Healthy internal communication is critical for good teamwork and the atmosphere in the workplace. Vanderbilt offers a variety of ways for teams to communicate. These include Zoom, Skype, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. Please note that use of these tools can create records that are maintained even after you close the chat; don’t put anything into an “instant message” that you wouldn’t put into an email.

It is important to make sure that everyone is on the same page with you and the rest of the team. Setting up team meetings, using this technology for good morning check-ins, formal and informal check-ins, and collaboration are key in maintaining team connection.

• Zoom: Zoom is the video conferencing app Vanderbilt uses for virtual meetings.
  • Check out VUIT’s Zoom Quick Start guide.
  • Also available is VUIT’s List of Tips
• Skype for Business: Skype features group chats, file sharing, free audio and video calls, free group video calling, and screen sharing. Your office phone (if applicable) will be through Skype.
  • Check out VUIT’s guide for Skype for Business
  • Also available is VUIT’s List of Tips
• Slack: Slack is a tool for real-time (chat) team communication. To access Slack, first, you need to join the team or create one. Once you're in, you'll see a clean and straightforward interface with a few different channels. Channels are used to group conversations on different topics, and you can easily create your custom channels. You can also use private messages for direct, one-on-one communication or create your private channels with only a few co-workers.
  • Slack users can also add a zoom plugin and outlook plugin to make it easier to join meetings.
  • Check out this video on how to use Slack.
• Teams: Microsoft Teams is a unified communication and collaboration platform that combines persistent workplace chat, video meetings, file storage (including collaboration on files), and application integration. The service integrates with other Microsoft Office 365 services and includes extensions that can integrate with non-Microsoft products.
  • Check out VUIT’s help and learning page.
  • Also available is VUIT’s List of Tips
• Box: Box Collaboration Tool is a cloud content management and file sharing utility. Box is a cloud storage solution allowing you to store up to 100 GB of files and access them from anywhere. You can invite others to collaborate with you, share files and folders through a simple web link, and sync files from Box to your desktop or vice versa. You can also access Box from your mobile device.
  • Check out VUIT’s Box information and support page.

Remote and hybrid work requires everyone on the team to communicate even more than in an in person setting.  During this time, it is important that we continue to communicate with each other. Increased communication assists employees and managers in clarifying expectations, understanding each other’s needs, and providing support.

Follow the tips below to help your team bond and stay connected while working remotely.

• Schedule a daily group check-in. Turn on your camera and say hello in person.
• Leaders, implement standing office hours so people can dial in and discuss whatever topics are on their mind.
• Make use of shared calendars to record projects, hours, vacation, and sick days to track everyone’s availability.
• Host a virtual happy hour, coffee, or lunch break, with everyone bringing their beverage or food of choice to a video chat room.
• Take 15 minutes out of your day to walk and talk (on the phone[?]) as a team.
• Let people get to know your new “coworkers” (spouses, children, roommates and/or pets) by hosting an event where everyone can mingle virtually.
• Set up a “virtual water cooler” discussion board/chat room where people can spend a few minutes engaged with their colleagues in casual conversation.

• Keep one-on-ones frequent and consistent.

Especially in hybrid teams, it is easy to become more attentive to in-person team members than those working remotely. Having a consistent, reliable time together (ideally every week) means your direct reports can count on this time to ask questions and share challenges. Consistent one-on-ones also become signal-setting actions: communicating your care, availability, and reliability.

• Create deliberate connection.

The most challenging aspect of distributed work is a feeling of distance. Deliberately help your team feel connected. 

• Build in small-talk-time into meetings. (Research shows that small talk leads to more productive meetings!) 
  • What was a win for you this week?
  • What are you looking forward to?
  • What was your favorite game/cartoon/hobby as a child?
• Start the day with a standup and end with a wrap up. Share goals, accomplishments, small wins, or even just something small you learned.
• Suggest peer 1-on-1s with coworkers. Make deliberate introductions to others. Be a connector!
• Create optional co-working times with cameras on or chat on. Folks can work in silence or shout out if they have a question.
• Start a tradition of announcing birthdays and work anniversaries or other personal milestones and meaningful moments.
• Rotate meeting facilitators for optimal visibility and conversational turn-taking.
• Hold virtual events for the team to join like workshops, fitness sessions, games, etc.
• Have playful team contests. For example, a GIF competition in which randomly selected teams face off to find the best .gif that represents a certain concept.
• Create a channel map. Meet with your team to co-create a ‘channel map,’ showing what channel should be used for which type of communication and which norms to follow for each. When possible, align with company-wide norms to reduce confusion. 

Different messages require different communication channels in a virtual environment. Staff and leaders should work together to identify both A) preferred methods of communication and B) the ideal communication tools/approach based on the work and topic at hand. Considerations and ideal uses include:

• Shared online databases (e.g. Teams, Slack, Box)
  • Collaborative work
  • Discussion Threads
  • Idea Sharing
• Email
  • Progress updates
  • Non-urgent issues/questions
  • Individual or team accomplishment highlights
• Instant Messaging (e.g. Teams, Slack, Skype, or Text)
  • Urgent questions
  • Informal discussions – but remember, even these informal messages should be work-appropriate; they create records that may be maintained by the university or be produced in case of litigation
  • Real-time information sharing
• Telephone
  • Sensitive or urgent issues
  • Situations where tone is critical
  • Real-time information sharing
  • Decision making conversations
  • Formal discussions regarding project status, development needs, or emerging opportunities/challenges
• Video conference (e.g. Zoom, Teams)
  • Delivery of difficult messages
  • Formal discussions regarding project status, development needs, or emerging opportunities/challenges
  • Monitoring team morale
  • Team meetings
  • Team engagement activities

Being in a remote environment can make it difficult when it comes to collaboration.  Sharing ideas or the quick collaborative moments that come from running into coworkers in the break room or hallway can be non-existent in the remote environment.  In addition, it is can be more difficult to connect with your leader to get in the moment questions answered or feedback.  That is why it is so important to be intentional about using tools and setting time for collaboration to happen.

