According to the numbers, 42% of employees believe that asynchronous work is the future, and it’s somewhat of an easy prediction, given how many companies have adopted the remote and hybrid work models.
Sure, the pandemic back in 2019 might have sped things up a bit on that front, but both companies and employees would have eventually picked up on the benefits that come with asynchronous communication.
And it’s not just remote teams, because teams that come into the office every day stand to benefit from it as well, because it helps their focus and productivity, and provides them with control over their own time.
To find out what asynchronous communication is, how it works, and when you should be using it, check out the article below.
What is asynchronous communication?
Asynchronous communication is any form of communication that doesn’t happen in real time. In other words, there is a time lag between the moment one person sends the information, and the moment when the person who receives it processes it.
Simply put, asynchronous communication doesn’t require two more people to be available at the exact same time, or to reply immediately. Even though the term itself sounds kinda fancy, you and your agency are already relying on asynchronous communication every time you send out a simple email, work on shared docs, or share a recording of a meeting or workshop.
Asynchronous vs. synchronous communication
Perhaps the phrasing of asynchronous vs. synchronous communication is a bit inaccurate, since those two aren’t really pitted against each other. In all likelihood, you will be using a combo of both in the workplace.
As explained previously, asynchronous communication doesn’t happen in real time, whereas synchronous does. Think email vs. phone call, or live workshop vs. recorded video.
Learn when to use synchronous vs asynchronous communication in your service businesses, as we covered the cases in details!
When to use asynchronous communication
Asynchronous communication has many applications, and you have probably used it for some of the cases listed below, but we have also rounded up additional ones you might find beneficial for your agency:
Different time zones
One of the best benefits of remote work is that it enables your agency or consultancy to attract top talent from all over the globe. The trouble, however, is getting all that talent in one place, albeit real or virtual, because they work in different time zones.
If you can manage some overlap, fine, but if not, that’s OK too, because asynchronous communication allows team members to respond on their schedule. For instance, your remote team members can edit shared documents, and leave comments and suggestions.
It saves you the trouble of having to worry about scheduling conflicts all the time whenever possible.
Sharing of complex and detailed information
This is where asynchronous communication really comes through and makes your and your team’s work much easier. If your team members are required to process really technical and/or complex subject matter, allowing them to do so at their own pace is the way to.
They can review documentation, video recordings, reports, presentations, and user guides, and analyze data, and give back more well-thought-out responses, feedback, and contributions.
Plus, because all information is recorded in a relatively structured manner, there is very little chance of something important getting misplaced or forgotten.
Non-urgent matters
When you are faced with making a decision or performing a task in real time, there is a certain amount of pressure involved, especially if it’s time-sensitive issue. But, even if it’s not, being put on the spot is going to be less than ideal.
With asynchronous communication, however, you or your team members are given time to process the information and carefully consider all of the potential outcomes, which results in better decision and work of higher quality.
Not to mention the added benefit of less stress, which affects everything from employee satisfaction to team engagement.
Keeping records
When your team is discussing a complex subject matter or if there are a lot of crucial details you need to pay attention to, a lot can get lost and forgotten in the noise of real-time video calls and meetings.
Asynchronous communication gives you power to salvage all that information and have it accessible at any given moment, by anyone who has the right permissions.
With ActiveCollab, you can have all of the project-related tasks, documents, information, comments, mentions, discussions, notes, and all the people involved in one place. This enables you to have a single source of truth for all your team members, regardless of when they have joined your project or organization.
Deep work
As you probably already know, there are plenty of low-priority tasks and busy work that require your attention throughout they day. If you were to pay attention to every single one of them and deal with them immediately, well, there would be no time left for you to do your actual job.
Besides, some tasks will require you to focus 100% in order to do them properly. Some might call it deep work, others might just think of it as “being in the zone”. You get so invested in what you are doing that you lose track of time and do a ton of good work.
But, even if its just “regular” work, asynchronous communication is what allows you to put aside all those activities that can wait and to focus on your core activities as a team member.
Gathering information through surveys and polls
Instead of gathering everyone for a short meeting in order to collect their opinion on a certain topic or issue, you can choose a less disruptive method and one which doesn’t require your team to drop whatever they were doing previously.
Instead of real-time discussions, share a poll or conduct a survey among your team members. This allows everyone to provide a more thoughtful answer or feedback, plus, it gets around scheduling conflicts and leaves all of the information recorded.
This is especially convenient for teams that are large or dispersed all over the world.
Status updates and progress reports
While keeping everybody on the team page updated about the progress or status update of a certain project is crucial, again, asynchronous communication helps you achieve that in a less intrusive way that doesn’t disrupt everyone’s workflow.
Instead of having a lengthy meeting, you can put together progress reports and share it with all relevant team members. Apart from the benefit of keeping everyone focused on their work, you also get to have that vital information recorded in a structured form.
This means it can be used for future reference, as well as to prevent potential misunderstandings and reduce the number of follow-up meetings.
Content collaboration
Let’s say you have an agency, and you also have a content and SEO team that produces high-quality content for you, as well as for your clients. Thanks to asynchronous communication, the team can collaborate on the same documents.
For example, a content writer gets a brief from an SEO specialist that contains the blog post structure and target keywords, as well as comments and notes. The content writer uses the brief to write an article, after which a content editor goes through it and gives it the final polish.
