3 Ways To Improve Communication With Remote Workers
New advances in business technology mean that it’s easier than ever for people to work outside of the office. This is changing the way that a lot of companies operate and more people than ever are working remotely. There are a lot of benefits to remote working for both the business and the employees. It’s cheaper for the company because you can cut down on office space and most employees find that they work better when they can set their own working hours and create their own work environment. However, it’s not all good news and there are some downsides to remote working. A lack of communication is a big problem if you’re going to use remote workers successfully in your business, you need to remedy that. These are some of the best ways to improve communication with your remote workers.
Invest In The Right Tools
The first and most important step is to invest in the right tools. There are so many great pieces of business tech out there that can help to improve communication, so don’t just rely on email to stay in touch with your remote workers. Instead of using email, it might be better to use things like a live chat instead because it’s more instant and you can easily set up a group conversation with everybody on the team. You should also implement a VoIP (voice over internet protocol) as well, which allows for free phone calls and video calls. This is ideal for team meetings and it saves you money on phone bills as well. The only issue is, when you’re using a lot of different communication tools, things can get a little confusing which is why integration is so important. If you invest in managed IT services to combine all of these communication tools into one streamlined system, things will be a lot easier for you and your team. If you don’t start out with the right tools, you’ll never be able to communicate effectively with your remote workers.
Be Proactive
Being proactive with communication is especially important when you’re trying to manage remote workers. For example, if you’ve got a big project in the pipeline, make sure that you let people know well in advance so they can start preparing. If you need a response from a certain employee about something, don’t sit there for days waiting on an email or a phone call, get on at them and push them for an answer. If you aren’t on the ball, communication will quickly break down and productivity will suffer.
Host Regular Face To Face Meetings
Building good relationships with colleagues is important if you want communication to be good and that can be difficult when people are working remotely and never really seeing one another. That’s why it’s good to host regular face to face meetings and get everybody together in the office if you can. This isn’t always possible if you’ve got people working abroad but if you can, it’s worth doing.
If you can’t encourage good communication with your remote workers, you’re not going to see any of the benefits. But if you can learn to communicate well, remote workers could help to push your business forward.
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