Coronavirus Crisis: 3 Strategies to Improve Team Collaboration

According to recent data, 50% of the UK workforce work remotely, and 55% of business globally offer some capacity for remote work. We’re no longer running for the bus; instead, we’re working out how to connect ourselves to our meetings or worrying about the quality of our webcams.

This sharp move to a technology based working environment comes with many technical difficulties and disruptions that can play havoc on the flow and ease of team communication. So along with selecting a strong broadband provider, how can you ensure that your team meetings run as smoothly as possible to improve collaboration in the pandemic?

Choosing the correct form of communication

In order to keep all team members up-to-date and on task, it’s important to maintain regular, clear communication. This may be difficult when working remotely with your staff all using different types of technology, working from different locations and having their own individual responsibilities during the pandemic. The key to tackling these problems is to use communication tools that work well for everyone and allow easy messaging between different team members.

A great way to ensure that your team has easy access to communication is to utilise an instant messaging tool, such as Google+ Hangouts or WeChat Work. These allow businesses to create group messaging systems that each member can easily access from their smartphone or laptop throughout the day and can quickly send messages between colleagues. Instant messaging is also great for any team members who may have other duties in the day, such as looking after children, as smartphones mean messages can be accessed anywhere.

Creating a good schedule

Without regular 9-5 working hours, it becomes easy to procrastinate as there are distractions that wouldn’t usually be a problem in the office. Motivating yourself to turn-off the TV and complete a day's worth of work can be incredibly challenging, especially when your boss isn’t around to tell you to do your job.

Encouraging your employees to create an effective schedule that manages their time, whilst giving them their regular breaks is a great way to chunk up tasks and increase productivity throughout the day. You could even schedule daily team briefings using software such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams to resemble a regular working day and give your team structure. Having a clear schedule will encourage employees to complete their daily tasks on time so that they can enjoy their evenings and give them targets to work towards.

Set regular goals, targets and challenges

Sitting behind a computer and speaking through a screen for hours a day can decrease morale and leave employees feeling unmotivated about their work and the company, reducing productivity and enthusiasm. Reiterating your goals and targets daily can keep workers on track and give them a clear outcome to work towards. This will increase motivation to complete tasks and keep the productivity high.

Additionally, you could create challenges within your team to encourage members to work together towards tasks and work to their highest ability. Not only will this make working from home more interesting for your team (increasing enthusiasm for the job), but it’ll also allow them to socialise despite the current restrictions that greatly impact team communication.

Working from home brings many challenges. However following the above strategies will be a great way to improve team collboration during the pandemic. By keeping your broadband connection strong, encouraging regular communication, setting clear targets and working around any obstacles that your team may face, you can create will a great working environment and high team productivity.