. Easy and seamless onboarding is the first step to effective co-working.

Use clear communication channel like Slack, Zoom, Microsoft teams for agile offshore software development.

Make Video Calls More Productive With Visuals

The way to communicate with remote workforce is the same for different projects and vendors: daily or weekly stand ups on video calls and ongoing chatting in a chosen messenger, like Slack. It might be overwhelming to spend hours on video calls listening to a group of talking heads. Demonstration of diagrams and visuals can make the process of daily standups or results demos more interesting and clear not only for the client. Such demos inside the work crew keep the workforce interested in the project’s progress and improve overall performance.

Eradicate Micromanagement

Effective communication while working remotely is impossible when the managers try to control their teammates now and then. Encouraging a sense of autonomy and trust can make a big difference, and recognizing employee achievements through employee recognition software can help boost morale and keep communication positive and open. Micromanagement makes employees feel underrated and incompetent, creates distrust and a lack of confidence. On the other hand, by giving space for independent work, you also give space for creative problem-solving and a credit of trust that increases workers’ loyalty and dedication.

Easy Video Conferencing

Video calling tools are probably the most important channels of communication in fully remote or mixed IT crews. For the comfort of all the process participants, they should be easily accessible, even with smartphones and tablets. They also should have high safety standards. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet are the most commonly used video messengers.

Optional Live Meetings

Remote team communication strategies will work better propelled by the offline meetings. It is not always possible to meet at least a team leader of the crew in person, but if the opportunity arises, even a short personal meeting at lunch will help to establish stronger work connections.

5 Remote Team Communication Methods to Introduce

If you want to know how to select a vendor for outsourcing, ask for the tools and communication methods they use. It will give you an image of the processes organization in the company. It is also possible to judge the communication security and, finally, choose the vendor whose methods are the most comfortable for your organization.

Improve Productivity with Effective Communication

Boost your team’s productivity and engagement with simple, proven communication strategies tailored for remote work.

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Handy Team-Based Software

Corporate software takes the stage when it is important to keep remote teams on the same page in different aspects of a project. This software often includes tools for task tracking, Scrum ceremonies, or Scrumban. Usually, we talk about Asana, Trello, and Atlassian, but every entity can choose another option from numerous alternatives or even use custom ones.

Hustle-Free Instant Messaging

Instant messengers are one of the most important communication tools because the need for data, thoughts, and status updates exchange is present every working day and hour. The market offers a wide variety of messengers, led by Slack which is used by more than 100,000 organizations around the globe. Establish rules for messenger usage, like hours of being available and the necessity of installing the messenger on a personal smartphone.

Traditional Corporate Email

Offshore development in Ukraine is known for implementing communication best practices for remote teams that also include creating the personal email of a contractor on a corporate domain. It gives the possibility to invite people to meetings, exchange official documentation, utilize plenty of official Google tools, and give access to different services by personal email address.