By the time South Africa lifted the last of its Covid-19 restrictions in late June, many companies had already returned to the office full time.
By Andrew Bourne, regional manager: Africa at Zoho Corporation
But, not long after the restrictions were lifted, South Africa experienced its worst bout of load shedding, and those not lucky enough to have generators or battery backups at their workplace had to chase power to keep working. Some companies had to resume their remote or hybrid work policies for employees to ensure business continuity.
While the pandemic necessitated remote work first, it’s load shedding today, and there might arise a different issue tomorrow. With each challenge that comes their way, companies will have to keep adapting to new ways of remote collaboration and communication to sustain team productivity and employee morale.
One such aspect of remote working that’s gradually becoming prevalent is asynchronous communication.
Understanding asynchronous communication
Put simply, asynchronous communication is any form of communication that doesn’t take place in real time. Things like in-person meetings, phone calls, and video meetings are synchronous communication, while email, instant messaging, and project management tools are all forms of asynchronous communication.
In many ways, we are all already used to the concept of asynchronous communication. The difference now is that it’s become increasingly ubiquitous and important. Office productivity tools that supported asynchronous communication started gaining popularity when the pandemic struck and became as crucial as a CRM tool for companies, as they allowed organisations with international teams to collaborate on projects even if they weren’t in the same time zones.
Indeed, the real strength of asynchronous communication lies in collaboration. For instance, In real time, you could only have one person at a time working on a document, presentation, or spreadsheet. But with the right tools, you can have someone in Hyderabad (India) start a project before someone in Cape Town picks it up and adds their input a couple of hours later. From there, a client in Europe or the US can provide feedback before it goes back to the original worker in Hyderabad for consolidation.
Critically, all of this can happen without any of the parties ever speaking to each other in real time.
Making remote/hybrid work viable
It shouldn’t be all that surprising then that asynchronous communication is increasingly seen as a critical aspect of remote and hybrid work. Much of the appeal of these forms of work, after all, is that they allow people to get their work done without worrying about the hours they spend at their desks.
If you need to step away from a project for an hour or two to go to your child’s prize-giving function or even just to take a walk around the block, it shouldn’t matter. As long as you get your work done on time, why should it matter when or where you do it? There are, of course, times when all members of a team will need to make themselves available for an in-person or video meeting, but in a fully functional remote and hybrid system, this becomes an exception rather than the rule.
In South Africa, the current issue of load shedding further compounds the need for asynchronous communication. While many individuals and organisations are doing everything they can to make themselves resilient, there are still plenty of people who may not be able to communicate in real-time when the power’s out (at least until they get to a coffee shop or a friend’s house).
But that doesn’t mean you can’t give them valuable feedback or input on a project. Even companies that are nominally back at the office full-time may find this way of operating beneficial in the face of load shedding.
Taking on the right tech
Asynchronous communication has serious benefits for all organisations, particularly in a remote and hybrid world, as well as in a disruptive environment such as that caused by load shedding. But in order to make the most of it, organisations must ensure that they use business tools that allow them to approach such forms of collaboration and communication in the best way possible.
The concept of business workplaces was already changing pre-pandemic. The last couple of years have only served to accelerate that change. Organisations everywhere need to understand that and reap the benefits of new approaches, including ones that embrace asynchronous communication.