Working together as a Remote Team with Google Workspace – 10 helpful ways that we swear by

Working remotely isn’t as alien as it used to be. When COVID-19 forced companies worldwide to encourage their employees to work virtually last year, remote work had a big moment. It all happened so suddenly and everyone is rather unprepared for it to come. Now that everyone has had a taste of how working from home works, it’s actually not that bad at all!

With Google Workspace, here are a few ways that you can use while working together as a remote team to build your team dynamics despite working virtually from home:

1. Utilize team mailing list to simplify communication (Google Groups)

If you have a team that is located across the globe, there is an easier way to share the same information despite the distance. You can make communication easier by creating a Google Groups email list for your team. You can then use the group’s email address to send status updates and share resources with everyone at once, instead of emailing every person individually. 

2. Stay organized with team calendars (Google Calendar)

When your team is made up of international colleagues, chances are you have to operate in different time zones and it can be challenging to find the right time for everybody. With Google Calendar, you can create layers of your team members’ calendars to see when everyone is available. You can create multiple calendars at once to keep track of meetings, training, leaves and more. With this, you can have a clearer view of when your team is free and it will be easier to schedule future meetings or activities.

3. Empower team members with team rooms (Google Chat)

With your team members based around the world, it is good to stay connected with your team by creating a room in Google Chat or Chat in Gmail. Not only you can easily communicate with each other and bounce ideas off, you can encourage your team members by creating a strong sense of community.

4. Share, store and access resources from anywhere in the world (Google Drive)

If you’re looking for a foolproof way to store and share your team’s resources securely, you can save all the files in Google Drive folder and share them instantly. When someone makes a change, Drive automatically shows you what files have been changed. Furthermore, team members can securely access the latest files on any devices, anywhere and anytime.

5. Host virtual meetings with team members (Google Meet)

With your teammates located across the globe, Google Meet allows you to stay connected from anywhere in the world, by hosting a virtual meeting. With Google Meet, you can join a video meeting to brainstorm ideas, virtual events, work on team projects, and more. It is a good way to stay in touch with teammates without having to travel and meet physically. You can try and host a meeting here.

6. Coordinate project plans and schedules (Google Sheets)

With changing deadlines and last minute task additions, it can be difficult to keep track of team projects and schedules. Now you can be always prepared by organizing your team’s work and tracking completion in a dynamic Google Sheet plan. Team members can update their progress directly in real time, without having to sift through every email update. With everyone updating the latest status on the same spreadsheet, it is easier to distribute tasks and manage their schedules in real time. You can also watch responses that are being left by your team members.

7. Edit team documents in real time (Google Docs)

With Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, there is no longer the need to email files back and forth and deal with multiple attachments. You can simply collaborate in real time by editing the relevant document, spreadsheet and presentation on the files and they will be reflected instantly. You can also chat within the files with your team and get targeted feedback using comments. These changes that you made save automatically, therefore every team member will be able to view the up-to-date version every time they access the file.

8. Virtual presentations to remote audiences (Google Meet)

Due to the pandemic, most of the team members can’t meet in person. During times like these, Google Meet is a useful tool to present files in a video meeting. You can even record the meetings so other team members in a different time zone can rewatch them later, and auto captioning is also available.

9. Broadcast the latest information to large groups of team (Google Sites)

Webpages are one of the easiest ways to share information with large audiences. You can even choose your audience and control when new updates are released. To make a set of content that will be available to your organization or the public, a Google Sites website can be easily  built with embedded Docs, Sheets, Slides and other files from the Drive. If your team doesn’t need a website, you can simply share the document, spreadsheet and presentation using the link within minutes. The sharing options can be changed depending on the size of your audience. 

10. Collect information from team members or clients (Google Forms)

If your team wants to gather information from large groups of people (e.g. internal teams or external clients), Google Forms is the best tool as you can create and analyze surveys easily in your mobile or web browser. You can create satisfaction surveys, collect feedback, send a quick opinion poll, and more. When people respond, you will automatically get notified, see survey results and summarize the data with charts and graphs in Sheets or in Forms itself.

Like our articles? Check out more of our work here: 5 Awesome Gmail Hacks for Vacation