Collaboration among team members has always been essential to company success, but it has become even more vital as more organizations adopt remote work. While there’s no doubt that the work-from-home concept has plenty of advantages, keeping a remote team working together efficiently can be a challenge.
As a result, it’s not difficult to see the importance of using technology to help with team collaboration. From improved communication to enhanced security, here are 5 ways technology can help remote teams to collaborate better.
1.Improved Communication
According to statistics, about 70% of remote employees feel disconnected and left out of the workplace. Using communication tools, team members can set up video conference calls, send messages, and make sure that the communication lines are open at all times.
Collaboration tools like Trello and Slack, for example, can make it easier for your employees to communicate. You can easily see who’s available online, so if you need to contact someone right away, it’s simple to outsource a task without delay. In addition, these tools allow you to share files and divide discussions into dedicated channels to keep everything organized.
2.Team Building
While the change to remote work has aided many people in achieving a better work-life balance, it has also increased the need for team-building events. Team building can be a valuable tool for improving relationships among coworkers and bringing them together. However, team-building exercises are sometimes disregarded due to the cost and time needed.
The truth is that team-building can have long-term benefits, and virtual team building activities make it easy to organize events that save time for team members and allow everyone to actively participate in the event. Virtual team-building events can take many forms, but regardless of the format, comparable benefits can be expected. Bringing coworkers together to share an experience is a great way to help them connect, which can lead to better working relationships.
3.Enhanced Security
The ability to operate online without fear of compromising confidential files is a top need for companies that deal with a lot of sensitive data, such as the legal sector and retail. Fortunately, modern collaboration solutions are not only encrypted, but they also provide you with complete control over who sees your data.
It’s unquestionably preferable to deliver your files via email, which has witnessed a 600% spike in threats.
4.Project Management
When your team members are located in different parts of the world, keeping track of deadlines and scheduling project meetings can be tough. However, project collaboration software makes it easier for employers to keep track of your projects, prioritize critical tasks, monitor team productivity, and facilitate cooperation.
Project management tools make document management easier as well. Spreadsheets that are updated and sent by email can cause confusion because it’s difficult to know which version is the most current. As a result, it’s not surprising that the number of businesses using spreadsheets fell from 63% to 54% between 2018 and 2019. By building a single online database, information can be updated in real-time to make sure that every employee has access to accurate facts.
5.Training
A strong training and development program can have a number of benefits, such as increased employee engagement, improved retention rates, reduced risks, and increased innovative thinking. At the moment, 74% of employees are willing to learn new professional skills but aren’t reaching their full potential at work due to a lack of development opportunities.
Companies can build training courses to help workers perform better and collaborate more effectively using technology. AR (augmented reality) can be used in training sessions to motivate staff and educate them on how to collaborate more effectively. Employees can also participate in webinars and training events offered by business veterans at the same time. This type of mentoring is critical in assisting people in reaching their full potential and developing positive working relationships.
Final Thoughts
For your remote team to succeed, collaboration is critical. However, creating and maintaining a distant collaboration environment might be difficult. The good news is that using remote working and collaboration solutions makes it a lot easier to keep your team members engaged and ready to face work-related challenges.
Remote project management systems, for example, let you track job progress and assign responsibilities to individual team members. These tools also have features that make communication easier and more convenient. Technology can also be used for employee appreciation and engagement activities, ensuring that your staff is satisfied while also strengthening and sustaining team bonds.
