Asynchronous communication works, and you have already mastered it. You practice it every day with your family and your friends. Now you are ready to take the next step: to use all the power of asynchronous communication to boost your business and your company.
Here are some benefits of asynchronous communication. According to BMJ Innovation, asynchronous communication lets workers finish their tasks around 60% faster. Researchers from INTI International University studied many remote teams, analyzed 221 valid responses, and found that information accuracy, clarity, and accessibility significantly affect project success in remote settings, while timeliness did not show a significant direct impact.
In other words, the better you communicate your message, the better others may benefit from it and follow its instructions in their tasks. When your team is scattered across multiple locations, asynchronous communication allows them to communicate without having everyone logged on simultaneously.
Another study shows that 61% of knowledge workers had lessened levels of burnout than their peers thanks to asynchronous communication. It’s great for work retention.
In short, asynchronous communication makes your workers work faster, more efficiently, and more relaxed. It also retains them in your company for more time. So you definitely want to use it.
However, according to a Sony Survey, although 42% of respondents believe asynchronous work is the future, 58% don’t trust their companies have the tools or the guts to make it happen.
Will your company step up to the challenge or will you chicken out? For the brave who are still here, come with me.
What Does Asynchronous Communication Mean?
Asynchronous communication stands for communication that transcends time and space. In other words, you send a message and the recipient will receive it with a time delay. It may be in a few minutes, a few hours, or even after centuries!
Maybe it sounds fancy schmancy, but asynchronous communication is deeply ingrained in our culture. Here are some examples..
As you can see, even if we do not fully understand the intent, we can receive their message even after millennia.
Other examples of asynchronous communication are books, letters, e-mails, web blogs, discussion forums, pre-recorded videos, and social media messaging.
When you send a message to your friends through Snapchat or SMS, it’s asynchronous communication as well. When you receive a meme from your family, it’s another example of asynchronous communication.
This is why I am comfortable saying if you have a computer, a mobile device, or even a book, you are already a pro in asynchronous communication.
Therefore, I won’t pretend to teach you something you already know. We will just dive deep into some definitions, tools, and good practices to hone your skills and extract the best from asynchronous communication for your business.
How to Transition to an Asynchronous Workflow in Five Steps
Now that you are conscious of your skills, here is how we will implement them to tune your company asynchronously. Just don’t get hurry. You can start it gradually and implement it slowly, inspecting what works for you and what doesn’t work at all.
1. Mindset (Results, Tasks done, not Time)
William Edwards Deming used to say “In God we trust, all others must bring data”. He meant the use of data to improve results.
Instead of micromanaging your hires to check if they are working or slacking, you will measure their tasks done by quality and quantity.
It may seem weird at first, but bear with me: Are your workers here to work or to deliver results?
No, it’s not the same thing.
Let’s say you have a physical office for your software development company. Then you hire Bob. Bob doesn’t know how to program “Hello World”, but, accidentally, you hire him as your head developer! He may even work hard… but won’t produce a single line of code. Is that good enough?
Meanwhile, you are employing Chad, who works under Bob. Chad is secretly a Senior Developer with tons of experience, but you don’t notice him. Chad does all the work and Bob gets all the credit.
Is that fair to Bob? Is that fair to your company?
This is why focusing on results and tasks being done is so important! If people can fool us by working in an office, can you even imagine how it would be in a remote setting without the proper mindset and tools?
Don’t worry, I will teach you how to check tasks being done and how everyone is delivering tasks.
3. OKR and KPI
OKR means “Objectives and Key Results” and KPI means “Key Performance Indicators”.
An Objective is a declarative statement of the company on what it needs to achieve; Key Results are goals that must be achieved to fulfill the Objective. KRs impact the O directly.
Think about your Key Results as the Milestones of your project.
And the best way to measure if you are getting your Key Results is by choosing Key Performance Indicators.
It’s an important step to set clear objectives from the start, and your team will guide itself towards that goal if you show them the correct KPI. Do not forget to set clear expectations and deadlines:
- Every async request or update should include a clear deadline.
- Clarify urgency: “I need feedback by Wednesday, no rush before then.”
- Don’t be “that guy” who asks every day if it’s already ready before time. No one likes “that guy”.
- Define Ready (when the task is considered done): “The Data Collection will be ready once data is properly collected, displayed in a dashboard for verification, and a copy is sent to Data Storage”.
3. Your Tools
Now that you have the proper mindset for results and asynchronous communication, you have to choose your tools.
There are two kinds of tools to rely on: Project Management and Communication.
For Project Management tools, you may use tools like Basecamp, ClickUp, Trello, or Monday. Their purpose is to provide your team with their tasks, instructions, and due dates. You just need to assign a worker to a task and track the progress in the tool.
