Hybrid teams, flexible schedules, and remote work can be powerful tools for retaining employees. But hybrid teams come with their own special challenges. Here are a few tips to ensure your hybrid team is communicating as effectively as it can.
Let People Know When You’re Available to Talk
Do you work from 9-5, Eastern Time? Stick that in your email signature, your voice mail message, your website, your social media—anywhere people choose to reach out. If co-workers, clients, and other people you’re talking to know when you’re “at work,” communication will be smoother and they’ll appreciate it.
Document Everything
When everyone is remote, it’s easy to miss out on meetings and other important conversations. So make note of important stuff that effects everyone and make sure that information gets circulated. Be sure to share it in a way that is easy and friction free.
Be Aware of Your Tone . . .
Written communication has a specific disadvantage over face-to-face or even voice communication, which is that the majority of communication is non-verbal. That being the case, be sure to watch your tone in emails and messages. In some situations, especially messaging, emoticons can actually make it easier to convey your tone.
. . . But Be Forgiving of Others’ Tone
Tone is hard for some people, and written communication doesn’t come naturally to many. When you see something that looks like it might be a little rude or angry, give the benefit of the doubt.
Have a Communications Policy
Your policy doesn’t need to run pages and pages, but it should exist. If you think that a particular app or platform should be your main channel of internal communication, make that your stated policy. If you think that no one should send emails after-hours, make that your stated policy. You get the idea. If you want communications to work a certain way in your business, the first step is to establish the rules.
Observe Etiquette
Have you noticed that social niceties can sometimes go out the window in the digital world? Sad, but true. Model the etiquette you want to see from others and make it a priority. It’s easy to think of something simple like social rules as not as important as big stuff like budgets and managing clients and product development, but etiquette is one of the ways companies develop and maintain a positive culture.
Be Sure to Take Special Care of New Employees
Being the new person at work is like being the new character on a TV show that’s been running for six seasons. Everyone else knows what’s going on and has history. The new person doesn’t. And if you’re all remote or there’s some combination of remote-and in office, it’s even harder to get up to speed. So, take extra care of your new person and be very clear on how you expect them to communicate and how others will communicate with them.
Constantly Re-Evaluate
Be sure to regularly look at how people are communicating and whether or not things are going smoothly. You may have to change your policies or do more on your end to model the behaviour you want. We all have to work harder when it comes to digital communication. Let’s be sure to evaluate what we’re doing and figure out how it can be better.
