Effective communication within a group has been extremely important since the dawn of man. It has helped individuals cooperate, build, hunt, and survive long-term. Fast forward to the present day and the idea remains as true as ever. The problem with team communication though is that many people won’t understand how important it is until they’ve been in a situation where it was either terrible or amazing. Luckily for the former group, there are multiple fixes available. Bear with me as I discuss how to make team collaboration more efficient with a group chat app.
If you own a business these days, especially one operating in the digital industry, it’s likely your team includes, or had at some point, members working remotely. The trend is growing worldwide and there are good reasons for it.
Still, this setup isn’t without faults. Certain problems may arise, many of which will stem from poor communication system. Team collaboration in virtual offices may suffer due to:
- members feeling disconnected and isolated
- snowballing delays caused by different time zones
- plummeting motivation
- conflicts caused by miscommunication
The lack of face-to-face contact on a regular basis may lead to deterioration of communication skills. Sure, there’s email and telephone available, but one usually isn’t instant, and the other can’t be used in all situations.
The right approach to team collaboration
The success of a project, before any models and methodologies, greatly depends on the people involved. Then come the tools at their disposal. Even the best specialists won’t be able to do their job if they don’t have the right instruments. Finally, soft skills, including the ability to convey information to other team members efficiently, matter a lot. Maybe even more so in traditionally hard fields like IT.
Plenty of tools exist that can boost performance and productivity of a remote team. There are many aspects of your organization you can optimize with various widgets and apps.
One essential aspect I’d like to focus on, regardless of the industry you’re operating in, is the day-to-day team communication.
Boosting productivity with instant messaging
As previously mentioned, productivity can take a major hit with remote workers. Some of the reasons may be rooted in the very people involved, other will stem from poor communication style, not involving clear-cut channels.
Whatever the reason may be, you can improve your team collaboration efforts and bring members closer together by:
- Introducing an instant messaging app
- Defining clear guidelines on when and how to use it
I’ve previously discussed the benefits of group chat in business context on multiple occasions. I suggest you take a look at:
Effective Team Communication Made Possible With Live Chat
Group Chat For Business – Workplace Communication Evolved
The Best Slack Alternative For Team Communication (You Can Get For Free!)
and once you’re done, I have some fresh bits of information to top it all off.
More reasons to facilitate team communication
Writing this post, I came across an interesting study by Ferreira and Du Plessis included in their book titled “Effect of Online Social Networking on Employee Productivity”, the conclusions of which I decided to share. I found one issue particularly relevant to the topic at hand, so let me go ahead and bring it up briefly.
Encouraging online social networking
Ferreira and Du Plessis have investigated how social networking affects employee productivity. What they found was rather surprising. It appeared social networking (LinkedIn and intranet-based social networks, as opposed to Facebook and Twitter) can stimulate productivity through knowledge sharing.
Obviously, keeping social networking under controlled conditions is crucial. The authors recommend developing in-house platforms, such as adapted versions of Webex.
Also, chat SaaS platforms such as Chatwee can be an excellent way of keeping networking activities focused on milestones and project progression.
Staying on the topic of technology and team collaboration…
Workers want interactive technologies
Oblong Industries conducted a survey of IT professionals in 2018, revealing that a whopping 91% of the staff questioned agreed or strongly agreed that “engaging with data and information using interactive, immersive methods can help solve complex business issues.”
Sounds like something you can achieve with a group chat app.
Using Chatwee, you can share links, images, and other files across multiple rooms, kind of like in Slack channels. Instant messaging is a great alternative to email threads, which often get cluttered too. Group live chat facilitates team collaboration and provides members of remote teams with means to instantly communicate with multiple other individuals involved in ongoing projects on desktop and mobile.
Conclusion
The role of any team collaboration software is to improve productivity and drive project completion – issues essential for virtual offices for reasons specified earlier in this post.
Efficient, real-time communication proves to be instrumental in meeting milestones and achieving bigger goals. If your team includes remote workers, instant messaging app can greatly improve its performance and output.
Take a quick moment to watch the explainer video below and sign up for Chatwee today.
