Communication in Virtual Teams: Best Practices That Work Effectively
The coronavirus pandemic has nothing but prompted the ceasing of in-person transactions and even personal interactions. Everything has shifted into virtual communications and just utilized every virtual communication tool. Nonetheless, before the pandemic, remote work started to be on trend, and the pandemic accelerated its relevance.
No one, even big corporations, had other options to circumvent the effects of the pandemic — everyone was forced to adjust themselves. In this light, it is critical to master communication in virtual teams, especially if you haven't established a strong communication system yet. Read through this article as we will tackle the challenges of communication in virtual teams, communication strategies for virtual teams, and, simply, effective virtual communication.
What is Virtual Communication?
Virtual communication is what we refer to when you use technology to speak with someone who isn't physically in front of you — in the form of voice and video. No matter where the people you want to communicate with are, whether they are kilometers away or just in a separate room, virtual communication will connect you to them.
Virtual communication started way back when people invented the telephone. But the advent of modern technology gave rise to more advanced modes of virtual communication. With this, we use virtual communication in practically every aspect of our lives — work, talking with family and friends, and communication in virtual teams.
Virtual communication boasts a lot of advantages that virtual teams and businesses can leverage. Among which is its being cost-effective. Virtual communication can save you the hassle and money of traveling miles just for a meeting. You can already talk with your team anytime and anywhere through video conferencing. Moreover, virtual communication is also fast and secure. You can instantly send encrypted messages through instant messaging applications without the fear of being disseminated illegally.
Regardless of how effective virtual communication is, it still has its fair share of downsides. Continue reading below.
Why is Communication in Remote Teams Hard?
Simple, it's due to miscommunication.
Miscommunication occurs when remote teams cannot comprehend each other in a way that hinders progress toward the company's main goals. Companies that employ remote teams are more prone to this challenge and may cause damage.
For you to be more aware and prepared for such a problem, here are a few virtual communication challenges that you may encounter.
Lack of in-person interaction.
Human interaction is characterized by verbal and non-verbal cues, which makes non-verbal signals a significant form of communication. First off, depending on the circumstance, a person's body language can indicate how urgent or severe a problem is. On the other hand, eye contact can convey confidence—or perhaps the lack of it. Non-verbal cues are key to showing approval or disapproval of something.
Unfortunately, because the communication of virtual teams is boxed through emails, calls, chats, or even video conferences, some crucial non-verbal signals are overlooked. As a result, there is no accurate flow of information within the team.
Failure of virtual communication tools.
For sure, everyone you know has at some point encountered problems with their virtual communication tools or their wifi connection, right? And if you're really unlucky, it even occurs during a crucial virtual meeting. There can also be occasions where you experience incoherent audio because of noisy background noises. All these factors put together hinder your smooth communication with your remote team.
Scheduling challenges.
When your team is working remotely, finding a common time to meet, especially if everyone's in different time zones, is quite challenging. Simply following your individual schedule may mean beyond the regular working hours for some. Having this setup of not fixed and amended working hours among everyone can mean constant sacrifice for team members on the opposite side of the world from you. But above all, productivity and efficiency are hampered when scheduling challenges arise.
Keep tabs on your remote workers.
Because you can't physically see your team as they are working remotely, you can't accurately check on the work they claim to be doing. For some, getting them to complete tasks efficiently, promptly, and according to specifications can feel like a losing battle. And since it's hard to monitor their progress in real-time, you'd have to accept people's word for it.
Virtual Team Communication Best Practices That Works
1. Clarify tasks and processes, not just goals and roles.
During the first 90 days as a team, leaders must set clear goals, functions, and duties for everyone in the team to adhere to. Communication in virtual teams is one of the most challenging as not everyone from the team is physically present. On top of that, coordination among the team will be hard as well. Thus, the specifics of every task must be discussed properly, and its processes should be given more attention. Most importantly, conduct periodic evaluations to assess how things are faring, determine processes that may need modifications, and pinpoint areas for training.
2. Leverage the best communication technologies.
Communication in virtual teams and remote working are undoubtedly made simpler by advancements in collaborative technologies, such as multi-point video conferencing and shared workplaces. However, having the newest technology or those with many features does not necessarily mean that they're the best. So, even if you want to have cutting-edge technology, it is still better and crucial to depend on what works best for you. The possibility of failing a project is higher when the team has trouble connecting or spends so much time familiarizing a certain function. This being said, be prepared to give up some features to not compromise efficiency.
3. Commit to a communication charter.
It's already non-arguable that communication in virtual teams can be harder than in-person interaction, which offers non-verbal cues. Having this in mind, remote teams must be absolutely clear and diligent about their means of communication in order to avoid miscommunication. It is best to create a communication charter that outlines acceptable behaviors when it comes to virtual meetings.
4. Track results.
Remote work doesn't exactly fit into the standard working schedule. Several teams don't require 40 hours a week to accomplish their tasks. Hence, tracking their outputs can be a struggle at times.
To counter this, monitoring your team's results is recommended rather than the time they spend doing it. At the end of the day, there'd be no problems as long as the task is done. Also, this way can encourage a more healthy work-life balance.
5. Hold regular check-ins.
Virtual team managers should not neglect team-wide check-ins. It is highly encouraged to hold it at least once a week. And if your team can just seamlessly manage your tasks, twice-a-week check-ins are also a good idea. The objective is to provide as many chances for each member of the team to understand each. Communication in virtual teams through regular check-ins serves as a cornerstone for effective teamwork.
Conclusion
Virtual team communications and remote working can pose quite a lot of challenges. However, you cannot undermine virtual work's positive effects and benefits, especially if it has proven its effectiveness. Nonetheless, the aforementioned best practices can definitely help you manage your virtual team more.
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