For the first time in many of our lives, we’re having to learn how to communicate with our coworkers while being completely separated from them. Sure, some of us have done the occasional work from home once or twice a week, but that still allows us to see our teams in person from time to time. Let’s face it, this is uncharted territory. 

Communication and collaboration are key to having a successful and efficient team. However, we all have very different team dynamics. For some of us, like me, our team is our world. We miss chatting with them on a daily basis, making coffee runs, and eating lunch together. For others, they are overjoyed that, for the foreseeable future, they don’t have to sit next to that coworker who won’t stop talking. I would assume the majority of you fall somewhere in the middle; your team may not be comprised of your best friends, but you don’t mind them either. Telework can have a variety of effects on both types of teams. Whether you love or hate your team, having to communicate virtually can be a big change. It can cause a great team to fall apart, bring a distant team together, or make no difference at all. So, to try to navigate this, I have some tips.

Supervisor/Manager Tips

1. Find a mode of communication that works for your team

There are many different options for communicating from home. You can use Slack, GroupMe, Facebook, video calling, emailing, texting, etc. When selecting a mode of communication, it’s important to know your team. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you decide:

• Are they going to have trouble learning how to use a new or complicated technology? If yes, what do they already use?  

• What type of technology do they have access to at home? 

• Do you expect your team to want to have many conversations, or will they barely want to talk?

• How does your team communicate normally? 

• How much collaboration does the work require? 

If you are unfamiliar with all the apps/websites you can utilize to communicate and work more effectively from home, stay tuned. There will be a post next week with a list of these apps/websites and what they do. 

2. Find the right amount of communication

Regardless of your team dynamics, it’s important to set up regular and routine communication. This will allow your team to be on the same page and to know when to expect communication. Additionally, this gives you a great opportunity to remind the team of their shared goals and their roles. In my opinion, the more communication the better. So, I recommend sending some form of communication at least once a week. 

If your team is very close and used to talking every day in the office, then a daily call may be the right amount of communication. This allows the team to check in and, if there is no work to discuss, they have some time to be social. If your team doesn’t want any social time–perhaps the team isn’t very close and they have a lot of work to do–a weekly call may be more appropriate. Here are some questions to help you figure out how often is best for your team: 

• How much work does everyone have on their plates?

• How often is the team used to communicating already?

• Is your team comprised mostly of people living with family or by themselves? 

• Does your team enjoy spending time together? 

3. Seek feedback

Don’t be afraid to ask if what you’re doing is working or not. The best way to find out what your team members are thinking is to ask them. Am I communicating with you enough? Are the modes of communication working alright for you? Is there anything I can change? To start, I would recommend doing a one-on-one check in with your team members at least every other week.  

4. Be creative

Gauge what your team loves to do and be creative. My team has started doing themed Photo Fridays, where we all share a picture that we took during the week. If your team loves to talk and enjoy each other’s company, maybe they’ll enjoy virtual team happy hours, coffee breaks, book clubs, or game nights. If you feel your team is overly stressed, you could schedule a short meditation session. If your team doesn’t love talking, but they all really enjoy a specific topic, you could start a channel where people share articles or videos on that topic. You could even implement a monthly lunch-and-learn call. If your team wants to focus solely on work, you could use something like Trello or Asana. These apps allow you to divide tasks and communicate in a way that is focused on work activities. The sky’s the limit. Just remember, even if your team isn’t very close, you should try to set up a more formalized method of communication at least once a week.   

Employees Tips

5. Be kind 

Stress is high, and written messages can be hard to interpret. If you are upset, give yourself time before you write a response or call the person. Sometimes hearing the person’s voice or seeing their face can help ease tensions. It can also help you to see the real tone behind their message. Don’t send anything you’ll regret. Even though it may not feel like it, we will be back in the office eventually. So, try your best to communicate clearly and kindly to avoid an uncomfortable reunification. If you are having an issue with a team member, be honest with them in the gentlest way possible. There is always a nice way to word something. 

If you feel you can, this is a good time to try and uplift your coworkers. They may be dealing with much more than you know. For some ideas on how to do this, there will be a post next week entitled “How to Support Your Team While Teleworking.”

6. Don’t overwhelm yourself

This is a stressful time. Personally, I feel like I’ve been on a rollercoaster since the start of March. Sometimes even the smallest thing, like having to reply to a text, can feel like a major task. If your team is having a conversation that isn’t related to work, don’t feel bad if you don’t want to join in. Put your mental health first. If you’re done with work and you want to put your phone on silent and read for a few hours then do it. It can be hard to differentiate between working hours and hours off when they’re all occurring in the same place. When the clock strikes five, or whatever time you get off work, put away your work emails and don’t feel like you have to respond to every message. Don’t overwhelm yourself. 

7. Be professional 

Even though we are all at home in our sweatpants, this is still work. Whatever level of communication your team had in the office should be maintained from home, to the extent possible. Of course, there may be the occasional kid running through a video call–that’s inevitable–but, if your team has certain boundaries in place, they should remain in place from home. For example, if your supervisor doesn’t like to receive non-emergency texts from the team, unless they state otherwise, this shouldn’t change. Being professional also means respecting each other’s time. Some people may have more to do from home than others, so don’t assume that just because you have plenty of free time that they do too. If your team is going to set up daily meetings, everyone should be on board for that, and there should be a clear purpose for the meetings. Even if that purpose is that you all want to have daily social time. 

Overall, I would say the key to communicating well in telework is to try to keep things as normal as you can, be kind to one another, and be open to adjusting as needed.