What’s the difference between synchronous and asynchronous communication? If you’ve been paying attention to the ongoing changes in the workplace, you’ve probably heard these terms thrown around more often.
Global Workplace Analytics estimates about 30% of businesses have adopted some form of a remote work model by the end of last year. As you can probably guess, with remote work comes an increased need to communicate asynchronously.
We created this guide to show you exactly what’s possible when you approach communication asynchronously, including how to implement it with your team, and tools to get you started. ⚡️
What's the difference between synchronous and asynchronous communication?
We spend as much as five hours each day communicating at work. Let’s establish a clear definition of each mode of communication:
- Synchronous communication happens when teams have real-time communication. Think phone calls, instant messaging, video conferences, or team meetings.
- Asynchronous communication happens when messages are exchanged at different times, without the need for two people to chat simultaneously. Think email, Slack messages, Asana, text messaging, or shared documents.
With the onset of remote work, asynchronous communication is quickly being adopted as the norm in the workplace. Take Automattic, the creators of WordPress, and its 1,170 distributed employees. How do they get anything done?
Automattic’s CEO, Matt Mullenweg, leans on asynchronous communication to achieve it all. He says the company’s asynchronous approach leads to batch working, which helps with productivity and clearer written communication.
Why should you move toward asynchronous communication?
If we haven't been loud enough about this yet, we are huge proponents of asynchronous communication mode at Float. Not only because studies continue to prove its many benefits, but because we’ve seen the effects it’s had on our team’s ability to be productive, efficient, and make the most of our time at work.
We aren’t the only ones. There are plenty of examples of how asynchronous communication makes for better results in the workplace, and it’s not new news.
For instance, a 2015 Stanford study of 16,000 employees revealed that remote workers are 13% more productive. Another company that switched to remote work in 2012 recorded a $1.3 billion increase in annual value. 😱
Prior to 2020, many companies offered little to no remote work options for their employees. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many teams to adapt how they work and become more flexible in terms of remote and hybrid work opportunities. As a result, employees are overwhelmingly in favor of their workplaces making partially/fully remote options a permanent staple of their business. According to a survey of agency workers, 50% say they feel healthier working remotely than they do in an office, 27% feel no different, and just 23% prefer the feeling of working in an office.
Asynchronous communication comes with lots of upsides, including:
- Increased flexibility for teams
- Honest communication
- Greater transparency
- Less employee burnout
- Improved work culture
- Convenient for remote workers in different time zones
- An increase in productivity
Float’s Operations Manager Georgie Roberts explains that asynchronous work helps build a more honest culture.
“There are benefits to working the way that we do. For example, we have very few meetings, so when we do connect with each other, it's often motivated by genuine interest, intention, and care.”
A key piece of adopting the asynchronous approach to work is email. As a fundamental building block of communication in the workplace, it’s worth discussing.
Is email synchronous or asynchronous?
Email is asynchronous because it allows you to exchange information independently of time. You send an email, wait for it to reach the recipient’s inbox, and await their response. Once you receive the response, the process repeats itself.
However, it is common to feel pressured to respond to emails immediately and constantly. Productivity expert Nir Eyal argues that most emails we send and receive are not urgent, “yet our brain’s weakness for variable rewards makes us treat every message, regardless of form, as if it’s time sensitive.”
Similarly, tools like Slack can be used either synchronously or asynchronously. You can send Slack messages or a video recording and get an immediate response, or you can wait for a response as the receiver answers at their own pace and on their own time. Teams’ communication style comes down to culture and setting the expectations upfront.
Are tools like Slack going to replace such a fundamental staple as email? We think not. Both tools have their merits for communicating; however, if you are looking to enable an asynchronous workspace, it’s essential to consider other communication tools that promote this and not just lean on email.
6 tools that facilitate asynchronous communication
If you're ready to dip your toes into asynchronous-first communication, here are six tools to help you get started.
Float
Establishing a single source of truth with a resource management tool like Float helps keep project work on track for teams working distributed remote and/or asynchronously.