• Start with deciding as a team what tools you will use to work together (Zoom, Teams, Skype for Business, etc.) based on the topic or need. If you try something and it doesn’t work for the team, don’t be afraid to try something different.
• If someone is struggling with one of the tools you chose, direct them to the trainings and tips available to help them become more comfortable. Utilize skill soft trainings available in Oracle Learn.
• If your team is hybrid (remote and on campus), make sure that the collaboration tools support both populations.
• Provide shared workspaces.
  An online space where teams can collaborate on and share documents is a virtual collaboration essential. Cloud collaboration tools simplify the process by keeping files in a central location. (Box, Teams, OneDrive, etc.) Employees can edit and review the same document without having to send an updated version to everyone in the team. Whatever file sharing system you choose, make sure it integrates with your other communication tools, so people are not wasting time and becoming frustrated with multiple sign-ins.
• Manage projects, deadlines, and ideas among Trello in remote teams.
  Use Trello for staying on task. Trello is a tool that makes to-do lists and progress that you can create custom tags, color-coding and setting accurate deadlines.

• If you have any technical support needs, Vanderbilt IT is here to meet your needs. You can reach VUIT by calling 615-343-9999 Monday - Thursday 7:00 am - 11:00 pm, Friday 7:00 am - 6:00 pm, and Sunday from 2:00 pm - 11:00 pm. You can also submit a help request at help.it.vanderbilt.edu.
• Technical Support from VUIT includes:
  • Duo Assistance
  • Technical Assistance with software or products
  • Zoom Assistance
  • Hardware/Computer Assistance
• If you are having technical difficulties such as your hardware has crashed or your computer won’t turn on be sure to notify your supervisor. It is a good idea to exchange cell phone numbers with your supervisor and team members as a just in case.
• Internet or Electric Problems
  • Sometimes our home internet or even our electricity is out, interrupting our availability. If this happens you should immediately email (if you have the Outlook App on your phone) or text/call your direct supervisor and tell them the issues you are having.
  • Also, if you are leading a meeting, it is always a good idea to have someone in the meeting with you who can take over in the event your internet fails or you are dropped from the meeting.

Being in a virtual setting has the ability to prohibit many of the natural interactions that occur in the in person setting. This is especially true of meetings. In person meetings allow for time to walk from meeting to meeting, a few moments of casual conversation as you wait for others to get to the meeting space, the ability to read body language and jump into a conversation and many others. That is why when holding virtual or hybrid meetings it is important that you make a conscience effort to create these same things.

• Relaxed entry into a meeting: In person meetings do this naturally. Individuals come into a meeting space, greet each other and wait for others to join. It is important to create this environment in the virtual setting. When joining a virtual meeting make a point to say hello and greet the others in the meeting. If you don’t know someone feel free to introduce yourself. Starting this way will help to engage the group.
• Make time for casual conversation: After greetings, it is important to start with a few minutes of friendly interaction. In virtual settings you don’t have the face-to-face interaction that you get with in-person meetings. So, you have to work harder to create an environment that fosters trust and rapport with the team. Allowing a few minutes for team members to get to know one another will provide for this opportunity.
• Meetings should have breaks to allow for down time in between (start meetings at 5 min after or only schedule for 45 minutes.)
• Engage all individuals in the meeting: Natural conversation is difficult in the virtual setting. As the facilitator of the meeting, it is important to engage all individuals in the meeting. Make sure to allow for individuals to speak up who may not feel comfortable jumping into conversation in the virtual setting.
• Maintain informal check-ins: Strive to maintain the social nuances and spontaneity (sometimes called the “water cooler effect”) that are key to engaged teams. If informal, spontaneous check-ins are a part of your team culture, such as saying good morning or stopping by to ask how a project is going, those can be translated to IMs through Teams or Skype, for example. Or as stated above, another way to foster connectedness is to create a 5-10-minute segment of a scheduled Zoom hour for coworkers to chat informally, just as they might at the beginning or end of an on-campus meeting.

As you and your employees work in a remote or hybrid environment, you may be asking, “What is my team doing on a day-to-day basis?” or “Is my team still positively contributing to the goals of my department or the university?”

These questions exemplify the differences between an “input” style of management vs. an “output” style of management. Not being able to see our employees everyday forces leaders to set strong performance goals and expectations for what an employee achieves vs. measuring the amount of time they spend “on the job.”

It’s not possible to manage every aspect of the work done by a remote employee – nor should you try. Instead, be sure that your employees know what is expected of them and provide productive feedback to help them maximize their effectiveness. This is also a non-judgmental way to find out about current capacity and if your people are overloaded or underutilized.

How to set expectations:

1. Emphasize objectives: Make sure to clearly define objectives and key results. Decide on measurable key results so that your employee has milestones to guide them to the goal.
2. Set expectations early: Don’t wait for Feed Forward conversations or reviews to set expectations. You can start setting expectations now so that your employee knows what needs to be done and how to be successful.
3. Make employees accountable: While it is important to set realistic goals, it is important that employees understand that they are accountable to these goals. Make sure to follow up with your employee to discuss the goals and whether or not they are meeting the milestones to be successful.
4. Give meaningful feedback: Employees will be more receptive to feedback when it is relevant. Make sure when providing feedback that the message is supported by examples.
5. Make it measurable: If your expectations and goals are not measurable, your employee will not know how to meet them. Use goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.