10 Ways To Make Collaboration Easier Across Multiple Office Locations

When you have offices spread out across a country, employees working from home, or offices abroad, it can be tough to know precisely how to boost collaboration.

Face-to-face time with other employees is often the best way to encourage teamwork and collaboration, but this is obviously not possible at all times. Many companies are thriving in a world with increased remote work, so it is clear that collaboration can still be achieved even at a distance.  

As a business leader, it’s your job to ensure that your employees have the tools and knowledge to reach their full potential; this benefits not only them but the business as a whole.

Here Are Ten Prime Ways To Make Collaboration Easier Across Multiple Office Locations

Collaboration is vital for any team’s success, but if this involves working with teams or individuals in another location, it can get tricky. You should look for as many ways as possible to foster collaboration and meet the demands of an increasingly spread-out workforce. 

1. Invest In The Best Video Conferencing Technology 

The next best thing to face-to-face meetings? Video meetings. If you have two individuals or teams that need to work together on a project, but getting them face-to-face is unfeasible, then video meetings can be the perfect solution.

There are plenty of video conferencing tools available, with the technology improving every day thanks to a sustained increase in working from home. Try out some of the most popular platforms, with high-quality security features and smooth video relay, to find the one that works best for your needs.  

2. Make Use Of Cloud Storage 

Cloud storage is an excellent way to help collaboration across teams in different locations. It allows all team members instant access to materials they need at their fingertips, without the need to send physical hard copies to different offices. You should find a reputable cloud storage provider who will keep your valuable business files safe and easily accessible.  

3. Pair Up New Starters 

An excellent way to create a lasting bond between new starters is to pair them up when they begin their initial training – this is particularly beneficial if all new starters have to start the onboarding process in your head office. You can also pair up new starters using your communication platform of choice.

Building bonds from day one can be an excellent way to help your employees make lasting and effective workplace relationships. In addition, most new starters in a business are likely to be pretty nervous; it can help to have someone in the same boat to talk to and help them feel more at ease.

4. Make Use Of Communication Platforms 

There are many communication platforms available to help your teams connect with each other easier.

The more lines of communication open to your team, the better – this kind of communication platform can be invaluable to building relationships between staff in different offices.

You should be cautious not to implement too many platforms for communication, as this could get complicated, and it runs the risk of vital communications slipping through the cracks. Try out a few different choices and then use the one your employees enjoy the most.  

5. Ensure Files Are Easy To Send Over Multiple Platforms 

A big concern for many businesses with multiple locations is the best way to share documents. Cloud storage, as mentioned above, is one beneficial solution, but it can help to think of different ways to ensure employees can share files easily.

Sharing documents via email is common and beneficial in many ways, but it’s also often constrained by limits on the size of files you can share. A good workaround for this is to compress PDF files and other file formats into smaller, email-able sizes. Look for a quality compressor tool to help you with this, like this excellent tool from Smallpdf.  

6. Host Regular Face-To-Face Events 

You might not be able to accommodate the face-to-face time between employees during working hours, but you can definitely host out-of-hours social events for your teams to get to know each other.

A lot of the issues that can occur between teams working separately can be exacerbated by the fact that they are strangers to each other. You can remove these barriers by helping employees get together in social settings. You could host a team-building retreat, a company party, or a meal.  

7. Communicate Often 

Communication is a key element of collaboration and one that should not be under-utilized. As a business leader, you should lead by example when it comes to communication – be open, honest, and direct when communicating the business’s needs to your employees.

Encourage questions and opinions from employees to help them get used to opening and transparent dialogue. Let them know this is the type of communication you wish them to emulate in your dealings with other teams in different locations.  

8. Encourage Non-Work Related Communication 

Another excellent way to ensure quality collaboration is taking place across different locations is to encourage employees to bond over shared interests.

Helping employees forge personal connections with their counterparts away from the office can help build a rapport that will translate easily into work-related collaboration. You could launch some workplace clubs based on interests popular among your team.

9. Create A Culture Of Honest Feedback 

Feedback is crucial for improvement, so you should build a positive feedback culture in all of your business locations. Avoid penalizing or shaming employees who make mistakes – we can all get things wrong sometimes.

Instead, view mistakes as a learning opportunity and sit down with employees to discuss what went wrong and how it can be avoided in the future. Feedback goes both ways; be open to constructive criticism yourself as a way to lead by example.

By fostering a feedback culture, you can ensure that teams working side by side from different locations will feel comfortable expressing concerns, ideas, and advice to one another.  

10. Remember Possible Time Zone Issues 

One big potential issue for businesses with employees spread across countries or continents is time zoning. This might not present too big of an issue for countries in continents like Europe, where the time zone differences could be as little as an hour.

For areas like the US, time zones can differ significantly, and if you have offices in the UK and Australia, it can be next to impossible to find a time that works for everyone. Still, it is worth putting in the effort to try and arrange collaborative efforts around a time that suits everyone, with minimal unsocial hours required to achieve it.  

Conclusion 

You’ll find a massive amount of resources online dedicated to promoting collaboration between individuals, teams, and departments. As a business leader, it’s up to you to find the methods that will work best for the people you’re responsible for – there’s nothing wrong with trying out different techniques until you find the ones that work for you and your employees.

As with any changes to practices and policy in the workplace, it is a good idea to get some feedback from your team and take note of any ideas or concerns they have. Individual team members and managers will know what they need to do their best work; always listen to what they have to say.

Read Also:

• Team Building: How Remote Workers Can Pull It Off Successfully
• Should E-commerce Businesses Invest In Video Chat?
• What Is Hybrid Working – A Small Business Guide