Claudette Roche is a dialect coach in the Los Angeles area. She teaches foreign and American accents to actors and business persons/executives. In 2010 she was named as one of The Top 5 Voice Coaches by Hollywood Weekly Magazine. http://www.theaccentcoach.com/

1. Managing Communicationswith aVirtual Workforce
The move to remote workand virtual employeesiscontinuingtogrow.Businessesinall industriesare
allowingstaff memberstohave more flexibilityaboutwhenandwhere theywork.However,thisnew
trendisnot withoutitsshare of challenges,especially forthose whoare managingthischanging
workforce.
ClearCommunication
One of the biggestchallengesismaintainingclearcommunicationbetweenstaff members,departments
and managers.Nolongercan youcall everyone intoaconference roomfora quickmeetingandexplain
everythingone time.
Managers mayset upwebconferenceswhere everyone getstogetherovertheircomputersortheymay
sendoutemailsorother messagestoprovide importantinformation.If people workfromvariousparts
of the country or eveninternationally,the challengeisevengreaterwithdifferenttime zones.
To handle thischallenge,managersmustdevelopconsistentproceduresaboutcommunication.He or
she shouldknowwhenemployeesare available andhow toschedule meetingsthatworkforthe
majority.
Whenhiringfromoutside the immediate physical locationof the company,youmustalsoconsider
clarityof communication.Someonefromthe Northeastmayhave trouble understandingthe strong
Southernaccentfromsomeone inGeorgia.A managerinCaliforniamaymisunderstandwhatan
employeeinNorthDakotaistryingto say.
Concise Speech
If you thinkitis difficulttounderstanddifferentdialectsinperson,imagine how muchharderitisover
the phone or the internet.Thatisone reasonyoushouldhave an agendawithwrittendocumentsto
supportthe mainpointsof your meeting.Once the meetingisconcluded,youcansendouta follow-up
email sothat everyone knowswhatwasdiscussedevenif theyhadtrouble followingalong.
While the variousdialectswithinacountrycan cause difficultieswithcommunication,itbecomesan
evenbiggerissue forinternationalemployees.If youplantohost a lotof meetingswithyourglobal staff,
youmay want to considerhiringaspeechcoachin Los Angelestohelpyoureduce youraccent.You can
learnto speakclearlyandwithverylittle trace of an accentso that yourstaff memberswill have an
easiertime understandingwhatyousay.Thisreducesthe riskof errorsand miscommunicationand
increaseseffectivenesswithinyourcompany.
An accentreductioncoachin Los Angelescanteachyouproperenunciationof wordsandhow to avoid
slangand regional talk.Evenif youdon’tthinkyouuse informal termsinyourspeech,youmightbe
surprisedatthe correctionsan expertwill helpyoumake.
Managing a virtual staff requiresthatyoumaintaingoodcommunicationwithall membersregardlessof
where theylive. If youhave policiesandproceduresinplace thathelpeveryonestayupto date about
theirprojectsandtasks,you will findthatavirtual workforce workswell foryourcompany.Remember
that communicationisthe keytosuccesswhenpeople are workingtogether,butitisevenmore
essential whentheyare workingseparately.

2. Claudette Roche is a <a href="http://www.theaccentcoach.com/">dialect coach in the
Los Angeles</a> area. She teaches foreign and American accents to actors and business
persons/executives. In 2010 she was named as one of The Top 5 Voice Coaches by Hollywood
Weekly Magazine.