Stay in the loop with these remote team communication tools

Keeping updated and on top of the news with your team is a key ingredient in maintaining a functional team, other than keeping a clear channel of communication. Large email service providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo! come into mind as soon as people mention them.

But as of the moment, there are different approaches to communication on a professional level that don’t require you to compose a professional-sounding letter.

Virtual workplace communication is more than just emails and remote huddles, it also means using not-that-traditional messaging tactics to build a fun, casual, and productive space for your team. After all, not everyone wants to get bombarded with an e-mail thread when it could’ve been a quick 5-minute conversation over chat.

Zoom

With the recent boom of remote team collaboration tools, Zoom comes up on top with its features including the ability to support multiple participants (great for hosting webinars and talk-throughs).

In addition, it has an in-video chat function that can allow you to send over files to the whole group or privately, and a member-only function that lets the app generate a unique code or a link that your team can access.

Zoom is fully encrypted and can be streamlined to sync future meetings to multiple calendars, which means no more checking in 3 minutes late into a call!

Another nifty thing about this remote collaboration app is that everyone could join in on any device at any time, be it on mobile or on the computers. Users are free to access the given link.

Slack

Slack is another staple of remote communication and virtual teams. From a great GIF database to streamlined scheduling and meetings, this neat little app almost has it all. With Slack’s innovative approach to staying connected with your peers, it could most definitely run the reigns as opposed to e-mails and in-person meetings.

Another Slack thing worth mentioning is that administrators have the ability to put people into their respective groups (or departments) to keep things a little more organized.

For example, marketing heads can be in a group chat along with their coworkers. Then, there’s another group for data entry specialists to keep track of which documents the team is working on now.

The app is native to iOS/macOS, Android, and Windows, but it can also be accessed through updated browsers. The call, chat, and other functions stay the same across different devices so your team doesn’t have to worry about cross-compatibility issues.

Microsoft Teams

If your team (and, to an extent, business) is heavily driven by Microsoft apps, then Teams will be the perfect remote team collaboration tool for you.

As expected, the app is compartmentalized and organized in a way where users would be able to find everything they need in one place. From choosing which conversations to show to the people in your contacts, Teams has dedicated screens and windows for it.

And if you’re worried about taking a call with background noises, a recent Teams update has included artificial intelligence (AI) that can detect ambient noises and mask over them for a clearer and crisper line.

Steer clear from these communication mishaps

Let’s be honest, communication slipups and mistakes can’t be avoided—especially in times of working remotely and the team is used to working in shared spaces. Sometimes, it happens face-to-face too, but that’s another topic of another day.

Nevertheless, being able to effectively get the message across is the goal of communication.

Over-explaining your message

Over explanation will make you sound less confident and less upfront with whatever message you’re trying to communicate across the other team members. Brevity is a skill that we should all have in our professional (and personal) lives.

Start practicing by telling fewer words, but the information and the message are still there. For instance, instead of sending a long-winded e-mail, try to compose a message that can be condensed into two or three sentences only.

Jumping into conclusions

Have you ever got a “one-on-one meeting in 5 minutes? Thanks!” message? How does it make you feel: anxious, sweaty, or excited (maybe)?

Before getting ahead of yourself and possibly working up negative emotions, try to compose yourself and think about what could be the possible reason for the meeting.

If possible, ask questions before dialing into the meeting; see if other information is available to you. If not, use the remaining time to gather your thoughts.

Leaving out information

No matter how bad—or good—the information is, never leave it out. Especially if it will impact your team’s morale and productivity in the meantime. What you can do is to ease the news to your coworkers and validate their opinions and feelings that may come out of it.

Delivering good news? Congratulate the people who made it possible. Delivering bad news? It’s better to reach out in private than to single out people in the communal group chat.

Tip: Keep the news brief and straight to the point. Give the team enough time to process the information they just received.

Avoiding these don’ts with remote team collaboration tools

Averting communication mistakes is like dodging hurdles—sometimes, you just can’t jump over it anymore. So what do you do? You apologize and take action to make sure that it never happens again.

With teleworking, miscommunication can lead to even bigger problems and issues within the virtual workplace. Remote collaboration tools are designed and developed to help remote teammates feel closer, albeit the distance between them.

Make sure to utilize every feature that these tools offer to make your day-to-day a bit easier. 

As implied, these communication tools are only a medium, the effort of maintaining a professional, friendly, and inclusive workplace culture is still up to the people who are running it from the inside.

Sure, keeping up with the remote communicating trends can be hard (especially if the venture is new to the company) but having your virtual team behind you will make all the difference.