It’s nine months into the pandemic and a widely successful global work-from-home experiment, and companies are getting comfortable collaborating in a remote work environment.
Investing in video conferencing platforms, figuring out how to run productive remote meetings, and deciding to trust employees to get their work done have all made the transition to remote work a triumphant one for many businesses.
But even with video meetings, virtual happy hours, and instant messaging options, one thing still seems to be missing—the informal work-related interactions of an in-person office environment.
This unstructured collaboration time has multiple benefits for companies and employees alike, but it’s harder to come by in a remote work environment. Here’s why this type of collaboration is so important and how you can weave it into the fabric of your company’s long-term remote work plans.
Finding Time to Connect Informally
Most companies have figured out that employees still need opportunities to connect socially in a remote environment. To replace office lunches and after-work shindigs, they’ve set up ways for their staff to stay in touch, whether it’s via virtual holiday celebrations, weekly trivia sessions, or online wellness classes.
But what about opportunities to collaborate during office hours on work-related tasks? In a physical workspace, employees could pop into a colleague’s office to ask a quick question or bounce ideas off each other over cubicle walls during the day. Impromptu brainstorming and information sharing sessions were often the norm, and it was easy for employees to feel in the loop on daily happenings.
Sure, remote meetings help teams connect, but scheduled calls don’t always lend themselves to the spontaneous collaboration that makes work feel meaningful, creative, and energizing. And too many scheduled meetings can lead to remote meeting fatigue—a very real feeling of exhaustion from too many virtual video calls.
Not being able to connect informally can also make employees feel professionally isolated, leading to dissatisfaction with their jobs. So, how do you ensure that your remote staff can informally collaborate on a professional level to keep creativity and job satisfaction at an all-time high? As with many aspects of remote work, it requires intentionally setting out to support unstructured collaboration time.
Discover a better way to recruit remote talent
Founded in 2007, FlexJobs is the most experienced remote & hybrid hiring platform.
- Unlimited job posts
- Low, flat membership fee
- Access top-level remote advice
- Unlimited resume searches
- Reach the right candidates
- And so much more!
Remote But Together
Fortunately, technology can do wonders when it comes to connecting and collaborating in a remote work environment. This is how some companies are providing for informal collaboration time.
Online Offices
Even if you have employees spread all over the globe, you can still help everyone feel like they’re working together in an office by using a virtual office platform like Sococo or Walkabout Workplace.
When your staff logs into one of these online workspaces every day, they have a visual representation of the company, including who is (and isn’t) in the office and who may be available to chat. Teams can set up their own offices within the larger workspace, and each staff member has an icon or avatar that shows where they are in the office and their current status.
Much like in a “real” office, employees can pop over to another space to ask a question or have a conversation—connecting spontaneously via voice, chat, screen sharing, and video.
Remote Coworking
Many remote workers are familiar with traditional physical coworking spaces, where people from different companies and freelancers working on various contracts can come together to work remotely. Why not put a spin on this and encourage your staff to virtually cowork?
For some workers, just having someone else there at the other end of the line to informally bounce ideas off can help immensely to prevent feelings of isolation and encourage creative thinking and collaboration.
This won’t work for everyone, but can be a huge benefit for some. You can help your employees get started by suggesting interested team members set up an hour or more of time to just work together…virtually. They can log into a video conferencing platform and go about their normal work tasks, talking when needed but quietly working as well. This type of collaboration can work particularly well to help move work along when employees don’t have to wait for answers via email or instant messaging (which isn’t always “instant”).
Virtual Office Hours
Managers can borrow a page from remote educators’ playbooks and set daily or weekly open office hours when they “hang out” in a virtual video conference and answer any questions that come their way. Staff can pop in and out of the call as needed—no appointment necessary.
Whether two people or 20 show up to the open call, this is a time when managers and team leaders can respond to questions, provide information, and brainstorm ideas, without any predetermined agenda or plan. When employees know they’ll have the opportunity to participate in this type of unstructured collaboration, not only will they feel more included, but they’ll likely feel empowered to bring new ideas to the table.
On-the-Clock Downtime
In a remote work environment without all the distractions of an office, it’s easy to pack your team’s days with wall-to-wall tasks. But if your employees have no unscheduled time to collaborate with other team members or brainstorm about process improvements and big picture ideas, work can start to feel like a never-ending to-do list.
Building some “free” hours into your staffs’ schedules to collaborate with colleagues or do work that may be outside of their regular job duties gives them some control and encourages them to take charge of their careers. And it’s not something you have to schedule! Once employees know that they have a couple of hours a week to think outside the box, they’ll figure out when to best use their company-sanctioned (unstructured) collaboration time.
Make Unstructured Collaboration Time a Priority
Collaborating in a remote work environment is essential for company success and employee satisfaction and engagement, but it shouldn’t all be structured meetings that add to everyone’s already-packed schedules. Allowing for informal, unstructured collaboration time will recharge your team’s batteries, spark some creativity, and help everyone feel excited and empowered about their work.
FlexJobs works with companies of every shape and size to provide remote work support and advice. If you’re looking for expert guidance, get in touch with us today!
Get in Touch With a FlexJobs Expert >>>
Don't forget to share this article with colleagues!
