One of the major trends that has currently swept the world of work is working remotely, bringing flexibility and freedom to business. But like any other advantage, with this comes the situation where the organisation has to ensure that they remain connected. One of the biggest disadvantages is that people who work remotely have no opportunity to interact with their colleagues as they would in a real office; therefore, such individuals may feel lonely or excluded. Besides, to ensure that a successful culture of remote work should be cultivated, the following strategies will need to be practiced deliberately.
While working remotely, you should pay much attention to how your team remains connected so that no one can feel left out of the process in virtual work environments, and in this JobsBuster blog post, we discuss 10 strategies for doing this.
- Schedule Regular Video Meetings
Weekly video meetings are the important factor to maintaining a sense of connection in a remote team. Digital communication tools are convenient, but they lack the more personal connection that video conversations provide; spoken words and body language, tone, and facial expressions are information that simply can’t be shared in a text. Weekly Talks.
Set up weekly video check-ins among the entire team to discuss ongoing projects, consider any challenges, and share updates. Managers need to conduct these 1:1s as well, to provide the opportunity for support and to ensure employees are being heard. With weekly video conversations in place, less formal virtual coffee breaks or lunches can be a good idea to also have in place to keep more casual team connections working. These might take the place of the sorts of informal office conversations that often provide the basis for culture connections, and they allow you to bring some of that rapport-building connection into the purely work from home context.
- Leverage Instant Messaging Platforms
Messaging services, such as Slack or Google Chat, are important for keeping remote teams connected. Although they yield much less volume than email, instant messages provide the benefit of immediacy. Instant messages can foster concurrent collaboration on tasks, send quick questions, or just keep team members up to date and focused.
In a purposeful and organised effort to minimise the constant influx of messaging, it would also be helpful to create channels for specific projects or departments that will have frequent communications among those employees. Secondly, create additional informal channels for employees to chat about book clubs, animals, or their favourite shows, for instance. This will help team members relate to each other in some way and reduce their feelings of isolation. Organisations should also support employees to instant message a question or ask for feedback. This would eliminate the need for lengthy meetings and minimise the time waiting for e-mails, for example. All of these suggestions contribute to building more agile and productive team members.
- Host Virtual Social Events
The use of online social events has proven to be the most effective method for taking action, getting isolated members engaged, and keeping the team together. These types of social events are meant to break up the monotony of work and encourage employees to take part in fun, casual activities, which are proven to cultivate relationships.
Think about having virtual happy hours, where team members join a video call to kill time and discuss topics not remotely related to work. Also think about incorporating online games such as Trivia, Pictionary, and virtual escape rooms, where team members can work collaboratively and even foster a little friendly competition. Some more creative ideas might include a virtual themed party where team members can get wild and wear something themed, or cooking together at least virtually with a fun activity, where team members put on cooking presentations or talk about ‘unique talents.’
- Collaborate Using Cloud-Based Tools
To facilitate productivity and connection among remote teams, the use of collaboration tools becomes essential. Collaboration tools such as Google Workspace, Trello, Asana, or Dropbox are cloud-hosted tools that allow remote teams to work collaboratively on documents, files, and projects regardless of distance. Collaboration tools allow remote team members to edit a document together, track tasks, or manage timelines at the same time. An example of this is Google Docs, which allows multiple users to edit a document on the platform simultaneously while tracking edits and comments in real time. Trello and Asana, both referred to as project management tools, both provide remote teams with the ability to assign tasks, set due dates, and visually track a group’s progress in a collaborative way on the project.
These collaboration tools gather work in various spaces, share work, and remove back and forth messaging while keeping everyone in the loop and aware of the laying ground, offering a smoother collaboration experience to remote teams and less confusion.
- Establish a Buddy System
The Buddy System is an efficient and simple way to keep remote employees feeling connected to each other. The concept is for employees to be paired together to become buddies, allowing the employee a buddy to go to for support, help, or just to chat casually. The Buddy System is especially useful for new employees in their first few weeks of working remotely when they may be feeling entirely overwhelmed or isolated.
