Classic obstacles to the introduction of asynchronous remote work

An employee is asynchronous if they do not work at the same time as their team members. He may work on a different schedule, work from a different location, or both. Asynchronous remote work has several benefits: Employees can collaborate across multiple time zones, and the greater flexibility can improve work-life balance and employee retention. Shifting to asynchronous communication practices can help teams address common work issues.

Despite the advantages, asynchronous remote work is often only slowly adopted by teams. There are several reasons for this:

Consideration of the leadership or individual preferences during synchronization

In some cases, team members or employees understand the benefits of asynchronous remote work, but ultimately bow to their managers or colleagues' preferences for synchronous work. When one person is open to asynchronous collaboration and the other prefers a synchronous conversation, the person with the most organizational power often prevails - and unfortunately, senior level leaders often have the hardest time transitioning to asynchronous work. This causes teams to falter a bit. And if colleagues do not agree on when and how they should work asynchronously, frustration, overfilled schedules and employee overload quickly arise.

Lack of awareness of collaboration strategies beyond meetings

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Many professionals are unaware of the various asynchronous communication and collaboration strategies available to them. Even during the rapid shift to remote work in 2020, many teams missed the opportunity to leverage asynchronous work. Instead, they tried to recreate traditional office meetings in a virtual way. This trend is reflected in a Microsoft study showing a 252% increase in weekly time spent in meetings since February 2020. Fortunately, async-first approaches offer many ways to communicate and collaborate outside of phone calls and virtual meetings. Collaboration can occur through virtual brainstorming, shared documents, and recorded video technology. By eliminating or reducing time spent in meetings, professionals have more time in their schedules to do thorough work.

Difficult change in work culture and mindset: old synchronization habits are difficult to overcome

It's not easy to change the way we work. Our old habits persist, and it can be difficult to change our mindset about how work should be done. When teams have relied on synchronous communication and collaboration as standard, it can feel daunting and confusing to introduce new processes to achieve the same results. While synchronous communication and collaboration can work, relying solely on synchronous work has a negative impact on employees' time and productivity. The transition to asynchronous work requires, as a first step, a locationless mindset. Although transitioning to asynchronous remote work takes time and effort, the benefits far outweigh the negatives.

Disbelief that asynchronous remote work will improve business outcomes

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Some people don't believe that switching to asynchronous remote work will improve their team's or company's performance. They may still feel that work can best be done when they are in the same room as their team - either virtually or in person. However, this is not always the case. Asynchronous remote working can improve productivity, prevent burnout, and combat inequality between teams. As employees demand more flexibility, companies must encourage and support asynchronous remote work to attract and retain talent or risk being on the losing side of the big layoff.

Lack of experience with asynchronous remote work: Teams don't have good examples of how it can work

The main barrier to adopting asynchronous remote work in teams is that most employees have never worked in an asynchronous work environment and therefore do not know what to expect or how to work effectively. Managers may be hesitant to try asynchronous remote work, even if they are familiar with the strategies and tools available, because they lack a roadmap for how to apply asynchronous remote work strategies to their teams. There must be a clear vision for managers, ranging from knowledge of strategies, application and practice within the team, to the specific positive impact on the business.

Even teams that are highly experienced in asynchronous remote work, like our own at Workplaceless, can encounter roadblocks when transitioning established processes from synchronous to asynchronous or blended work. We recently reevaluated our customer onboarding process, and while our Learning Experience team found a way to streamline part of the process with an asynchronous workflow that would improve accuracy, the sales team was hesitant. They feared that relationship building and engagement might be lost with a completely asynchronous approach. To overcome this discrepancy, we looked at an existing internal mixed process as an example and examined which steps in this onboarding process could be switched to asynchronous and which should be kept as synchronous, outlining the benefits of each step. The resulting blended meeting format met both teams' goals while mitigating concerns and concerns.

Reading information about asynchronous communication is a good start, but concrete examples of using and modeling asynchronous behavior in your own work environment are essential for widespread adoption.

It is important that all team members buy into asynchronous remote work so that it can be successful. Leaders must acquire the skills to enable asynchronous work, understand the different strategies and tools available, and be willing to experiment with asynchronous remote work to see how it benefits their team. Teams must also be prepared to change the culture and mindset required for asynchronous remote work to take hold. With the right mindset, strategies, and tools, asynchronous remote work can be a successful way for teams to work together.