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Working Remotely: Challenges Faced in Enabling Smooth Team Communication

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Working Remotely: Challenges Faced in Enabling Smooth Team Communication

Remote working or the work from home phenomenon was considered an employee benefit or a perk that companies offered to their employees. Except for the field forces that continued to regularly work outside of the conventional office premises, the majority of the workforce always worked from the office. Even for larger corporations that encouraged employees to work from home, it was always capped at some level and employees shuttled between working from home and office on a regular basis.

Also Check: How to Design Your Own Space to Work From Home

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The world literally moved into a new era of global lockdown and social distancing, inevitably leading companies to offer remote work as the only option to keep business afloat. The shift was obviously not an easy one, considering that everyone was working from home at all times.

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The IT teams had to be on the front foot to ensure that employees had the right resources at their disposal, a strong network to work with and a secure environment to maintain the data security. However, with the use of a dependable MDM, workforce enablement could be achieved with the appropriate devices and business resources 

Another major aspect of the challenges in remote work was faced by team managers and the HR teams. Facilitating communication and team spirit during remote work comes with its own set of challenges. 

Here’s a list of challenges faced in enabling smooth team communication while working remotely:

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Not everyone prefers the same tool to communicate

When teams worked out of the office, it was easy to walk up to someone, have a chat and clarify a doubt or even a misunderstanding. In the case of remote work, the communication tool replaces this activity. Unfortunately, we are spoilt for choices.

While some prefer to send an email, some prefer sending a text while some would directly like to call and get started. This can create confusion and chaos, often resulting in employees feeling overwhelmed with the sudden messages, emails and calls pouring in from different tools. 

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It is important to hence set only one communication tool for all business communications.

Textual messages can be misinterpreted

As more and more people use communication tools with instant messaging or email, the conversation happens mostly over textual content. More often than not, the textual content can be read with a prejudice, assuming a certain tone and command which would not be the sender’s intention. 

Having a good mix of text messages, voice notes and voice calls can be a better option to avoid this misinterpretation.

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Teams need quick access to business resources

When teams work remotely, the major hindrance in their work can be when they do not have up-to-date business resources handy. Not having the right resources at hand can lead into employee frustration, also increasing their downtime.

Instead of using cumbersome cloud-based access or email-based file sharing which can take longer processing time, employees would rather have a file shared quickly over a chat. However, doing so over a non-trusted communication tool can lead to a security breach. 

The chosen communication tool should have a secure environment for teams to be able to quickly share business resources. 

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People miss the face to face connection

This is largely due to the fact that before COVID-19, never was the case that the teams worked from home, all the time. This not only leads to people missing out on the connection with the team or the human touch but can also lead to severe disengagement leading to unproductivity. 

Scheduling occasional video calls, non-work virtual team meetings during coffee time can be a great option to revitalize the human touch!

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Closing lines…

The pandemic has opened up several discussions around remote work and its impact on productivity. The post-pandemic world is most likely to be a good mix of remote and office-based work with even some teams working remotely, permanently. Clearly, team communication challenges need to be mitigated to uphold this phenomenon. 

Manvendra Chaudhary, with over 5 years of professional experience as CEO of Unique News and Megalent Marketing, shares insights on life, business, and health for your success.

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