By Hailley Griffis

As an entirely remote team of more than 80 people, how we communicate is critical to how we operate as a company, collaborate, and build a solid remote culture. As they say, clear is kind. So we aim to be clear in our communication with each other across the team, and clear as a company what those expectations for communication best practices are so everyone can be aligned.

We didn't always have communications expectations written down. When I joined Buffer in 2016, it was something I learned through others while onboarding. At the time, we had a document sharing how we approach conversations with our customers to be respectful and to stay close to our values, and that document also guided how we spoke to each other. We wrote it down in recent years to bring clarity to unspoken best practices and also as a helpful tool when onboarding new teammates who aren't yet familiar with our communications practices at Buffer.

Below is a direct excerpt from our internal wiki with our communications expectations for Buffer teammates. Give it a read, and let us know your thoughts on Twitter!

Communications Expectations

Please make sure your notifications and email filters are set up appropriately for your role, your role's tools, and your area's needs based on these guidelines.

1. Check our top communications tools, either daily or weekly.

There are a lot of tools we use to communicate, and while it's important to set boundaries for notifications, as a remote team, it's also key to be mindful of our communication and check certain tools daily or weekly.

Tools to check daily

• Slack: Please check Slack every day that you are working and update your status or name to reflect if you are on vacation, sabbatical, or family leave, and when possible, if you're out for unplanned reasons like illness or a personal day.
• Threads: Threads is our primary communication tool, so please check in at least once a day and mark Threads for follow-up as needed.

Depending on your role:

• Depending on your team and your role, it might make sense for you to also check Notion, Jira, Paper, or Trello daily. Check with your manager or the People team if you're unsure.

Tools to check weekly

• Email: While email is not necessarily crucial for many roles at Buffer, it is important that you check your email and either respond or pass along any emails that might come your way.
• Notion: HQ, in particular, is the hub for project work. Check out your team's dashboard to follow along with project progress and add any updates.

Depending on your role:

• Depending on your team …read more

  Source:: Buffer Blog

        

  

  Author: Aaron