What Are The Communication Problems Remote Teams Face?

This is a great question and an ongoing concern for most managers worried about remote team management.

To get things to run smoothly in communication it helps to have a process. Below is a summary of the steps I've taken at to make sure that every remote worker is fully engaged and informed.

As you point out in your question keeping communication channels open is key. Managers used to rely on proximity being enough for teams to communicate effectively. The remote team has forced a rethink of these principles. This turned out to be a benefit because it put a focus on building collaboration into day to day processes.

A Space For Everyone to Chat

A great place to start is to pick the right communication software, we use Slack, and turn it into an essential hub. This takes time and planning and constant enforcement. It needs to be beneficial and fun to use or people won’t do it. We have separate channels projects and for irreverent topics. We also try and funnel all business chats into Slack.

New Challenges

Remote communication added language and timezone issues into the mix. Depending on the structure of your team you may need to overcome these as well as cultural mismatch issues.

Agile and Regular Contact

Slack is great for bringing teams together, but you need to have a process for quick problem-solving. For this we created YAC. Seamlessly talk with your team, without involving meetings or scheduling. Listen on your own time and stay in sync. It’s a great process which is easy to adopt and very flexible.

The big take-away here is that you should communicate with your team on a daily basis. Discuss what is being done today, what was done yesterday and issues that might arise tomorrow.

Personal Time

But discuss more than just work, connect with your team on a personal level when you can.

Video trumps Instant Messages

When you can try and recreate f2f interactions. It is vital to not lose out completely on nonverbal language queues. In a more traditional office, employees are exposed to visual behavioral clues and react to these. If all you do is communicate on email and chat rooms you will lose these. Video - and even audio - calls bring much of this back into the equation. Take advantage of that!

Arranging a call that works well for everyone gets harder as you stretch your team across time zones. This is typically one of a managers biggest issues with remote team management. With YAC we’ve taken away the worry of having to schedule anything. Simply click to talk to a team member, and if they aren't available, your message will be stored for when they’re ready to hear it.

Communicate Clearly

Clear communication is more important in remote workplaces. This is because other ways of reading people like body language are removed.

Everyone needs to know what is expected of them and where to access the information they might need to complete their work. This means that your information infrastructure needs to be well managed. Your task management software should not be an afterthought, but the place to go to know what is being done, who is doing it and when it is due. The Daily Standup discussed earlier should be structured around these tasks. You also need to make sure that everyone has access to credentials they may need.

Following these steps has not just stopped major communications issues but has helped form the community that is at the heart of YAC.