40 Fresh and Practical Ways to Build Engagement With A Remote Workforce

April 20, 2020 Employee Performance and Coaching

30. Schedule a Virtual Happy Hour

At 3PM on Friday once a month, turn on your webcam and maybe open a beer while you connect with your remote workers (beer optional, of course). Have a normal Friday conversation as you would in the office.

Plans for the weekend?
How’s that remodel coming?
Tell me about your vacation last week.

At first, you might think this is a little off-putting. “Happy hour during work hours? That’s precious time in my day.” But let’s be honest. How much time do you spend casually chatting with your on-site colleagues and employees as you go about your day? Your remote employees don’t have the opportunity to have that sort of interpersonal exchange. In fact, days may go by before they have any casual interaction with anyone they work with.

A friendly, non-work-related conversation you schedule once a month can be a great morale boost for remote staff who may sometimes feel left out, or worse, like they don’t exist.

31. Clearly Define Objectives and Requirements

Off-site workers don’t have the luxury of swinging by your office and asking clarifying questions. Less contact means less oversight and support.

Thus, when assigning work to these employees, you must go out of your way to make expectations especially clear to ensure they can complete the assignment with relatively minimal oversight from you.

Here are some ways in which you can enhance the guidance and instructions you give to remote workers:

Establish key decision points or boundaries they should work within
Define what the task should NOT include or what they should NOT consider
Create key milestones you want them to reach
Make a list of deliverables that explain exactly what you want to see at the end
Develop a format or template that shows how you want the employee to present the information or data
Set a notional schedule and timeline to establish both priority and an expected level of effort

How does this help engagement? When remote employees begin feeling like they don’t have clear direction and aren’t able to reach you, it can be frustrating for them. Ensuring they have a clear path and direction as they work independently will prevent them from getting both stuck and demotivated.

32. Have a Virtual Bring Your Child to Work Day

If you’re looking to do something unique and inclusive of your remote staff, consider a virtual bring your child to work day. Ask employees to turn on their webcams and have their kids come to see one another. Spend a half an hour or more playing games with the kids, as a break from the daily grind and to lighten the overall relationship with your staff.

Naturally, this may not work with all employees and certainly not for an entire day but consider this option if the circumstances and make-up of your team are right.

33. Virtual Trivia

Remote employees may spend an entire day in silence and may not talk to a single person.

As a team building activity, schedule a virtual trivia session to provide social interaction and conversation among colleagues and remote employees.

The topics can vary, of course, but if you want to make it work-related, consider something like asking trivia questions related to the email the CEO sent earlier that week, or questions about various company policies.

A virtual trivia session can be a good replacement for an uneventful staff meeting prior to a holiday or during non-peak times of the year.

34. Sponsor Extracurricular Clubs

Consider sponsoring clubs within your organization that allow employees to connect in ways that they normally cannot during their routine workday. Clubs can meet during lunch breaks or after hours, whichever makes sense.

Here are examples of extracurricular clubs that work well with a remote staff:

Monthly book club
An online gaming competition
A fantasy sports league
Foreign language practice / Training group
Fitness and health club (discussion of weight loss, fitness routines, etc.)

35. Create a Structure That’s Not There Naturally

Unlike employees who report to an office and who swipe in and out at a regular time every day, remote workers generally lack a daily work structure.

You can create a basic structure for remote workers who may not have standard hours by scheduling staff meetings and status activities on a recurring basis each week. Instead of sending out a meeting notice ad hoc, schedule a staff meeting every Tuesday. Ask for project summary updates to be submitted every Thursday. Host a new business opportunity review with your team on the first Monday of each month.

Cyclic events create a framework around which your remote employees can plan, organize and communicate. Further, having touch points like this already on the calendar help mitigate distractions and keep the employee on task, as they prepare for the next discussion.

36. And Avoid…

…Rescheduling meetings, particularly at the last minute.

Andy would often gripe that his 1:1 meeting with his boss was rescheduled regularly. “I haven’t talked to him in two months. My one on one meeting has been rescheduled about 5 times now.”

Yes, things come up and unexpected circumstances arise that are unavoidable. However, to the greatest extent that you can, minimize the tendency to reschedule agreed time slots so remote employees don’t feel slighted. The employee has likely spent time preparing to meet with you so pushing back a time slot by two weeks only minutes before the meeting was to begin is bad practice.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Employee One on One Meeting Template (PDF)

Frequent cancellations – and you know if you’re guilty – at the last minute speak volumes about your priorities.

37. Name Drop to Other Staff

Just because you know Bob’s out there working away doesn’t mean your other employee, Jenny, realizes it. Don’t be afraid to drop the names of your remote employees – or refer to them as it makes sense – when meeting with your in-house staff.

For example, is Jenny working on a project where Bob’s experience may be of use? Recommend that Jenny directly reach out to Bob to get his advice or input. Or, ask Jenny to pair up with Bob to help solve the problem she’s struggling to overcome.

Empowering and directing employees to collaborate with off-site workers fosters relationships among your staff, without you setting up the meeting or getting put in the middle.

38. Talk Career

Just because they’re remote doesn’t mean they lack aspirations. And, employee engagement is always highly linked to professional development opportunities.

So, as you would with someone you see every day, don’t spend all the precious minutes you have on a web meeting with your remote employee talking tasks and due dates.

Ask about career goals, craft a robust development plan and give them special assignments to provide them with learning opportunities that develop and advance their skills.

39. Pay Attention to Time Zones

If your remote employees work in another time zone, it’s your responsibility to ensure you keep an appropriate balance with regards to people’s time.

A 1PM meeting time for you may be convenient, but if it means your remote employees must call in at 2AM their time, you should absolutely reconsider. Also, alternate weeks between who takes the early shift and who takes the late shift. Finding a fair balance is the ultimate goal.

While time zone differences require compromise, there will be occasions when everyone is inconvenienced. Still, trying to find a balance in terms of time zones will go a long with to building engagement with your remote employees who appreciate not missing dinner with the family every Tuesday to attend your staff meeting.

40. Ensure They End Their Workday

We mentioned the lack of structure in an earlier point, but there is another layer to this.

One problem we often forget is that employees who work remotely typically do not have an ‘end of the day’ ritual, such as a long drive home, a subway ride, or even the physical shutting down and locking up of a workplace.

Remote workers, therefore, may struggle to find separation – physically and mentally – between work and home, leading to excessive hours or premature burnout.

If all your in-house workers are gone, but the remote employee is still online well past 5PM, reach out and tell them to shut down for the day. Tell them their work will be waiting for them in the morning.

Work-life balance can be hard to maintain when they occur at the same location.

Building Engagement with a Remote Workforce

Creating an engaging work environment for employees is a common challenge that every manager faces. When those employees are virtual the task is even more difficult. Still, it is completely possible to build a motivational and engaging work environment for remote employees – the distance just adds a layer of complexity you need to plan around to overcome.

Provided you take some extra steps and make deliberate efforts along the way, using the tips we’ve outline here can greatly improve employee satisfaction and engagement on your team.

How do you boost morale with your remote team? Please leave a comment to share!