How To Keep In Touch With Colleagues At A Work From Home Job

December 22, 2017

Virtual Communication and Virtual Activities, A Must

If this is your first time transitioning from a regular office job that required your daily physical presence to a remote job from home, you are prone to face quite a few challenges you might not be used to. The good news is that your efforts will be joined by the company that you have been hired by, with the purpose of maintaining the team's cohesion, while fulfilling as many social needs of all employees. This can be achieved with the help of a series of virtual activities and online forms of communication.

Unfortunately, not all businesses are ready to fully embrace this current, and it would appear that only around 30 percent of Americans have the necessary means to work from home hassle-free. In other words, the rest are expected to experience different disruptions, some more serious than others. Social distancing should not, however, be a reason for you to feel completely disconnected while fulfilling your work duties. There are still plenty of creative solutions that will allow you to stay in touch with your new colleagues and at least try to keep things as relaxed as possible. Here are a few of the most efficient of them:

Work On Creating Virtual Team Rituals

Simply because you are not in a brick-and-mortar office does not mean that you should not still create and hold on to a few fun habits with your new team. It will give you the chance to create stronger bonds, in spite of the physical distancing, and ultimately create a synergy that will trigger higher rates of productivity. These are some of the most efficient virtual office habits you could embrace:

have your weekly or daily virtual coffee with your coworkers at a time and date that you have all agreed upon. Do it over a video conference and use your laptop, smartphone, or tablet for it, whatever feels more comfortable. Remember it is supposed to be a relaxing experience that will help you get to know one another better. Brew your favorite cup of Joe's and get ready to engage in some virtual water cooler gossip with your new coworkers. Just make sure these sessions will be completely separate from your daily meetings so they can fulfill their goal and try to always attend them so their regular cadence is properly maintained.
engage in shared team activities such as reading the same interesting articles online, joining the same webinar, starting a virtual book club, or playing a fun multiplayer game together. If you are already used to playing cool mobile casino games on your smartphone whenever you have a spare moment, you might also enjoy making the transition to a multiplayer type of game you can play together with your new coworkers.
have virtual lunch together. Lots of people who are now forced to work from home will miss their lunch breaks the most, as they allowed them to catch up with their colleagues and socialize every day. Who says a remote job should stop you from enjoying your fun lunches together? Set up some lunch dates using reliable video chat apps with people who are part of your team and place some ads in the company's forum to see who would be interested in having lunch with you.

Communicate Your Status Updates Every Morning

Daily updates or weekly updates provided over video conferences every morning will help you stay on track and maintain the cohesion of the team intact. Join these meetings as they will help you stay in touch with everyone, keep your focus with more ease and feel like you are better connected with everyone. This will help you improve your work efficiency and productivity and make you feel like your hard work, efforts, and progress are appreciated and acknowledged by your coworkers.

Finally, try to embrace excessive communication, which could mean repeating your messages whenever necessary for your ideas to go through correctly, or repeatedly posting the same messages on all communication channels so that everyone can see them. Share photos of your favorite garden flowers, pets, the latest meals that you have cooked, or some funny memes so you can create a more personal touch to your online experience.

Becca Searns

Growing up in an entrepreneurial family where marketing was discussed over dinner every evening, it is only natural for Becca to bring her design talents home to Haley Marketing. Becca ensures the quality of Haley Marketing creative services. She also oversees the design and user experience for Haley Marketing products. Becca graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a BFA in New Media Design and an MBA. She jumped right out of school into a program called Remote Year. Spent the first four months as a freelance designer making ends meet to pay the bills and travel the world. Fast forward, she's successfully traveled and worked remote for nearly three years. Becca now combines what she learned from design and business school with more practical knowledge and experience gained starting her club hockey team in college and three years of long-term international travel to provide world-class, easy and affordable creative solutions for your business.