The Future of Remote Team Internal Communication: 2024’s Most Surprising Trends
Oof, we could craft a novel on internal communication trends among remote employees; however, it would probably be a never-ending novel—they are shifting so fast due to digital transformation, and there is so much to tell!
As we’ve arrived at mid-2024, today we’ll focus on the most eye-popping sensations the future holds for teams that want to communicate more effectively when working remotely.
So, let’s look at the present and then embark on a journey into the future of internal comms in remote work environments teeming with impactful tendencies. We’ll also peep behind the curtain and see how companies improve employee communications in their remote or hybrid workplaces in 2024. Sit tight; we’ll soon move closer to those!
Today’s Condition of Internal Communication at a Distance
In an age of online chats and video meetings, what is the up-to-the-minute status of internal communication in a remote workplace?
These stats speak volumes:
78% of companies are equipped with tech tools for communication and collaboration remotely. (Source: Buffer)
16% of workers spend 21 to 25 hours/week on digital communication platforms. (Source: Forbes)
Yet—
30% of teams think that their companies don’t value the importance of internal communication.
64% of workers believe their organizations have “overplayed it” with too many disjointed communication tools. (Source: Owl Labs)
Top 5 Trends Reshaping Internal Comms in Remote Teams
Now, let’s look at the forthcoming (or already thriving) internal communication trends. Experts say they will have the highest transformative impact on the future of remote work.
Revolutionizing with AI
Where would our efficiency be without this advanced, ever-evolving technology—artificial intelligence (AI)?
You may already feel the so-called “AIvolution” in every sphere. Naturally, AI, with its potential to automate and speed up processes, hasn’t left employee communication lying flat on its back either. The usage of AI in internal comms leaped by 12% in just one year compared to 2023, and 58% of companies plan to adopt AI for their teams in the next six months.
Remarkably, it can be anything, from an AI chatbot or digital assistant to an AI-powered intranet.
For example:
Aker BP created a virtual colleague, a conversational AI bot, AkerAnna, to provide round-the-clock internal support to employees. It holds 2,000+ conversations/week and saves 150 hours/week on support-related inquiries.
Yet, considering the AI revolution, Jonathan Feniak, General Counsel at LLC Attorney, remarked, “A lot of great companies still fail to realize that an AI policy is necessary for ethical, transparent, and legal implementation of artificial intelligence for remote communication between team members. That is why 2024 should be the year to develop AI policies. They should include employee training on AI usage and outline key components, such as ethical standards, data privacy measures, legal compliance, etc.”
Consolidating all communication methods (with intranet nailing this task!)
If earlier remote teams bathed in the diversity of internal communication methods brought by the rapid tech advancement, they nearly drown in it today.
Just think of it.
In an ordinary remote workplace, employees usually must switch between:
Corporate email
Messengers or texting tools (e.g., Troop Messenger or YakChat)
Phone calls
Video- or audio-only conversations (via Zoom or Slack Huddles)
Social media (e.g., DMs or private groups on Facebook or LinkedIn)
VideoTubes (like YouTube or Cincopa)
However, in 2024, omnipotent corporate intranets have come to the stage to establish effective internal communication in a remote team. You can’t deny that they have become almighty in terms of uniting all scattered and disconnected tools in one place.
For example:
LumApps is one of those powerful intranets that can boast enormous possibilities for revamping your company communications. It’s a cloud-based centralized “hub” that integrates smoothly with your favorite business apps, such as ChatGPT, Google Workspace, DocuSign, Jira, etc. You may actually suggest the tool, and LumApps is after adding it!
Now, to its numerous, jaw-dropping features: generative AI, a knowledge-sharing base, advanced analytics, employee advocacy and recognition, and many more!
Overview of LumApps Intranet Platform
Platform Analytics in LumApps
65% of businesses have already transferred their internal comms to intranets like LumApps. Haven’t you hopped on this trend yet?
Organizing virtual events
How about gathering your team around a campfire or chatting over coffee/tea?
And all that can happen remotely.
It’s a widespread trend in internal communication among distributed teams. One-third of companies (33%) take coffee or tea breaks virtually, and 27% participate in online happy hours.
And yes, it can even be a virtual campfire event.
Some other trendy ideas are:
Virtual lunch-and-learns
Interactive remote workshops
Online hackathons
Webinars and training sessions
Virtual team-building activities (e.g., online escape rooms or scavenger hunts)
Wellness events (e.g., virtual yoga sessions or mental health talks)
Informalizing communication through the emoji language
Have you also noticed that gigantic wave of emojis rising in your workplace chat?
No? Do you still stick to the formal style without a single emoticon?
Well, you might need to make your team’s internal communication feel more human and less mechanical. Thomas Medlin, Co-founder at JumpMD, argues, “If you’re not using emojis in today’s remote team communication, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to add a layer of emotional expression and personal connection often absent in virtual interactions. Remote teams should (if they still haven’t) start humanizing and emotionalizing their text messages with the language of emojis.”
Emojis can also substitute body language and facial expressions and provide additional context to your messages. Moreover, an emoji can sometimes explain a complex notion or phenomenon even better than words.
