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The Flevy Blog covers Business Strategies, Business Theories, & Business Stories.
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Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Structured Thinking 101: Clarity Through Storylines (39-slide PowerPoint presentation). Clarity is critical in business communication of all kinds, yet difficult to achieve. To add insult, clarity is necessary, but not sufficient. Powerful professional communication must also deliver an insightful message, while often prepared in collaboration with others and under great [read more]
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To begin with, let’s define what is remote work (also known as telecommuting) in the first place. Remote working is also known as telecommuting. It is a work system in which employees aren’t required to be at a designated office to discharge their duties. This work arrangement is akin to freelancing when employees work away from the office, and it is basically the future of work.
Communication is vital for every workforce. Without it, necessary information will not circulate in an organization and teams will work based on assumptions. These communication gaps will inevitably lead to mistakes. If you have a remote team, you need to put extra effort into communication to keep them in line. So, how do you communicate appropriately with them?
A writer’s job is to put ideas into written media for a target audience. Writers may offer an essay writing service, blogging, guest posting services, etc. In essence, they are primarily communicators. However, writers can be notoriously difficult to communicate with when they’re part of a remote team. Luckily, we have some tips at hand to help you solve that problem.
1. Get Your Timing Right
There is a concept known as “over-communicating.” This concept involves the repetition of specific information or divulging more details than necessary. The general idea is that the more you repeat a message, the less likely it is that the receiver will muddle it up or forget it.
While the concept works on paper, it doesn’t always work in practice, especially with remote workers. Rather than take this fire brigade approach to communication, try working on the timing of communication. Create a plan detailing when to share information with your remote writers, what channel to use and how to ensure that everyone understands you.
Include reminders that are well-spaced. You can determine the best intervals between reminders by asking your writers directly. Creating a poll can also get the job done.
2. Choose an Effective Communication Channel
In any writing team, members will always have different preferences. These differences can include the medium of communication that they prefer. Some may favor phone calls, while others may choose emails or texts from collaboration software like Slack and Google Hangouts.
So, when choosing a medium of communication with coworkers, consider the best approach for most of the team. Consider the ease of communicating using the platforms, their reach and efficiency. After choosing a communication medium, patiently help team members who aren’t familiar with the new method get used to it.
3. Be Proactive
When communicating with writers who are working from home, you need to take charge. Like a shark is drawn to blood, your team can sense when you don’t have all the details. When they feel that uncertainty in you, they may not put in as much effort into the job. It’s like a domino effect.
Be proactive. Give clear instructions to specific writers in your team (or to separate units). Get your end of the deal sorted out before giving instructions to your writers. This way, you will lead by example and lift team morale.
4. Keep Your Writers Accountable
To avoid a decline in the quality of work that your writers submit, you need to keep them on their toes. Plan to have every writer meet up with communication standards in your remote work hub. This will help with team building and accountability. You can also have a writer share their progress with the team at the end of every workweek. At the next meeting, have another writer do the same, and so forth.
5. Stick to Guidelines
When dealing with remote writers, you need explicit communication policies. Before you bring anyone onboard, relay your expectations to them precisely and to the team generally. Your expectations regarding communication can include:
Relay these expectations before any form of work begins so that nobody will be caught off-guard. Put all of these expectations in a written format and send them to all remote writers. You can also discuss them via an audio or video session if you want. However, always have written copies handy to avoid downplaying the importance of written communication.
6. Create a Meeting Agenda in Advance
To have practical, thorough, and quick meetings with your team members, create a meeting agenda ahead of time. Once you get a meeting date fixed, send a copy of the plan to all other team members. This approach will give your remote writing team the chance to prepare ahead of time. It will also ensure they understand what and how to contribute to the discussion.
7. Cut Back on Unnecessary Meetings
It is essential to have regular meetings with your team members to discuss core issues. But for some information, you don’t have to call a team-wide meeting. You can pass some instructions or questions across via mail or call. According to research, 33.4% of meeting time is considered unproductive. So unless you absolutely need a meeting (and risk breaking your writers’ flow), use team channels to relay general information.
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