Assigning a buddy (or buddies) to each new employee helps to bridge the new employee into employee and company culture in the early weeks of working. The new employee would have someone who could be their go-to employee to ask questions and provide guidance, etc. Existing employees can be accountable buddies which may give them a chance at forming a buddy-connection as well. Once the buddy establishes a partnership with regular check-in meetings, it can keep them motivated towards goals and progressing each time they meet and relevant progress to report to one another. The buddy, peer-to-peer element of the buddy system further contributes to a greater workplace connection and diminishes feelings of isolation associated with remote work.
- Use Video for Non-Essential Communication
Of course, video calls are usually for more formal discussions, but video can be a great tool to use when the content of the communication isn’t as important. In place of typing out a long email to explain a process or provide feedback, I might use a quick video message or, if it’s a bit more complex, a direct video call.
Everyday video communication brings a personal touch to interactions, lets you know for sure who is on the other end, allows you to also perceive voice and tone, and helps you understand better why certain instructions or feedback are given. When using video for meetings, it’s easy to share your screen, which is great for, say, showing a colleague how to walk through a task or providing a visual of feedback on a document. Using video in these ways allows the impromptu conversations and in-person problem-solving that often happen in a traditional office. This time around, the videos create understanding and relationships.
- Celebrate Milestones and Achievements
Recognising milestones and achievements is an important piece of morale and engagement across your remote team. Big or small, whether it is about finishing a project, maybe an anniversary date with the organisation, or a birthday, any reason is a good reason and reminds people they are doing good work and their hard work has been noticed.
In your team meetings, always plan time to share and call out specific individuals or teams for what they achieved. You can also allow the team time to recognise and celebrate together virtually, whether it is a digital and probably physical card to mark a birthday or a super quick celebratory call for the group for special time (birthdays and anniversary, etc.). Also, you might consider a recognition program in some form that allows the employee workforce to recognise employee workforce members, even for nominations of greatness. This celebration not only fosters a strong positive remote culture, but it furthers recognition by actively engaging crew members, creating the inspiration and recognition for any sustained impact—equally important long-term.
- Encourage Transparent Communication
In any remote working environment, transparency is critical. In-person communication will often be limited, and as a result, team members can rapidly either assume bad intentions on the part of others or just feel disconnected. Inspire a spirit of transparency in your team communications by creating an open-door policy and encouraging employees to ask questions, give feedback, and air concerns—even in written form.
Make it part of your regular routine to share updates regarding company goals, updates about key priorities, the progress of any projects, and updates in strategy. These updates serve as connection points that help bring everyone onto the same page, working on the same project, and in the same context to reduce the amount of miscommunication. And don’t lose sight on creating a feedback culture so that teammates feel connected and willing to share ideas or concerns and provide any feedback in a remote environment within this spirit of transparency.
- Create a Shared Team Calendar
Viewing shared calendars as a key tool for remote employees to coordinate the team’s work improves communication and allows awareness of each other’s schedules, availability, and time zones when planning meetings and collaborative work. Team members should monitor and update the shared calendar with their work hours, days off, vacation time, and/or times when they are unavailable, in an effort to avoid scheduling conflicts and minimise the impact on each other’s personal time. A shared calendar may also be useful for marking each other’s project deadlines and the times of team meetings adjacent to project deadlines so each employee has the same initial information for timely key projects or deliverables. All in all, using a shared calendar improves collaboration and the extent to which remote teams may be successful!
- Offer Wellbeing Support
The separation of personal and professional life can be difficult in remote work situations, creating stress for the employee. Supporting environment is essential in maintaining connections, keeping employees engaged, and ensuring that mental health is met. Encouraging employees to regularly take breaks during the day is a good way to have them recharge and step away from their computer. Providing mental health supports such as counselling assistance, meditation apps, or wellness services is useful to handle stress or burnout. Finally, not to be overlooked as a manager, and help improve schedules to lessen burnout through flexible arrangements.
When employees feel supported and cared for as a worker and as a human, they are more likely to feel motivated and engaged in their work, the team, and the organization. Employees supported in their wellness journey will promote a less stressful and more engaged remote culture overall.
Conclusion
By utilising these strategies, you will be supporting a culture of remote work that fosters connection, collaboration, and wellbeing. Connection while working remotely is purposeful and crucial to ensuring productivity, trust, and morale are maintained. With the appropriate tools, resources, and practices, remote teams can both flourish and enjoy the advantages of working flexibly without being isolated.
We hope this JobsBuster post will provide you with a better idea of Remote work culture and various tips to Stay Connected While Working Remotely.
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