6 Best Practices That Make Virtual Collaboration Easy

And remember to create space for celebrations and socializing with remote teams, which can strengthen relationships and lay the foundation for future collaboration. Zoom is a dedicated remote collaboration tool for individuals and teams to connect and communicate with one another from anywhere in the world. It offers a variety of features to make collaboration easier, such as video conferencing, file sharing, messaging, and whiteboard tools.

• Donut also helps to create remote connections in an automated and interactive way.
• With Slack, you can create different channels for different topics or tasks, making it easy to locate relevant conversations.
• Use the appropriate channels for communication and tell your teams to do the same.
• This all-in-one carbon-free tool enables researchers to create conferences, manage attendees, host, & record sessions, among other things.

Some 70% of employees expect to become part of a hybrid workforce, with 66% of employers redesigning office space to accommodate this. For organizations around the world, figuring out how to best support hybrid and work from home employees is absolutely essential. Whether you’re looking to improve project & task management, build an internal knowledge base, or promote team communication, Zenkit has the right tool for the job. Slack is without a doubt one of the most popular team collaboration & internal communication platforms available today.

The backstory on remote team collaboration

Switchboard is a browser-based collaboration platform that lets you collaborate on documents and apps inside a virtual room—without having to share your screen. It’s designed to keep everything shipshape and foster team connection, collaboration, and productivity through intuitive meeting rooms. Like building out your best practices, building a close-knit team takes work. Next, we’ll look at the benefits of internal collaboration tools like Switchboard and how they can help you rewrite the narrative on effective remote teamwork and collaboration.

• With the huddles and clips features, you can connect with your remote team through audio and video calls to collaborate and resolve issues in real time.
• But remember — don’t overload your remote employees with meetings just to have meetings.
• Make sure that your team members have an understanding of do’s and dont’s of outside-work-hours communication.
• Aim to hold co-working sessions once per week or once biweekly so your employees have regularly scheduled focus sessions where they can complete deep work or meet to collaborate.
• It involves being able to connect and address roadblocks anytime and anywhere.

Make sure that your team members have an understanding of do’s and dont’s of outside-work-hours communication. Just imagine, according to a new survey provided by Clutch, two-thirds of employees are currently working remotely at least part of the week. In addition to meeting one-on-one or through daily check-ins, your entire team should interact as a group at least once a week. And with a permanent shift to remote work (58% of workers in the US have the opportunity to work from home at least once a week) comes the need to manage the remote workforce properly.

How-to guide: Managing a remote team of accountants

This can keep you from scrolling through hundreds of messages to find what you’re looking for.This goes for non-work-related conversations, too, by the way — make room for them! Without the proverbial water cooler as a conversation spot, team building is even more important for a healthy company culture. Connecting with your teammates on outside interests will help build relationships, which can make remote team collaboration easier.

• Another policy could be to always consider an asynchronous approach before immediately calling everyone together for a synchronous video-conferencing meeting.
• You should also equip them with resources and workarounds for when you’re unavailable, including the best person/people to contact in your absence.
• Although chat messages are an easy and quick communication tool, they are often ineffective.
• Maximize productivity with workflow automation, avoid delays, and get moving quickly.
• It provides a variety of different templates to build and maintain meaningful human relationships.
• Whilst, it aids in project tracking & integrations, it truly shines in its proofing & approval tools.

Its 24/7 customer support makes reaching out for technical support at any given time super accessible. When you’re working with a distributed workforce, security becomes the prime concern. If neglected, it may result in misuse of project information and may even lead to project failure. All project data is confidential and should be secured from external threats. Ensure that your team’s tool is compliant with data security laws and does not compromise your project’s integrity.

Set productivity standards

Tools like FigJam also let you manage complex Kanban boards and agile workflows, create and collaborate on to-do lists, and have secure cloud storage. Communication is the key to building trust and collaboration among remote teams. You need to establish clear expectations, goals, and feedback mechanisms for your employees, and use various channels and formats to communicate with them. https://remotemode.net/ For example, you can use video calls, instant messaging, email, and project management tools to share information, updates, and recognition. You should also communicate regularly and consistently, and avoid leaving your team members in the dark or overwhelmed with messages. Monday.com is a project and team management platform designed to help remote teams collaborate more efficiently.

Using this tool helps my team understand what is expected of them at all times and when the most important items are due. Because of the differences in time zones, we have agreed on a time-slot after taking input from all our team members. TeamViewer is a remote collaboration software designed to support teams when collaborating online. The focus is on borderless communication between team members and business partners worldwide. Working remotely has never been easier with the best collaboration tools. Asana is designed to help you keep your distributed teams organized and focused on projects.

Best practices for enabling asynchronous collaboration and creating a single source of truth

Proofhub is a very helpful tool because you can have multiple features in just one place! It allows your remote team to plan projects and collaborate on them, organize different files and documents, create reports and timesheets when necessary. Whether you’re looking for a tool to facilitate video conferencing, project management, or file sharing, there’s something on this list for every team. Take the time to evaluate your team’s needs and try out these tools to see which ones work best for you. With Loom’s shared workspace feature, you can now collaborate with your team members on videos in new Personal, Shared, and Team Libraries. It also gives you insights into who has watched your video, how much they watched it, and the conversion rate of your call-to-action with its Engagement Insights feature.

• Providing these co-working opportunities fosters a sense of teamwork and collaboration.
• This helps them improve their workflow and contribute more effectively to the team goal.
• One-on-one check-ins are a great way to stay in touch with your team members, assist them with issues, and express support for any challenges they’re facing.
• This is even more useful considering travel is still not as flexible as it once was.
• Not only that, but you can also track the progress of your tasks and projects using Gantt charts to ensure successful output.
• This is why video conferencing is one of the best tools for remote collaboration.
• For instance, when communicating digitally, don’t assume that others understand your cues and shorthand.

Rather than trying to make your existing tech work, look for tools that are designed specifically for remote teams. You’re also more likely to avoid technical difficulties—like a lagging screen-share—breaking the flow of crucial https://remotemode.net/blog/10-best-remote-team-collaboration-practices/ client presentations or company meetings. Filestage, a document-sharing platform, offers unlimited file storage on the platform. You can add attachments to comments and track file versions until the final approval.

Full productivity suites like Google Suite and Microsoft Office Teams have a number of tools that are critical for conducting your business and facilitating better collaboration. Microsoft Office Teams, for one, includes Word for text processing, Excel for data organization, Outlook for email and calendar management, and PowerPoint for presentations. But it’s not just helpful for individual productivity — it’s also an amazing collaboration tool.

This will ensure that everyone is on the same page and knows what they need to do in order to be successful. Decisions help eliminate many of the pitfalls that tend to come along with remote meetings by providing a range of purpose-built solutions. Feeling appreciated at work has been linked to better physical health, higher levels of engagement, and greater workplace satisfaction. Despite these obvious benefits, many companies fail to establish recognition as a core element of their culture.