Remote collaboration is working on projects or tasks with a group of people while being physically located in different locations or countries and involves communicating and sharing ideas using a variety of tools and technology platforms.
Remote collaboration could be perceived as becoming more of a norm following the pandemic but according to a 2019 report by International Workplace Group (IWG), 50% of employees globally were working outside their main office headquarters for at least 2.5 days a week.
In this blog piece we’ll be sharing the key challenges facing remote teams, how to manage remote teams effectively and best practices for implementing a remote collaboration solution.
Challenges Facing Remote Teams
Remote working and collaboration brings many benefits but it can also be challenging and needs a supportive culture and robust procedures and clear expectations set. Here are some common challenges associated with remote collaboration:
Communication
Effective communication is key for remote working and collaboration to be successful. It can be challenging when people are physically disparate and working across various time zones can prove difficult causing delays in response, misunderstanding and reduced productivity. Ineffective communication can also lead to isolation and lack of engagement with team members so fostering a positive working environment is imperative.
Coordination
Getting team members together to discuss key projects can be arduous and requires alignment of schedules often weeks in advance. With a physical distance between team members it can also be hard to assign responsibilities and tasks and ensure everyone is on the same page.
Distractions
When team members work remotely the lines of communication can be blurred with the boundaries between work and home life unclear. This can often lead to difficulty separating work time from personal time impacting on employee productivity and well-being.
Technology
To help facilitate remote collaboration, having the right technology solution and platform available to everyone is crucial. Technology can also prove challenging when issues occur and there may be compatibility issues which can disrupt communication and impact productivity.
Security
Remote collaboration often requires the sharing of private and confidential data or information so working collaboratively can be challenging when not working in a controlled office environment. Remote collaboration requires stringent security measures and data protection policies to prevent unauthorized access to confidential information.
Trust
Finally the most important challenge is around building a good rapport between a team and a trusted working environment. This can be challenging to establish relationships with each other with limited face to face communication and can result in reduced trust and cohesion.
Best Practices for Remote Collaboration
Below are the top ten tips for effective remote collaboration
- Communicate effectively – provide clear and frequent communication amongst the team and ensure it’s in a timely manner and accessible to everyone.
- Set clear expectations – ensure goals and milestones are clearly communicated alongside any deadlines.
- Use collaboration tools – there are a variety of tools available to make remote collaboration easy and effective. Tools should enable real-time collaboration, provide file sharing opportunities, and task tracking.
- Team building – despite the geographical differences between team members you need to make an effort to foster a culture of collaboration and create dedicated time and space for non-work related conversation and activities.
- Check in regularly – make sure there is dedicated time to regroup and address any challenges or concerns. This helps with alignment and enables discussion and idea sharing.
- Encourage idea and knowledge sharing – to maintain productivity, share best practices, insights and tips to enhance learning and collaboration.
- Accessible information – make time to set up clear processes and ways of sharing relevant information and project updates. Consider a shared area where everyone can access the most up-to-date information to minimize confusion
- Promote work-life balance – set clear boundaries and emphasize the importance of taking regular breaks to prevent burnout.
- Build trust – promote transparency and encourage open and honest communication to provide support and help team members fulfill their work commitments
- Learn & feed back – it’s crucial to review any remote collaboration processes that are developed and understand what is working, what isn’t and what needs to be done differently moving forward to evolve and improve processes over time.
Implementing a Remote Collaboration Solution
- Understand your requirements – what key challenges do you want to address through remote collaboration?
- Research the collaboration tools – evaluate which tools and platforms meet your needs (consider ease of use, features, security and scalability)
- Set out goals – define a timeline for implementing a remote collaboration solution and define key milestones for getting there to make sure it aligns with your organization’s strategy
- Provide training – make sure team members have access to training and understand how to use the selected collaboration tools. Provide regular updates and check-ins to maintain effective communication.
- Create culture – promote the value of a remote collaboration culture and encourage not only a environment of inclusivity but also cross-functional collaboration and communication
- Test and pilot – before switching and implementing across whole organization test with small group of users to identify and challenge
- Rollout and adoption – develop a communication plan around the rollout once the pilot phase has been completed and successful.
- Evaluate and feedback – key to the success of implementing a remote collaboration process is feedback from those using it. Make sure there are opportunities to feed back and share new features or updates.
Remember an implementation process takes time and will vary by organization and the tools you use, but it’s essential to adapt and get feedback on the process to make sure you meet your initial requirements and goals.
How Companies are Integrating Remote Collaboration into their Workflow
Many organizations have now adopted a hybrid working model enabling employees to work both remotely and from a traditional office space and are evaluating employee productivity and retention. With the shift to hybrid working and collaboration brings a demand for more sophisticated collaboration tools, and immersive technologies that can create virtual meeting spaces and enable remote collaboration in shared environments. Choosing the right tools to support your workflow is critical and ensuring they seamlessly integrate with existing infrastructure is important for adoption.
How Does X2O Media Know So Much about Remote Collaboration?
X2O Media has been working with customers around the globe to support hybrid and remote collaboration and training needs, and their X2O OneRoom solution is used by higher education institutions and global corporations to bring employees together in the same space regardless of location.
OneRoom offers a dynamic space to connect and communicate and is a powerful solution. It offers an unparalleled, immersive experience alongside integrated collaboration tools including interactive whiteboards, polls/voting features and breakout rooms.
Sign up for our next X2O OneRoom demo to see how you can take the next step with your remote collaboration needs, and shape a new way of hybrid working.
