What do Jacinda Arden, Nelson Mandela, and former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian all have in common? They know how to communicate and connect with their audience effectively. 

While your leaders are running teams, not countries or disaster efforts, the principles of effective communication are the same. Leading with empathy, knowing when to listen, and clearly and concisely conveying the right amount of information at the right time. 

The sudden shift to remote work has meant some businesses have been slow to adopt best practices in terms of virtual communication. In a rush to set up home offices and ensure adequate access to information, communication and collaboration within teams was often left to happen organically in back-to-back Zoom meetings. 

Communicating Successfully in a Hybrid Workplace

As we continue to work remotely or in a hybrid manner, ensuring teams are communicating effectively is key.

56% of workers agree that connection is their greatest team challenge. 

Atlassian’s “Reworking Work” survey reveals that the single greatest challenge to effective hybrid work is connection quality, largely driven by communication challenges between team members. Over half of the participants (56 percent) agreed that connection is their greatest team challenge. 

There’s a good business case for building connected teams too. With 97 percent of workers believe that communication impacts tasks every day. And a recent McKinsey study demonstrating organisations with connected employees show a 20-25 percent increase in productivity. 

“Technology has allowed us to reach people anywhere and at any time, but communication is critical in supporting teams to work together,” says Transitioning Well’s Dr. Sarah Cotton. “Managers now need to draw clear lines and rules of communication, plan meetings within and across teams and encourage employees to include their working hours or days in the office on their email signatures.” 

Communication is key in building high-performing teams

“A critical component of high-performing teams is quality peer-to-peer relationships,” says Organisational Psychologist, Bri Hayllar.

“While some feedback suggests quality of peer-to-peer relationships have improved since the introduction of remote work, others report further separation from their teammates due to a decline in social time while working remotely.” 

Depending on the size of your business, there could be a real lack of visibility for some employees working from home. Implement regular virtual one-on-one meetings with remote staff to ensure they stay connected to updates they may have missed on their days out of the office.

Four strategies to improve and nurture workplace relationships as we move into hybrid ways of working

• Allocate meeting time to talk socially, ensuring all attendees are included and can participate
• Pick up the phone occasionally 
• Arrange virtual catch-ups that all team members can attend (e.g., morning tea, after work drinks, games, and trivia)
• Idea: If dialling in to a meeting, utilise funny or interesting backgrounds to spark conversations

Improving virtual communication in hybrid workplaces 

• Use cloud-based documents to take breaks from real-time collaboration efforts
• Avoid side conversations that members joining virtually may miss
• Shorten meeting times by 5-10 minutes to facilitate rest and recovery between meetings 
• Explore virtual tools that enable hybrid working groups such as Microsoft Team Planners, Brainstorming sessions using virtual whiteboards
• Make time for meaningful connections throughout each day, no matter where you or your team are working!

Want to improve the communication in your remote and hybrid teams? 

Our three-part Hybrid Series ensures your leaders and teams have the best practice strategies needed to communicate in a hybrid workplace. Contact us to learn how.