If there is one thing that has come from the new way of working since the pandemic, it’s that more flexible working has been a blessing. Working remotely and hybrid working options are something we are all clamoring for, with study after study showing that employers need more flexibility. Once they give that flexibility, however, there has to be a better way of managing it.
Collaboration can be hard enough when you’re trying to work from other areas of the country – and sometimes the world – but you need to do all you can to ensure that you get everyone working together. From using a SharePoint hub site to figuring out how to use collaboration software like Teams or Trello, there are plenty of ways that you can ensure high levels of engagement with your team no matter what. Flexible and hybrid working doesn’t have to define your business in a negative way. You can keep everyone moving together and working well. Below, we’ve got some suggestions for how you can improve remote collaboration in your business once and for all.
- Know when to do it. Planning a new session to collaborate with your team takes careful planning; especially if most of your team is remote. You need people to work together and that means ensuring that you are intentional with your topics and outcomes and not just having collaborative meetings for the sake of it. All that does is waste your time. Planning so that everyone is aware of the meeting and what it will be about is super important.
- Document all of your processes. When you want a remote team to collaborate well, you need to ensure that there is a shared understanding of how the processes go. If everyone knows how to do something, you can bet that it will be easier for everyone to do what needs to be done to ensure that your business is safe and working well.
- Make collaboration a strength of yours. If you want your business to be a good one, then strength in how you work together is a must. You need to think about trying to keep your workplace effective and that means no lengthy meetings that aren’t needed. You have to be asynchronous and together throughout everything.
- You need tools. Look at all of the ways that you could collaborate and that means knowing which tools are available. That includes tools like G Suite, Slack, Range, and more. There are options out there that you can be involved in and you should think about ensuring that you have them all. Some of these tools may need to be paid for and if so, choose which one is best for your business and go from there.
- Make it fun. Collaboration should be a team effort and that makes it much more fun. You should think about all of the ways you can have fun despite being a hybrid as a team.