Examples of asynchronous communication
Now, if the concept of asynchronous communication still feels a bit abstract for you, it’s best that we check out some of the most common examples of it in real life. Here is what asynchronous communication actually looks like:
- Email: You send out meeting invites, project updates, polls, surveys, and just about everything else that doesn’t require an immediate response using email.
- Messaging apps: Even though most messaging apps are used for real-time communication, you can still have a dedicated channel where your team can share insight that doesn’t require a real-time reaction.
- Recorded video meetings: This saves all the crucial information and allows team members who were absent to catch up.
- Collaborative documents: Teams can use Google Docs or Sheets to share information about marketing campaigns, traffic, and content performance, and leave notes and comments, for example.
- Wikis and knowledge bases: The best example of this would be a Confluence page that contains all the relevant policies, practices, and FAQs, which allows team members to get answers when they need them.
- Pre-recorded webinars and training videos: This approach allows team members to get onboarded or learn at a pace that they feel comfortable with.
- Productivity and project management tools: With a platform like ActiveCollab, your team can set up asynchronous team collaboration by sharing files, notes, comments, mentions, and notifications, enabling everyone to maintain their workflow, while keeping a record at the same time.
Benefits of asynchronous communication
Even though you are probably already utilizing asynchronous communication to a certain degree, here is what you can stand to gain if you were to use it in a more intentional way:
Flexibility and scalability
The flexibility part enables each team member to process and respond to messages at a time that feels most convenient for them, whether it’s after they are with deep work or once they have gotten the high-priority tasks out of the way.
The scalability part means that you can establish asynchronous communication regardless of your team’s DNA, size, schedules, different time zones, and geographic locations.
Ideal for cross-functional and remote teams
Remote teams can access information and make meaningful contributions regardless of time zone constraints, and after they have had enough time to process all the information.
And seeing as cross-functional teams are made up of professionals from vastly different backgrounds, having a Wiki page or knowledge data allows everyone to get up to speed on all the subject matter specific, lingo, and requirements, without the need for time-consuming one-on-one meetings.
Fewer meetings
“Zoom fatigue” is a real thing nowadays. Even though you might have made zero contributions during the meeting, you still start to feel exhausted, especially if you’ge gone through multiple ones during the day.
Asynchronous methods reduce the need for meetings, enable employees to access information at their own convenience, and save their focus for the most complex, high-priority tasks.
All information is recorded
We’ve already touched on the fact that recorded information can be used to save crucial bits of information, prevent misunderstandings, and allow missing team members to get up to speed.
However, recorded information also enables you to hold your team members accountable for their words and actions.
Less pressure to respond immediately
According to research, an average adult makes over 35,000 decisions a day! Regardless of how small or easy they are, the stress of constant decision-making adds up throughout the day.
Asynchronous communication alleviates some of the pressure, enabling you to process information and make decisions when you are good and ready.
Disadvantages of asynchronous communication
In addition to all the benefits, there are certain tradeoffs that you need to be aware of when it comes to communicating with your team asynchronously.
These are the most common ones:
Lack of personal connection
One of the biggest benefits of working in the same office with your colleagues is all the interpersonal communication and relationship building. If a team is distributed across multiple locations or working in different time zones, it won’t have a chance to create chemistry.
Sure, team-building activities and live meetings help to an extent, but for some people, the social connections that they make at work are crucial and help them get through tough projects and tasks.
Getting the tone and context right
Written communication leaves a lot to be desired at times, because we only get word on paper or screen, without the person’s tone of voice or expressions. This can lead to misunderstandings or even conflict.
Some people’s written tone might seem sarcastic or passive aggressive, especially if a message is taken out of context.
Potential information overload
Consider all the examples of asynchronous communication we have mentioned so far, from emails to project updates. All that stuff, especially on large teams, can pile up over time, making it difficult to find the right information when you need it most.
Lengthy threads, multiple discussions, and notifications add to the mix as well, which means you need to put effort into organizing and tracking all the relevant info.
Delayed responses and feedback
This is especially the case with remote teams, where team members can get disengaged, which leads to progress delays. Plus, simple issues that could have been solved with a single sentence in real life tend to drag on, because team members need to wait for a reply.
Feedback is also delayed, which prevents immediate improvements and causes potential frustrations among team members.
Too many tools
Email clients, knowledge bases, messaging apps, project management tools, time-tracking apps, video recording and sharing platforms… These are just some of the asynchronous methods you will be relying on, and the sheer number of them can get overwhelming.
The act of switching between these tools alone disrupts your focus and workflow, which ultimately inhibits productivity. Plus, some of these tools and platforms might come with a learning curve, which creates an additional delay.
Conclusion – Make the most of asynchronous communication with ActiveCollab
Ultimately, asynchronous communication is all about giving your team the power to process information and respond in a way that fits their own schedule and style of working.
With less pressure to respond immediately, asynchronous communication can also promote better work-life balance and prevent potential burnout. But, in order to keep everything transparent and accessible, you need the right tools.
ActiveCollab will not only help you keep track of all your asynchronous communication, but also act as your Swiss army knife, replacing multiple tools for productivity, project management, team collaboration, messaging, and reporting.
Sign up for our 14-day free trial, or book a demo, and find out how ActiveCollab can help your team make the most of asynchronous communication!
