Communication within an office space has never been a problem for many businesses as water cooler chat, as well as chat across the office, are a regular occurrence. However, when working remotely, the lack of communication is a challenge that could present itself. To help prevent this, we will be providing you with insight into some of the ways that you as a business owner can improve communication.
Replace Meetings With Virtual Meetings
If you are working within a business that had a team meeting every morning, then having your team split up around the country can present some issues. Therefore, changing your in-face meetings to virtual meetings to make sure there is minimal disruption to the working day as possible.
Implement New Tools For Improved Working Environment
When working remotely, there come several challenges, but with this comes the opportunity to implement several new tools to make working from home much smoother for everyone involved. Whether this is tools such as Microsoft teams linked to your outlook calendar or the option for an encrypted Zoom account, this is the perfect way to make the most out of the new way of working and implement tools that make working remotely much easier than ever before. By reading blogs from other businesses and seeing what is working for them, you are then able to implement some of these core elements yourself.
Make A Water Cooler Chat
Though there will be the social aspect missing when working remotely, it does not have to completely disappear. One of the ways that you can bring communication back to the working day is to make a water cooler chat. This is a great way of allowing your team to talk about topics that are not work-related and relax on breaks. This is a great way of bringing the team together in this time of uncertainty whilst staying on top of pop culture topics whilst working productively as a team.
Encourage People To Be Responsive
Though it is a definite shift when it comes to working remotely, you as a business owner must encourage your employees to stay in touch. Whether you have a rolling Business mobile phone contract providing them with a direct line to others in the business or you are using applications such as Microsoft teams and Zoom, encouraging your employees to be as responsible as possible during work hours is one of the many ways that you can maintain a high level of communication and continue to work productively as a cohesive unit. Though this may take some getting used to in the early stages of remote working, these are habits that can even be used when you move back to working in the office.
Make Use Of Mobile Phones
Within an office environment, mobile phones were often seen as a hindrance to the productive working environment, however, when working from home they could be a blessing in disguise. Not only can they be connected to work emails, but they can often provide faster-running systems for messaging platforms such as Whatsapp. With the modern-day smartphone often operating much faster than traditional computers, these devices could be a valuable asset to a business at this unusual time.
Keep Your Staff Motivated
Though it can be challenging for everyone at this time, it is important to keep your staff as motivated as possible this can aid in improving communication across the board. By making small changes in the working week such as Friday drinks and Monday motivation meetings, you can get everyone talking and working together during this difficult time. This is likely to see a positive impact on your business as a positive workforce are likely to achieve much better results. This is ideal for B2C businesses at this time as this can aid in keeping customers happy with ease.
Put Reporting Processes In Place
As your team adjust to working from home, you want to make sure that you are on top of all the work being produced and where every aspect of the business is headed. Therefore, working to implement new reporting software during this time can aid in improving communication and making remote working easier to manage. This is a great way of bettering your business and can ensure that everyone is on top of the work that they should be completing. This will make billing for clients much easier and will also make business projections easier to monitor as we head towards the new financial year.
Choose A Platform And Stick To It
When running meetings and operating your business, you must remain consistent. Therefore, take the time to find a platform for meetings that works and stick to it. Whether it is a Zoom call or calls on Microsoft Teams, using one platform for all your meetings will ensure that everyone is aware of where they need to be at a specific time. By using one tool and linking this to a universal calendar, you are then able to make sure that every member of your team is available for these meetings making it easier to have open lines of communication.
Monitor Technical Issues
The final element that you should be monitoring through communication is the technical issues that your team may be having. This can have a huge impact on your business and could see your company suffer if this is not dealt with. By having a channel to make sure that all technical issues are reported, you are able to ensure that your employees can work with ease from home. Should you be lucky enough to have an IT department, they can then provide guidance and even solve issues remotely to leave the company operating effectively.
Whether you are a small business owner looking to improve communication when working remotely or you are a larger business looking to streamline processes there are several ways that you can streamline the process and make working from home much easier for everyone within your business.