Here is an example of a Kanban Board in Trello:
This Kanban board is easy to assimilate. You have three statuses for tasks:
- To Do: Tasks that are ready to be started.
- Doing: In-progress tasks.
- Done: Completed tasks.
It’s easier than leaving your office to check each of your employees in their cubicles, isn’t it? And you track the progress of their tasks at any time. If you feel bold, you can add complexity to your Kanban board by creating more custom statuses (I use tons of them).
We also have the Communication Tools. You already have those. Zoom, Facebook Messenger, Google Hangout, Discord… they are all good. Many people use Slack (including my own company).
You may choose one that suits your company. You may even use more than just one. For video meetings, you may prefer Zoom, and use Slack for text messages and sharing archives.
4. Daily Report, Weekly Meeting
Here is the thing about us managers and company owners. We are anxious. As a result, we all want to know if our workers are working well, and just trusting a tool may not be enough. We want to know if our money is well spent.
To relieve that anxiety, ask your workers to report to you daily the following questions:
Here is an example of a daily report from our company:
📅 Daily Standup Example (Remote Recruitment Team)
Participants: Recruitment Manager, Recruiters, Sourcers, HR Admin, VP of Operations
🗣️ Format & Example Script:
Recruitment Manager:
“Good morning, everyone! Let’s quickly share our updates—please briefly answer:
- What did you complete yesterday?
- What are your priorities today?
- Are there any immediate roadblocks?”
Recruiter 1:
“Yesterday I interviewed three JavaScript candidates and scheduled follow-ups with two of them. Today, my priority is preparing candidate shortlists for our client meeting tomorrow. No blockers.”
Sourcer:
“I sourced and contacted 20 new potential candidates for the Perl developer role yesterday. Today, I’m screening their initial replies and setting up calls. Blocker: Need clearer criteria from the client about experience level.”
Recruitment Manager:
“Understood—I’ll contact the client right after this call and update the Basecamp thread for clarity.”
HR Admin:
“Onboarding documents for our latest hire were finalized yesterday. Today I’m reviewing contractor timesheets. No blockers.”
Recruiter 2:
“Scheduled second-round interviews for the PostgreSQL role. Today, preparing candidate notes for the client’s review. Blocker: Awaiting feedback from the client about yesterday’s candidates.”
Recruitment Manager:
“Got it—I’ll follow up with the client for feedback today. Thanks, team! Let’s wrap up here and update Basecamp with any additional notes.”
To keep you and your employees aligned, you may have a synchronous meeting every week. Just don’t expect everyone to attend and send the record to them. You and your team will ask the following four questions:
The final question realigns you and them toward the next goal of the next week/period.
5. Long Threads Require a Call
Sometimes you may need to go synchronous. It happened several times in our company where messages weren’t clear enough, fostering doubts and ambiguity. In that case, we make a short call to communicate more effectively.
If a text message or a recorded video gets more complex than it should, do not hesitate to switch it immediately to a quick live video call.
Here’s how to implement this effectively:
- If a thread exceeds about 4-5 exchanges without resolution, suggest jumping onto a short live call.
- If you need to teach someone about a new tool or app, it will certainly take a long explanation: make a call.
- If your text message becomes too long, you will probably prefer to go on a call instead.
- If you are still not sure what that message meant and are afraid to ask in text, you may ask for a call as well.
When to Use Asynchronous Communication
Now we will explore some examples of asynchronous communication in the real world. You will see how we use it at our own company, so you may have some ideas about implementing it better in your company. We started fully remote and never stopped.
- Documentation and Updates: For detailed, non-urgent information sharing.
- Flexible Scheduling: When teams are in significantly different time zones.
- Non-Critical Discussions: Discussions that don’t require immediate decisions.
- Deep Work Encouragement: Allowing uninterrupted time for focused tasks.
- Record Keeping: Creating an accessible history of decisions and discussions.
- Project Management: Tasks and Due Dates are assigned to everyone on the team.
Conclusion
In short, the reason why asynchronous communication works so well is: that it makes you focus on the things that really matter: results, your team’s well-being, and retention of your employees. As long as you communicate well with your team, have a good metric, and plan your tasks, no one has to be logged on at the same time as you. And if no one has to be Online at the same time as you, your company won’t sleep, it will work day and night.
You already have learned to use asynchronous communication, so you don’t have to worry about how to do it well. Just don’t forget to check on your team on video at least once per week; your team’s well-being is key.
However, maybe you are still not sure how to use an asynchronous workflow. Maybe you don’t know how to select an Objective, a Key Result, or a Key Performance Indicator. Maybe you are not sure if your Communication Tools will bring you the desired results. Or maybe you are not sure how to give tasks and assign them to your team members.
In any of those cases, be sure to contact me. I will gladly assist you with all your questions and maybe, even find the best remote team of your dreams. Why not? Contact me today and let’s work together!
