Humans are social beings who need constant interaction and connection with others to feel happy and fulfilled. This statement (undoubtedly true) has long been contrasted with remote work enthusiasts.
Many have proved and still prove that working at a distance, out of the office, without face-to-face interaction and having only a limited amount of time designated for video conferencing might be challenging to satisfy the social needs of employees.
OK, how about a different angle?
In parallel to social interaction, humans also need work-life balance, enough free-of-work and commute time to spend with family and friends. Most importantly, people need freedom, independence and control over their own time.
All those needs are no less natural and critical for human happiness than daily social interaction with colleagues.
Around 16% of companies work fully remotely, and 41% support a hybrid working model for their staff. In turn, 90%+ employees want to work remotely at least part-time or with regular remote work options because of the benefits mentioned below:
Source: Status of Remote Work kin 2023
This shift toward remote work clearly shows many challenges for both employees and employers have sorted themselves out. And modern employers no longer need to ask themselves, "Should I adapt remote work?", but rather replace it with "How to make remote employees feel connected?"
With the right approach, remote work can provide a great opportunity to build close-knit teams and foster strong bonds among employees who are physically apart.
In this article, we show 8 working tips to do that based on Collab Fabrik's own experience of managing remote teams.
Remove the equation sign between check-ins and issues that arise at work. You don't necessarily need a pressured period with many deliverables that need to be regularly checked or a problematic situation to make a check-in with your remote coworkers.
Instead, check-ins can become a regular practice to actually check how things are going aside from work in general. Just like you would drop by someone's desk to chat or grab a coffee together in the office for 5-10 minutes, schedule short and casual check-ins with your remote team members.
You can set a quick meeting to discuss future KPIs or cheer each other up with team engagement activities. Here are some great team check-in questions to help kill two birds with one stone. They will give you a more profound understanding of your remote employee's well-being and engagement status. Meanwhile, it will bring your team closer and strengthen relationships.
Why not press pause from work and organise all sorts of fun team activities virtually?There are lots of things you can do with your remote team, including:
At the time we took the screenshot, each team member was randomly asked to show the strangest item on their desk at the moment - with no prior warning.
It was fun to discover our team members were working with homemade fruit vodka, baby care products, a guitar and many more weird items around their desks. But the best moment of all was seeing them laugh and have a great time together, even if they were miles away from each other.
As the name suggests, take the on-site employees' most favourite free-of-work minutes they usually spend near the cooler or coffee machine and make it virtual! No matter how simple this may sound, these water-cooler conversations create a sense of community and inclusion within the team.
This remote team connection activity is more continuous and casual. We suggest you open an informal chat in your company's preferred messaging app and occasionally drop non-work-related topics for everyone to discuss.
"Hi guys, good morning! Did any of you see that viral video with cats chasing laser pointers?"
"Please, drop here the song that's now playing in your headphones so everyone can update their playlists."
"Any gift ideas for my nephew's birthday? Sort of specific, looking for a gift related to Football or NFL teams."
It's important to consider that your remote team members can be the first shy to join the conversation. So, the chat needs a moderator who initiates the topics, adds fun memes and GIFs to spark dialogue, and encourages everyone to participate.
See, "how to make remote employees feel connected" is not that hard or complicated!
Literally, unlock your imagination and create some traditions with your remote team members! It can be anything, from a daily virtual high-five circle to wishing good morning in different languages. But make it something that is done every day or week to add to the sense of community and reliability.
To add more, you can create a "Remote Employee of the Month" award where the team votes for the most supportive, hard-working or creative remote coworker. The winner can receive a prize sent to their home address.
A holiday tradition could be another great idea! Have beloved ways for your team to celebrate holidays while working remotely, like sharing scary jokes for each other on Halloween or sending holiday postcards to each team member's address.
Create a hot flow of ideas with everyone on board! Pick a topic that needs brainstorming and schedule a virtual meeting with all team members invited. Share an online board where everyone can write down their ideas or a PM tool with a built-in brainstorming feature.
Encourage everyone to participate and share their ideas freely without any fear of being judged or rejected. The team will feel more involved in the decision-making process and can bring diverse perspectives and approaches.
Plus, it will be easier to come up with creative solutions when you have multiple minds working together!
When remote employees don't get feedback for their work frequently, it can lead to feelings of isolation and lack of direction. Some may think higher management doesn't see their contribution to the team effort. Others may feel they are not growing and developing their skills enough to get noticed.
Besides, one-on-one feedback sessions are one of the best chances to connect with your virtual team members on a personal level. That's time dedicated to giving and receiving personalised feedback when an employee feels in the spotlight and cared about!
During feedback sessions, try to set some mini-goals to be achieved until the next feedback session and celebrate the achievements together. This will make employees connected and engaged with you as an employer even more, as well as give them a sense of progress and accomplishment.
Huge companies are investing day and night in their virtual collaboration solutions. All of them have one main goal - to bridge the gap between on-premise and remote employees. They offer creative solutions like virtual reality offices, 3D meetings, and many more to motivate remote workers to feel connected with in-office teammates.
So, make a habit of regularly researching the latest virtual collaboration tools and making use of them to optimize remote team performance. Be always hungry for cutting-edge technology trends, and you will soon find your team connected with next-gen gems!
Online task boards like Trello, video conferencing tools like Zoom, communication platforms like Slack and project management systems like Asana are some of the widely used advanced virtual collaboration solutions for teams. With more research, you will also find many more free or low-cost virtual collaboration tools that can greatly benefit your remote team.
Last but not least, try to organise an offline team building from time to time. It's not the easiest thing to do because of the cost and logistics involved, but if you can make it happen once a year or even rarer, go for it!
For example, once a year, organise a three-day trip for your team to some cool location like a ski resort, beach destination, or even another country. It will be an awesome way to connect with your remote teammates more personally and create unforgettable memories together!
(you may also consider an approach of shared costs for the event to make it more affordable for your team members)
If your remote team is distributed across many countries, plan the team building in a location that is convenient for everyone to travel and get together. And if there are clusters of team members in certain regions, you can also consider having mini-team gatherings for each location separately.
It may take much time and effort to bring everyone physically together, but if you ask "how to make remote employees working overseas feel connected", that's one of the best things to do.
"How to make remote teams feel connected" is no longer a question that should intimidate you as a remote team manager. With the right strategies and tools, you can create a sense of community and belonging among your virtual team members that will enhance their motivation, productivity and overall satisfaction with their work.
Remember to communicate actively, utilise technology, establish traditions, brainstorm together, and provide feedback frequently to keep your remote team engaged and connected.
And if you want a more professional approach to remote team management, refer to Collab Fabrik's remote team hiring agency for tried and tested solutions!
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