Teleworking is the order of the day. Many have discovered this modality due to the pandemic. And although not everyone likes it, some find it a way like any other of performing their professional duties from their own home. It's more. We have never had so many technological advantages so that teleworking is possible and comfortable . To telework alone and to work as a team.
Precisely, one of the impediments that some put to teleworking is the supposed difficulty to work in a team . However, video calling tools such as Microsoft Teams, Google Meet or Zoom and other live chat tools such as Telegram or Slack allow to organize teamwork. No matter where you are.
But these are just some examples of the many online solutions for teleworking as a team without communication problems. And if they do not convince you, Google offers us some tips to better organize online teamwork .
Simple communication with a distribution list
Google begins its first tip like this: “Do you need to share the same information with team members who are in other locations? Create an email list to facilitate communication in your team. ”
If you have to send communications to several people, the distribution lists will send the message to a list of selected addresses . So you won't have to send the same message to each one separately.
Get organized with team calendars
In addition to email, calendars are an essential tool to view tasks, projects and meetings in a time frame. According to Google, “you can overlay the calendars of your team members to see when they are available.”
By creating multiple calendars, individual and group, you can easily manage meetings, projects, vacations and other team events . It will help you to be better organized and to record these events for the future.
Team or project spaces
Constant comunication. It is important to work as a team, both physically and from a distance if you are going to telecommute. Without communication it is difficult to distribute tasks , share resources and information and, ultimately, come to fruition.
In this sense, in addition to email and the calendar, a tool for communication in real time such as a chat is important. At the beginning of this article we have mentioned several examples. Video calling solutions such as Zoom, Meet or Teams also have chat channels . And, of course, it is also possible to create channels and private in Telegram or Slack .
A shared disk
In the three previous tips we have fought possible communication problems, the main criticism of teleworking and, especially, of working as a team. But beyond communication, the next element to consider is file and document sharing .
Google's advice obviously mentions Google Drive. Your online storage service. However, there are currently dozens of services of this type, free and paid. They all offer remote storage and the ability to restrict file and folder sharing to certain people.
It is also possible to share storage through NAS devices or using your own computer as a file server.
Time organization real
Google mentions spreadsheets as a tool for all team members to report the status of their tasks or activities . He explains it like this: “Team members in different locations will be able to update directly in real time the status of their work and will not have to search for notifications from others between emails ”.
But as soon as you have worked as a team, you will have known more efficient tools to inform the rest of your colleagues what you are working on at that moment and what percentage of completion you have been. The most popular is Trello , but there are many more, such as Asana, JIRA, Airtable or Basecamp .
A shared online spreadsheet can be used to make columns and indicate completed or ongoing tasks. But the aforementioned tools are specifically designed for this. And as a more rudimentary alternative, an online calendar will also work.
Video calls and remote events
Working as a team requires that, from time to time, periodic meetings be held to update you and to exchange information and impressions about projects and other aspects related to the company. And teleworking is not incompatible with meetings.
Precisely. As a result of the pandemic and the imposed isolation, we have discovered dozens of applications that allow to talk remotely via audio and video with two, five, ten or more people. There are many examples. And even Telegram has incorporated this function natively.
Yes indeed. Being able to make video calls does not imply abusing them. If, precisely, the face-to-face work had a endemic problem that was widespread, it was “reunionitis”. Whole days of meetings in which hardly anything is achieved. And that prevents those who are part of them from working normally. Misused video calls can rob us of valuable time despite the benefits of telecommuting.
