Remote collaboration

Do you know that globally, the percentage of work performed at home rose from 4.7% in January 2019 to 61% in May 2020? Since 2021, the number of workers choosing to work remotely increased by 24% and those choosing hybrid work went up by 16%.

The statistics indicate that the world have continued to embrace working remotely thus teams have to collaborate while geographically dispersed. In this article, we shall look at some of the challenges with remote collaboration and some of the best practices to build an inclusive remote community.

Remote collaboration is the process by which geographic distance is removed as a deterrent to teamwork.

Challenges when you work remotely:

·       Working in different time zones

·       Cultural differences

·       Loosing the feeling of what is going on in the office

·       Lack of knowledge sharing

·       Difficulties to build and maintain a trusting relationship with other colleagues

What some of the strategies that can improve remote team collaboration?

Collaborate creatively and inclusively

Develop processes for how decisions are made, in which forums they occurs, when and how all employees should be involved. This gives everyone a way to voice their opinion.

Develop collaboration guidelines

The guidelines should outline the communication norms, meeting etiquette, response time, respect for time zones and boundaries.

Communicate clearly and frequently

Emphasize clear, concise and frequently communication.

Use the right communication and collaboration tools.

Have a centralized documentation that makes it easier for remote team members to access essential information.

Meetings

Schedule regular team meetings and one-on-one check-ins.

Have meetings structure e.g Make an agenda and distribute before meeting, allow time to catch up during the meeting, take meeting notes and distributes. After the meeting, create a meeting summary and follow up.

Build trust and rapport

Foster a sense of community and social interaction among remote team members.

Focus on relations

Virtual coffee breaks

Chat channels for non-work-related conversations

Create space for celebration and team bonding.

The aim of remote collaboration is to maximize organization performance while ensuring team feel engaged and supported to do their best work. When teams function effectively together, they can have a greater effect than a single person. Remote collaboration can facilitate this type of effective teamwork