Thanks to these benefits, emoji language is no longer a generational tendency. Numerous organizations have adopted it as one of the latest internal communication trends.
For example:
As an entirely remote team, Zapier uses emojis and reacjis to get feedback from workers. Quite often, their #design channel on Slack may have more emojis than words.
Improving Internal Communication in a Remote or Hybrid Team in 2024
Here are several glimpses of 2024’s remote and hybrid workplaces and their best practices in employee comms.
Uphold the digital communication etiquette
For Grant Aldrich, Founder of Online Degree, it’s one of the utmost tactics worth implementing in your 2024 internal communication strategy. He claims, “The number one task for today’s remote teams is establishing and applying digital communication rules (or an etiquette guidebook if you prefer). If you want to hear such words as professionalism, clarity, and mutual respect describing internal comms in your remote team, this is just what you need.”
These are:
- Compliance with time zones (scheduling and rotating meeting times that suit everyone)
- Response times (e.g., respond to messages within 24 hours)
- The use of emojis (emoji-full or emoji-less employee communication)
- Virtual meeting rules (e.g., mute your microphone when not speaking)
- Feedback and constructive criticism (e.g., avoid harsh or negative language)
Inclusive language (e.g., gender-neutral terms like “salesperson” or “sales rep” instead of a “salesman” or “saleswoman,” inclusive greetings like “everyone” or “folks” instead of “guys” or “ladies and gentlemen”)
Of course, you can write your unique guidelines on corporate communication with specific norms applicable only to your remote team.
Enhance cross-departmental communication
Do your remote workers communicate freely and flawlessly across departments in your company? Do they actually know who else works with them behind that virtual department’s wall?
Reyansh Mestry, Head of Marketing at TopSource Worldwide, urges the value of interdepartmental communication and notes, “Sometimes, instant messaging platforms like Slack or Discord and project collaboration tools like Asana or Trello are not enough for achieving team cohesion and teamwork between departments. You might need to gather your cross-functional teams and communicate offline regularly during project meetings or team-building events.”
- For example:
TopSource Worldwide organized face-to-face interactions between the sales and marketing teams in a physical rather than virtual space to improve team collaboration.
What about you? Have you thought about breaking silos across departments and promoting cross-functional collaboration and communication in your remote team?
Leigh McKenzie, Community Advocate at Traffic Think Tank, points out another tendency concerning corporate events. “Empowering remote workers to take charge of event organization is becoming a normal practice among companies. I believe it’s a great trend to support and follow in the future of remote work. Employee-led virtual events are indeed superb catalyzers of engagement, leading to more active and dynamic internal communications.”
Raise multicultural awareness
In fact, fostering a cultural connection and a feeling of camaraderie is among the top concerns for 34% of managers who oversee remote/hybrid teams.
Albert Kim, VP of Talent at Checkr, knows how to tackle this challenge. He says, “The future of internal comms in remote teams is bound to multiculturalism when, more often than not, employees work from home being dispersed geographically and coming from diverse cultures. Under these circumstances, multicultural awareness becomes the first brick you can lay for a solid foundation when building a bridge to effective remote communication.”
He shares a time-tested plan for laying the groundwork:
- Promote cultural diversity and inclusion.
- Organize classes or training sessions to explore distinct cultures.
- Group members from culturally diverse backgrounds into one project team to encourage cross-cultural collaboration.
- Keep your teammates away from stereotypes. (E.g., “The British people are all obsessed with tea” or “All Japanese are workaholics and robotics oriented.”)
- Celebrate events from diverse cultures represented in your team.
For example:
The Checkr team celebrates diverse events, such as Juneteenth (commemoration of ending slavery in the US), Lunar New Year (mostly celebrated in Asian countries), and many others to boost intercultural awareness and create a more inclusive workplace.
Cool the meeting fever
Are you still on that “virtual-meeting-above-all” craze?
Then, let these facts sink in. The heaviest meeting users among remote teams waste almost the whole workday (7.5 hours!) a week because of routine online meetups. They also report inefficient gatherings as the most noticeable productivity disruptors at work.
Roman Zrazhevskiy, Founder & CEO at MIRA Safety, believes that a virtual meeting is one of those types of internal communication that remote teams should reconsider today. He says, “Five years ago, online meetings were something like a wildfire caught on in employee communication for an obvious reason—the pandemic. In 2024, it’s time to douse this wildfire. Let’s confess. Nearly everyone secretly hates meetings that, in most cases, are set up for the sake of formality. That’s why we’ve formulated our main principle: No more meetings that could have been an email.”
You have a wide variety of other ideas for employee communication besides email. Try Slack, Google Chat, or Microsoft Teams for quick, real-time communication. By the way, LumApps seamlessly integrates with all of those.
LumApps Integration with Slack
Heading Into the Future of Internal Comms with LumApps
So, here we are, at the doorway to the modern intranet, one of the most significant internal communication trends for 2024 and beyond.
Are you ready to step into the future and improve your internal comms with LumApps?
All right, no pressure; we know it may take some time to think it through. Watch a demo of LumApps in action to get an idea of how smooth it is to connect with all employees on a remote team and have a one-stop solution for everything!
