Asynchronous Communication in Remote Work
Communication is the exchange of ideas, thoughts, and information between the people. It mostly occurs in verbal, non-verbal, or visual mode. Communication plays a major role in the workplace to build an efficient team and promotes trust between the team members.
In the age of unfortunate Covid-19, working remotely has become a norm. Remote working opens up several options for generating group idea, making it a useful tool even when you could meet in the same physical space.
When you are planning to conduct remote working, the first thing to have to decide is whether you want to work synchronously or asynchronously. Synchronous communication is person-to-person communication.
Whereas asynchronous communication in the workplace technique is that you can communicate with your team without the requirement of being present at the same moment. Let’s put some light on these two types of communication in detail and how they are important in remote working.
Synchronous Communication
It stands for a face-to-face conversation between two participants or more which happens in real-time. Here, multiple participants communicate at one specific time and wait for each other's reply. Good examples of Synchronous Communication, in terms of the online learning world, are chat rooms, telephonic conversations, and online conferences.
The speed is fast, and the Gap doesn't exist between the communications in case of Synchronous Communication because both the parties are present one specific time. Chatrooms and video conferencing are much more expensive in comparison with emails and letters, so synchronous communication is expensive.
To visualize this concept, let's take an example. Suppose you bought a toaster and it gets defected after some time. Now you call the customer care, and the customer care specialist gets in direct touch with you to address your problem. Here the real-time conversation is happening between you two. So basically, two or more two people communicate with each other at the same time in synchronous communication.;
Asynchronous Communication
In Asynchronous Communication, the parties involved in communication do not get in conversation in real-time, and they may even be unaware of each other. This makes the speed of Asynchronous communication slow because the other party may reply when they have the time and suitable answer for you. Good examples of Asynchronous communication are letters, emails, and forums.
Now suppose your new toaster gets defected and the company is not offering you the real-time chat and asks you to mail the concerned department. The other department is not expecting a mail from you at the time, so they don't need to be going to reply to you as soon as they receive your mail. You may receive the reply in a day or two.
Here, the two parties involving in the conversation do not communicate in real-time. Their efforts are not synchronized with each other. Therefore, it is said to be asynchronous communication.The only disadvantage here is that we may waste a lot of time in waiting for the response. But, in an online learning context, this time lag helps the students to respond in detail which they might not have done in real-time conversation.
Why Asynchronous Communication is Important for Remote Work
Asynchronous Communication can be proved very beneficial for remote workers for many reasons. Remote work has become the new trend, and asynchronous communication has become the major factor for it.
If there is a need for getting multiple things done such as sending replies to messages and more at one specific time, with immense focus, opting for asynchronous communication management becomes crucial. Asynchronous communication is very important if you are split or distributed across various time zones.
Control on the time
Asynchronous communication does not require an immediate response from the recipients. You can easily read all the information, understand it, take your time to decide if, and respond when you are ready. So you can participate in the conversation according to your pace and availability.
Asynchronous communication remote work allows the participants to respond on their terms. Sometimes, we regret making quick decisions. So here, we get more time to think and take decisions. It allows everyone to be proactive instead of reactive.
Promotes Quality Work
Because of the provision of ample amount of time, one is able to prep for a good response in the case of Asynchronous communication. This means a response that is given enough thought and hence, a valuable and quality output is assured. When the participants have the freedom to respond to their schedule, they can focus on more important things. This improves their performance and productivity, and it's a win-win situation for everyone.
Increase in Productive capacity
Work that's been done with immense depth is surely going to raise the productivity level in whatever field one works. It helps you stay efficient because you are not interrupted as often as you would be with synchronous communication.
Team Satisfaction
When it comes to asynchronous communication remote work, satisfying a team with proper scheduling of the tasks, working hours, and delivery deadlines among each member is crucial. It can help them not to feel loaded with a lot of work but a possibly attainable output.
Keeping Records
We do not have any records of conversation in Synchronous communication, as one may require taking notes while hearing the message. While asynchronous communication has a permanent record of the communication shared that can be referred to later on. This helps in increasing accessibility.
Setting the right expectations
When tackling Asynchronous communication, it's most important to talk about expectations. People know when to respond and when not to and what time frame they have to consider.
Offline is your default
Another thing is adopting a mindset of offline is your default. You need not be online all the time. When it comes to Asynchronous communication, it doesn’t show any trouble when you use it offline that is without a WiFi connection. Moreover, you and the other person can be located wherever in this case.
Less Stress and More Freedom
We all feel things are in chaos if they are not planned out properly. Asynchronous communication gives us the time to plan things and thus helps people to be less stressed. This has to be the most important thing, after all. Asynchronous communication also gives you flexibility and freedom by doing remote ways of working.
How to create my own Asynchronous Videos
Asynchronous videos, where remote workers generate online content in advance, and the team members engage with it on their schedules, have their pros and cons. The team members can take the time they need, to grasp and master the concepts and skills because they don't have to try to keep up with real-time content delivery.
Asynchronous delivery is becoming popular because of its flexible nature. In terms of corporate work, employers record their videos to introduce the workplace and opportunities with the candidates. Online recruitment is also becoming very popular these days because of the pandemic. The candidates record their videos so that the employers can see who might make the best fit for the profile.
Wondershare DemoCreator is a tool that supports rich asynchronous communication for remote work. This software is one of the powerful video recorders, which come with an inbuilt video editor.
Using this application, you can record your presentations, tutorials, games and demo videos with high-quality screen recordings. Using the inbuilt video editor, you can add captions and annotations and do a lot more other stuff.
You can easily record, edit, and save your video recordings instantly using this software application. So let's discuss how to do screen recordings using Wondershare DemoCreator.
Step 1: Download and Setup
- Go to Google Chrome and search for the Wondershare DemoCreator. Now click on the free download link, and it will be downloaded automatically.
- Double click on the downloaded file and then install the application.
- Once installed, click on the start over to launch the application.
- Now click on ‘Capture’ to start your screen recording.
Step 2: Record Your Screen
- At the bottom, you will get a control window which will help to do some pre-settings before starting your recording.
- On top, you will see the record button and timer to display recorded timings.
- You can make use of the white colour handles to change your recording size and record specific portions of the screen.
- You can click on the fit option to change it back to the default size.
- Under the settings, you will find options to change your recording size and frame rates up to 120 fps.
- You can set up a microphone to add voiceovers to your recordings.
- Under advanced options, you will find options to choose save location and other GPU settings.
- Once done, click on Capture and then click on Record.
Step 3: Edit Your Video
- Once you stop recording, the video editor will start exporting your recording automatically for the next editing.
- Drag the video into the timeline to enable all its features.
- You can click on add files to add more media files into your project.
- Using the slider, you can shorten or extend the timeline.
- If you want to delete a portion of the video, select it and press the delete key.
- To increase the playback speed, go to the properties window on the right and click on the Speed option.
- You can also increase the size of the cursor and control its opacity.
- To add captions and annotations, choose any categories from the list and then drag and drop into your video.
Step 4: Export and Share
- After editing your video, go to export options on top to export your video into MP4, MOV, or in MP3 format.
- Once processing is done, your video is ready to use.
Final Words
So now you know the concept of working remotely by synchronous communication and asynchronous communication. You must have understood a lot about asynchronous communication in remote work and why it matters.
You can now differentiate between the two and start working on your project, keeping in mind the key points shared above. Synchronously working would be most similar to conducting an in-person workshop. Here, the team members contribute ideas together, in a pre-arranged and fixed time.