Features like importing local public holidays based on where everyone lives, and scheduling a status to let everyone else know where you're working from are helpful ways to keep your team in the loop asynchronously. It's an easy and reliable way to automate your team's availability.
Slack
Slack is a direct messaging tool for teams to communicate privately and with each other.
The topic-specific channels in Slack are an efficient way to organize asynchronous communication. Co-workers have the flexibility to sign on (and off!) when they're ready to check on work messages at a time that works for them. Along with its status feature and the ability to automate messaging, Slack efficiently keeps every member of your team in the loop.
If you're using Float and Slack together, you can use the notifications app to sync your Float status with Slack for even greater visibility across applications. Read more about how the team at Float uses Slack to communicate async.
Donut
Did you know you can simulate run-ins with co-workers or coffee break chats? Once you integrate Donut with Slack, it enables you to match co-workers for 1:1 meetings randomly.
Remember, there are no hard rules to follow here. Occasional synchronous meetings can form part of your asynchronous approach. The goal is to cultivate the most effective culture of communication amongst your team, with asynchronicity at the forefront.
Notion
As a highly flexible tool, Notion is a tremendous asynchronous value-add for documenting processes, making shareable documents, and creating a self-service approach to any need for support or troubleshooting. You can use it to create a Trello-style workflow, create documents from templates, or add your own integrations.
Because Notion is so flexible, teams have the ability to create a highly customizable web of directories, documentation, and everything else your company needs to share amongst its employees. If you're trying to go asynchronous-first, Notion's flexibility is your best friend.
Find out how the Float team uses Notion as part of their asynchronous onboarding for new hires.
Loom
When you're creating an asynchronous culture, think beyond communicating through text. Video calls can be asynchronous, too!
Loom allows teams to communicate with recorded screen shares. Unlike the similarly-named synchronous tool Zoom, Loom lets you capitalize on async communication through video as another way to replace real-time conversations.
For example, our customer success team uses Loom to respond to customer questions more clearly. This lessens the back and forth that often happens with support questions.
Geekbot
Another big part of making asynchronous communication work for you? Regular check-ins with the team. Enter: Geekbot. Once you integrate it with another asynchronous tool like Slack or Microsoft Teams, it becomes easier to keep your team accountable.
Geekbot automates the process of asking questions like:
- How are you feeling today?
- What have you accomplished so far?
- What do you keep getting stuck on?
- What are you working on today?
It helps your team stay on the same page as they make progress on projects, hit bottlenecks, take breaks, and meet deadlines. ✅
How to improve asynchronous communication
Whether you’re taking steps towards async-first or looking to level up your approach, we’ve implemented nine powerful strategies at Float to ship better work and cultivate a solid workplace culture.
1. Make asynchronous communication part of workplace culture
To make asynchronous communication a substantial part of how we work, we take our new team members through a journey that includes:
An intentional onboarding process
Our onboarding process includes a personalized questionnaire sent through Slack. This way, we facilitate introductions and make team members feel welcome.
We also invite them to read through our set of Notion profiles and encourage them to add their own for future hires. Finally, we wrap up the process with a synchronous meeting (yes, we sometimes have them too) with the Float CEO.
Creating light-touch rituals
Collaboration tools like Donut and Geekbot help us establish our “light-touch rituals” or check-ins that help keep team members on the same page. However, it’s important to remember that it’s possible to establish light-touch rituals without taking up too much of your team’s time.
Asynchronous communication is about wasting less time and doing more with a flexible approach to work. For instance, with the help of Geekbot, we set up 15-minute 1:1 meetings with team members to maintain a collaborative and connected culture.
Annual team meetups
Recently, it hasn’t been safe to keep up with in-person meetings, but once the world goes back to some normality, we’ll be intentional about our annual in-person meetups.
The last time we met as a team was in Greece, back in 2019. Once 2020 rolled around, we had to switch to video communication to get together. Still, we wanted to gather consistently, even if things were changing rapidly.
IMAGE OF UPDATED TEAM IN NOTION
2. Onboard teams asynchronously
Here’s a little secret you might not know: We’ve found that the key to a successful onboarding process is relationship building. And yes, that’s possible with an asynchronous approach containing: