🗣️ More straightforward communication

While asynchronous communication may take longer upfront, it results in more streamlined, straightforward, high-quality communication than the knee-jerk responses that result from the pressure of synchronous communication.

When people know communication is going to take a bit more time, they’re more inclined to send thorough messages that can get the job done with less correspondence.

Thanks to the online disinhibition effect, people are also more likely to be honest through asynchronous communication. This leads to more effective feedback and insights than synchronous communication.

✌️ Less stressed employees

A recent study shows that poor communication affects 42% of workers’ stress levels. With asynchronous communication, employees are able to limit the stress that comes from responding to one-off emails or online chats by responding to all communications on their own schedule. When they aren’t faced with a constant stream of potentially miscommunicated messages, employees can be more focused, productive, and overall less stressed.

🔝 Higher-quality talent

Teams that communicate mainly through asynchronous means aren’t limited to hiring people who can easily communicate synchronously within their same time zone. They can hire the best candidate for the job, not the best candidate for their location.

Synchronous vs. asynchronous communication

Asynchronous communication puts employees in charge of their workday by letting them decide when they communicate with their teammates. They’re able to set aside dedicated time to work without interruptions, which boosts productivity.

It does have its pitfalls, though. Asynchronous communication can reduce emotional context. To avoid misunderstandings, you may opt to leave communication in which emotional context is important to synchronous methods. Or you could opt for a quality video, where recipients can see your body language and facial expressions. These factors help fill in emotional context gaps.

When asynchronous methods require too much back and forth, when you’re solving complex problems, when teams are brainstorming, or when you just want to connect on a deeper level, real-time meetings may be your best option.

Every workplace needs a little bit of both synchronous and asynchronous communication to be time-efficient and get the job done. The key is to find the right balance.

Synchronous Communication Examples	Asynchronous Communication Examples
In-person meetings	Email
Phone calls	Messaging software
Slack and email communication (when you’re pressured to respond right away)	Video recordings
Zoom or Skype meetings	Project management software
Office chit-chat	Collaboration in the cloud

Asynchronous communication examples

Here are some examples of asynchronous communication you can implement:

📹 Video recordings

Video recordings are amazing for when your message is easier to explain out loud, but doesn’t warrant a synchronous video chat or in-person meeting. If you’re not able to have a sync meeting, pre-record an async video for the next best option. It can save time and effort by allowing creators to verbally explain exactly what they’re thinking or feeling in video playback rather than trying to explain it in text.

With tools like Vimeo’s One-Take Video, you’ll not only save time by sharing exactly what you mean in a video, but the creation of the video will be a breeze. When you have tools like a teleprompter and text-based editing at your fingertips, it’s much easier to record and edit videos quickly.

📧 Email

Email is asynchronous because you can send an email and the recipient can respond in their own time. Make sure your team doesn’t think they’re expected to respond ASAP, as it defeats the purpose of using asynchronous methods.

💬 Chat and messaging software

Instant messaging and chat software is another example of asynchronous communication where you have to let your team know they can respond at their leisure. Most apps have settings where you can display whether you’re online or not, which will come in handy when your team is working out their “deep work” and “open to communicate” schedules. Chat programs also help with online team building as you get to know when your teammates prefer to make themselves available and when they don’t.

💾 Project management software

With most project management software, you can communicate asynchronously by tagging other users and commenting on or assigning certain tasks within a project. It streamlines communication to include only what relates directly to the project, which is great for productivity.

☁️ Collaboration in the cloud

When using cloud-based platforms and collaboration tools where you can work on documents together with your teammates (like Google Workspace and Microsoft Teams), you can make comments and edits that your team can respond to at their convenience. You can even tag users in certain comments, and they’ll get an email notification.

🧠 Knowledge bases

Knowledge bases are self-service libraries of information created to help users answer questions, access tutorials and training resources, and troubleshoot issues. They’re designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, so employees (or other users) can access them — and find solutions — on their own. Knowledge bases can include articles and text docs, infographics, transcriptions, tutorials, screen recordings, and other videos.

A company’s video library is a centralized hub of internal videos that can serve a variety of purposes. Some companies use video libraries to store video assets for various projects, while others use them to house internal resources like town halls, onboarding materials, and virtual trainings.

Using pre-recorded videos for internal comms is a great async solution. In addition to onboarding and training new employees, videos can also help with executive communications, business updates, video review collaborations, and more.

Martha Kendall