When it comes to creating a successful team, we’ve all got our work cut out for us, especially as most employees are now demanding a more flexible approach to working.

Remote working has undoubtedly been the savior of so many employees’ morale. However, this can mean that there are a few issues in relation to keeping that team spirit together, which would potentially be easier in an office environment. However, there are plenty of ways to engage our remote employees.

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Ensure Everyone’s Voices Are Heard

This is particularly important if your teams are a mixture of remote and office-based. Hybrid workers can get the best of both worlds, but there are many people who need to work from home, and it can be easy for them to feel like they are left out on important decisions. For this reason, it is so important to prioritize methods to give our employees a say. 

We can use employee surveys or, very simply, have regular meetings. If your business is completely remote, you need to make the most of meeting room hire services to ensure that, on a monthly basis (or even more regularly) the right people are heard.

When employees speak, we have to make sure that we are also engaging with them and giving encouraging feedback. When everybody’s voices are heard, it makes for a far more effective working environment, even if there isn’t one intact.

Encourage Employees to Get to Know Each Other

This can be tough when you’ve got a team of workers spread out all over the country or the world. However, there are ways for you to step out of the daily grind to ensure your colleagues all discover a more personal side of each other.

Creating team get-togethers, such as employee getaways, can ensure that people feel tuned in with each other. Further, it’s also a good idea to encourage people to feel more social during work time. 

Even if people are working on their individual tasks and there’s no such thing as a typical team in your organization, encouraging virtual meetups can help to improve the dynamics.

However, rather than getting people to stick to these teams during those meetings, be sure to switch it up. Variety is, after all, the spice of life.

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Stimulate Collaboration

Going one step further than regular meetups, you need to ensure your employees’ voices are heard. Collaboration tools can help you to record and share videos with your colleagues, and this is a far better alternative to standard emails or messages.

One of the biggest problems organizations have with regard to remote work is that everything is done via email. Of course, there are many people who prefer it this way. However, we have to think about the impact of a long email trail. Usually, a simple phone call would save time, effort, and frustration. 

When you start to consider the positive effects of a collaboration session, this is going to help your organization gradually develop that culture away from the standard values that you perceive to be essential to your organization, and it makes employees feel far more connected with the business.

Asking people to put forth their ideas and suggestions for a project, or even for the business as a whole, makes everybody feel far more sewn together as far as the company fabric is concerned.

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Using Communication Tools

Communication tools are critical to boosting engagement. As the overlong email trail can hinder productivity, it’s important for you to start setting an example for your employees by using your preferred communication tools to share updates, encourage conversations, and allow your employees to maintain a greater degree of visibility.

Communication is even more important when we have dispersed employees. The goal is, in effect, to mimic that moment in the office where someone can approach another colleague at their desk to have a quick conversation. 

These days, you have to schedule everything, especially when people are way too busy. But what you can do is get to know your employees better based on their duties, as well as how they work, structure-wise, to ensure that the right communication method doesn’t impact their work. This further gives them the most peace to speak their thoughts and engage with other employees freely.

Encourage Employee Autonomy

Remote employees don’t feel the same sense of collaboration or freedom as many other office-based employees. This is something that many businesses have to get right. Many companies have had the opportunity to practice this, however, there are still those line managers who are doing their best to keep tabs on employees.

We can all argue that regular observations, disguised as check-ins, can encourage collaboration or help people feel together, but employee autonomy is something that we all need to improve based on what our employees need. 

Helping your remote team feel together is about listening to their needs. There are plenty of employees who need to work “under the radar” and feel like they need to do things their way. Why don’t you listen to them?

As so many people feel that remote working is giving them a greater degree of freedom, we should go one step further and encourage autonomy. After all, as long as the work is done, does it matter how they did it? 

We can encourage employee autonomy by working towards building a culture of trust and responsibility, while also acknowledging and rewarding successful work. If an employee feels empowered to do their work away from the standard office environment, and actually do it better, we shouldn’t backtrack.

So many organizations are now trying to get people back into the office, but this is purely so they can watch them like a hawk. The reality is that most people have been able to get their work done far more successfully because of fewer distractions.

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Show Them You Care

Our employees shouldn’t feel like they are out of sight and, therefore, out of mind. We have to celebrate the small wins, but we also need to show our employees that we care by acknowledging those personal or professional milestones.

Work anniversary celebrations and promotions all deserve appreciation. When we recognize employees during those team meetings for their impact on the company, the fact is that we are then encouraging those employees who may feel out of the loop to go one step further for the company. 

The toughest thing about engaging remote employees is that those who don’t feel part of the process can start swimming in their own pool, so to speak.

Remember that it is a team effort, and when we start to show people we care, this could turn the organization around. A remote employee who doesn’t feel like they are part of the team could be one step closer to quitting than we realize.

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Take Slow Steps in the Right Direction

Making sure your remote team feels together is not going to happen overnight. Many businesses believe that the pandemic was the perfect opportunity for them to fine-tune specific problems, but in reality, they found that it was just more frustration than it was worth.

As we learn how to keep a remote team feeling respected and together, we must also recognize that by opting for remote or hybrid work, we are prioritizing employee well-being. 

If an employee is happy, they’re going to work better, and this will improve every aspect of the business. But rather than having to force changes to an organization, we have to recognize the importance of the long haul.

Businesses constantly prioritize results over culture, so if an employee feels they are part of a team, even if they are situated hundreds of miles away, this will spur them on beyond their professional scope, and you will benefit as a result.

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