During COVID-19, we have learned how to build remote hybrid teams worldwide and continue to work in any conditions. This model helps save employees time and money and not be tied to one place.
Despite the benefits of remote work and hybrid teams, companies face various challenges. Gartner conducted a study and found that 71% of HR leaders are more concerned about their team’s performance after the pandemic than before. They worry about the problems of communication and social interaction among employees.
Since members of hybrid teams are far apart and cannot physically communicate at any time of the day, it cannot be easy to work productively. Teams cannot work together and create new business solutions as they used to do.
Some of the challenges different teams face:
- difficulties in communication
- lack of understanding at work
- team members feel lonely
- employees don’t have time to improve their social aspect of life
- less productivity and efficiency
The SwiftTalk team knows how to fix these issues. We have developed a service that helps to improve communication, speed up the process of onboarding new employees, build a communication network and, as a result, make teamwork more efficient. But first, let’s talk a little more about the problem.
More about the problem
SwiftTalk conducted a study among employees of hybrid teams. We asked people what it would be like to have more small-talk and social interactions in their virtual day-to-day work.
We figured out that increasing the time and opportunities to communicate with colleagues would improve the team’s level of mutual understanding and have a positive impact on overall productivity and efficiency.
According to a poll, creativity and the ability to generate innovative business ideas will increase if employees communicate more. More than 40% of respondents tell about it.
Also, respondents say that their ability to discuss business topics would be easier. Why? Because team members who know each other better can develop more productive ideas and be in touch with the team and the business.
Our team also managed to learn more about other aspects. We know that feelings of happiness, productivity, and emotional connection to work are very important for hybrid teams. It’s important for all of us. So, more than 80% of respondents said that lack of communication negatively affects their productivity and mental state.
We have seen that hybrid teams worldwide need networking and communication. And we know how to fix it.
How does SwiftTalk solve the problem of hybrid team communication?
We’ve created a digital solution to the problem by integrating the below features into one seamless user experience. We can fill the lack of communication, activities, and socialization among team members with the help of modern technologies and smart solutions. So, SwiftTalk offers the following features for hybrid teams.
Virtual Coffee
It supports fast-paced unstructured virtual communication. Press the “Ready to a chat” button and jump into conversation instantaneously without any pre-arrangements or scheduling with colleagues in the same status.
Discussions
It provides knowledge sharing and visible discussion throughout your enterprise. SwifTalk will notify users about ongoing or planned discussions matching their interests.
Activities
Our platform offers fun and entertaining activities for hybrid teams like planning Team Outings or Random Connect to feel more connected and to inject fun into their daily working routine.
Statistics
It provides insights into personal and organization-wide usage statistics grouped by the most popular discussion topics.
More about SwiftTalk
Our tool has a clear, intuitive interface for users. Team members need to be onboarded to SwiftTalk to use it for communication at work. Employees can be in different countries but feel all the benefits of live communication. And you will notice how the productivity of your team will improve. Therefore, our product can help your business in this rapidly changing world.
We also want to show how the SwifTalk features work. If users want to have a virtual coffee with a colleague, they need to initiate a call with a colleague ready to talk. Once all participants jump to the meeting, the video call menu will open. And all employees will be able to have a relaxing small talk over a cup of virtual coffee.
Our team has created a detailed guide on how SwiftTalk works.
More advantages of non-formal communication at work
All leaders of hybrid and remote teams need to take care of the psychological state of their employees. Consequently, all leaders may implement an optimal strategy for remote work after the pandemic and use practices to integrate small talk into work ecosystems.
So, small talk at the beginning of a workshop improves the emotional state of employees. Caitlin Wagner, a staff product designer, talks about this.
“I started to ensure every meeting started with a few minutes of chat and banter and scheduled 1:1s to have a virtual coffee or lunch. This helped make me feel like I was part of a team, that I was connected with my coworkers, and that being a remote worker doesn’t have to be a barrier to feeling like you’re participating,” Caitlin Wagner says.
According to research, most hybrid team members also face the challenge of time management and focus. And a third of the top managers surveyed face the challenges of managing a remote team. Therefore, all managers should implement the technologies offered by the SwiftTalk team.
If you want to improve socialization and contact among the team, you may encourage employees to use the service for virtual meetings. You also need to follow the instructions and show by example how useful and easy it’s to invite each other to a virtual coffee. We offer you to record these activities in your employees’ work schedules. You can hire an HR transformation manager who can take on all of the above responsibilities.
As virtual team meetings become a habit, you will notice improved and faster knowledge sharing between team members and increased productivity. Also, meetings with employees scheduled and organized by managers will allow new employees to go through the onboarding process easier and faster.
In addition, such meetings open up more career opportunities at work and encourage more social interactions. Your HR managers will thank you for implementing SwiftTalk in your company.
How to try SwiftTalk?
You can implement virtual meetings and conversations over virtual coffee right now. However, we understand how difficult it’s sometimes to change processes in the middle of work. IFor this reason, SwiftTalk is designed to integrate well into the existing busy schedules of employees.
The SwifTalk team will help you implement new technologies in your work painlessly and very quickly. We know how to improve team productivity and do it organically.
Right now, you can test SwiftTalk. Want to check it out? Contact us to schedule a demo.