10 ways to help your remote team communicate better

Strong communication skills throughout remote teams are critical to creating success. After all, good communication leads to engaged team members and effective decision-making, ultimately making a more productive and efficient business.

On the other hand, poor communication can cause challenges. Especially for remote teams, poor communication may result in the following:

• A high-stress environment
• Imbalanced or duplicate work
• Low employee engagement
• High employee turnover
• Unsatisfied clients
• Mistrust amongst workforce

Strong work cultures and communications practices are developed by people managers leading the way. Leaders should be transparent, proactively answer their team members’ questions and give context when making decisions.

When managers are strong communicators, their communication styles set the tone for how their team members communicate. After all, having an open dialogue creates a healthy work environment.

How to improve communication across your remote team.

Here are 10 ways you can enhance communication across your team:

1. Get to know your team.

Not everyone within your organization is confident or ambitious. Understanding the characteristics of your individual team members and how they communicate can help you manage your team and your expectations.

2. Encourage engagement.

No one likes to be micro-managed. That’s why leaders should seek to encourage and support employees while still giving them the freedom to create. Schedule weekly meetings to let everyone share their work to get all team members involved and engaged.

3. Promote bottom-up communication.

Junior staff members may need more confidence to speak up, so encourage them to join the conversation and share ideas by asking them questions and inviting feedback. A little encouragement can go a long way.

4. Choose your words carefully.

Tone and language can easily be misinterpreted, particularly in written communication. Encourage your team to proof their messages before sending them to help ensure they’re delivering the right tone.

5. Strive for transparency.

Being transparent and honest is vital to preventing miscommunication. Give team members context and show them how and why their work connects to corporate goals. Understanding increases motivation and makes employees feel like valued team members.

6. Resolve conflicts quickly.

Miscommunication and a lack of transparency can create team disputes and stifle collaboration. Conversely, quickly resolving conflict can minimize bad feelings, gossip and confusion.

7. Don’t bombard employees with communication.

It can overwhelm employees when they receive too many emails or Slack messages in a short period.  Feeling pressure to weed through numerous communications across various channels can negatively impact productivity and cause unnecessary stress.

8. Schedule one-to-one meetings.

Regular one-on-one meetings allow managers to address issues and check in on the wellbeing of their team members. Employees are often more confident when they’re provided space to talk freely.

9. Provide consistent feedback.

Team members appreciate constructive feedback and reassurance about their work quality and value. Similarly, people managers should seek regular feedback from their direct reports to quickly address any issues. Anonymous surveys are a great way to seek input.

10. Offer communication training + AI readiness training.

When it comes to communication, there’s always room for improvement. That’s why we stocked the Electives library with communication classes that are inclusive, interactive, impactful and unforgettable. Likewise, generative AI training can drastically improve communication skills. When employees know how to leverage AI well, they can use it to draft, refine and edit their communications.

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