Five Ways to Improve Collaboration When Working Remotely

The coronavirus pandemic has forever changed the way we work. The abrupt closures of offices around the world ushered in a new era of working remotely for millions. While the transition to working remotely may have been bumpy at times, a recent Pew research study showed that 80% of remote workers surveyed found it easy to meet deadlines while working from home.

Now the “new normal,” many corporations are embracing a remote style of work, which allows their teams more flexibility and control over their time. A Gartner survey of company leaders found that 80% plan to allow employees to work remotely at least part of the time after the pandemic. In a PwC survey of 669 CEOs, 78% agree that remote collaboration is here to stay for the long-term.

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While many workers find they can be just as productive working from home vs. in an office, the true key to a successful remote work culture is to find ways to enhance virtual collaboration. Here are five ways we’ve identified with our own remote team here at Nextup to prioritize collaboration.

1.Utilize a Communication App

If you’re still mainly relying on email to facilitate communication between your team, you’re missing out on key collaboration benefits that come from using a communication app like Slack or Microsoft Teams. In fact, the team collaboration software market reached $9.5 billion globally and has transformed how companies communicate.

These tools allow your staff to communicate via quick messages, react with emojis, reply in threads to organize topics and easily search for past communication. If your team is working remotely, then it’s an absolute must to utilize either Slack or Teams.

2.Encourage Productive Meetings‍

While meetings can feel like a time suck, they have become more important than ever in establishing collaboration among remote workers. The key to a successful meeting is to encourage them to be as productive as possible.

This means having a thought-out agenda, staying on topic and working to accomplish the meeting goal as quickly as possible. Nextup is currently working on a new product that is aiming to make meetings more productive than ever by utilizing AI and other automated functions. Stay tuned for more on that!

3.Set Boundaries

The key to great remote collaboration is not to be “always available.” In fact, being always on is a great way to create burn out and resentment, which doesn’t exactly improve collaboration and productivity.

Here at Nextup we encourage everyone to have clear boundaries with their time. By clearly communicating when you’re available and when you’re not, you are setting yourself up to have positive, respectful relationships with your co-workers.

4. Save Time with Integrations

It’s no secret that one of the best ways to boost collaboration is to make your various processes work in sync. Integration tools – like our Jira Integration+ and HelpDesk+ – allow you to streamline all your IT and dev opp processes within Slack.

The result of using smart integrations? Time saved from not having to toggle between apps, clearer communication among teams and projects that move to market faster. If you’re wondering how an integration can improve your team’s workflow, reach out to Logan on our team (logan@nextup.ai)  for an exploratory conversation.

5. Celebrate Company Wins

When you’re working remotely, it’s easy to get stuck in your silo and be singularly focused on your workflow. A great way to pull your teams together and foster a “we” mentality is to celebrate big and small wins as a team.

This can be as small as a Slack channel message to the whole team giving someone kudos on a completed project or as big as sending everyone cookies to their home to celebrate a big deal closing. Finding ways to pull the team together to celebrate is a great way to bring your remote workers closer.

With remote styles of working here to stay, it’s more important than ever to boost your team’s collaboration. Creating a culture of positive communication and healthy boundaries combined with the right integration and communication tools can help your team successfully navigate working from home.

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