12 Steps to Establish a Connection Between Remote Workers & Your Company
Are your remote employees feeling left out of the workplace?
With more and more employees “going remote”, companies everywhere have been working to navigate this new workforce shift. Savvy business owners recognize the benefits of having a remote team, but often struggle to establish a connection with their remote team members.
On one hand, remote employees report more work satisfaction and happiness than their in-office counterparts.
On the other hand, 70% of remote workers report feeling “left out” of the workplace and company culture.
Is there a middle ground?
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to establish a connection between your remote workers and your company in order to boost work satisfaction, productivity, and teamwork — no matter where your employees are in the world.
12 Steps to Building a Connection with Your Remote Team
Having a strong connection between your company and the remote workers you employ is important because it ensures that all of your team members feel recognized and appreciated. It also allows for clearer lines of communication and more team collaboration.
Whether you are just starting out, or have had a remote team for years, you can follow the 12 steps below to build a better connection with your remote employees.
1. Hire the Right “Character Fit”
It’s a common misconception that the perfect hire is the person that has the best skills for the job. The truth is that finding the right “character fit” is just as important (if not more important) than the experience listed on their resume.
With a remote team, it’s crucial to hire someone that has the right personality and communication style for your company dynamic. You’ll need someone who is independent enough to work remotely but who will also take initiative when it comes to collaboration with other team members.
When hiring a new remote worker, here are some character traits to look for:
- Open and friendly communication style
- Self-discipline
- Determination and drive
- A team player
- Creative and innovative
- Detail oriented
Consider other character traits (like interests or sense of humor) that would seamlessly fit into your existing team dynamic. This will help your new hire feel like an insider from the very beginning.
2. Assign Clear Roles
Having a remote team often presents additional issues regarding communication and responsibility, it’s easy for wires to get crossed and for details to get missed.
When you onboard a new team member, it’s best to make it clear what their role is and what their responsibilities are. These should also be evident to your other team members.
Assigning clear roles from the beginning helps ensure that everyone knows who to turn to when they have a particular problem. It also helps prevent objections like “I didn’t think that was my job!” or “I thought Karen was taking care of it”.
Define access levels and who gets to see what with ProofHub custom roles. Sign up for FREE.
3. Create a Detailed New Employee Onboarding Process
When you work in an office, it’s relatively easy for new hires to ask questions as they are learning the job. But when your team is remote, new employees can feel isolated and may often avoid asking “stupid questions”.
With a detailed onboarding and training process, you better prepare your new hire for the job — taking time to answer their questions and to outline expectations. You may also present them with a process in regards to checking in with managers, submitting projects, and reaching out to other team members. In doing so, you avoid leaving them in the dark or to their own devices if they encounter a problem.
4. Establish Several Lines of Communication
One of the most common issues companies face when it comes to having a remote team is miscommunication. Relying on email and the occasional video call leaves much room for misunderstandings and missed details.
To build a strong connection with your remote workers, communication is essential. That’s why we recommend employing at least a few tools to make communication simple and clear.
Keep Your Team on the Same Page
ProofHub is an all-in-one management system that helps ensure that all of your team members — in-office and remote — are on the same page. Help team members stay on top of deadlines, collaborate on projects, and communicate with other departments with ease, all within a single communication system.
ProofHub even allows team members to create their own workflow. Whether team members work from home, from an office, or a coffee shop, they can communicate with other members of the company in real-time.
Build a Centralized Knowledge Base
When you have an office-based work environment, it’s easy for team members to rifle through the file cabinet to find what they are looking for. With a remote workforce, you need a virtual file cabinet (so to speak) to ensure that all team members have access to the information they need.
A knowledge base is a centralized system that employees can access online to find important company details, documents, and resources. It makes it easy for employees to find exactly what they are looking for, without having to play email tag or communicate across timezones.
Need a knowledge management system for your company? See our list of the 45 Best Project Management and Communication Tools to help you manage your remote team.
5. Conduct Regular Meetings
Scheduling regular team meetings is a great way to help your remote members feel connected with your company. Getting a little face time here and there ensures that everyone does, in fact, feel part of a team.
To keep things productive, make sure to establish a clear agenda before each meeting. If employees work in various timezones, try your best to find a time that works for everyone. A regular meeting presents an opportunity to set goals, problem-solving, and innovate.
Check out some of the best tools to conduct meetings for remote teams.
6. Inspire Remote Team Collaboration
Investing in your employees is a win-win situation. When you encourage them and highlight their strengths, they are more likely to do their best work.
But this shouldn’t be the responsibility of only the team manager. Everyone on the team should be encouraged to collaborate, commend each other, and support each other.
Make sure that collaboration is part of your company’s mission — and that everyone in your company is made aware of the importance of mutual support. You can further encourage collaboration by assigning team projects, allowing people to take initiative, and conducting team-building meetings.
7. Set Measurable & Achievable Goals
No matter if an employee works in an office or remotely, there’s still a chance that they will feel a bit like a cog in a machine. But by making your company goals evident from the beginning, they will feel like they are part of something bigger.
Setting milestones will motivate employees to work toward a common goal. No individual task is too small. No one is insignificant. It takes everyone to move the company forward and hit those important milestones.
8. Share Networking Opportunities
The growth of “digital nomadism” and remote work has brought an influx of new networking events. Conferences and coworking spaces are popping up across the globe. Companies can take advantage of these opportunities to help their employees feel more connected.
If your budget allows, you can host events for remote workers to meet up in person — or you can sponsor them to attend outside events. It’s a great feeling when your team can meet face-to-face, have a brainstorming session, or simply relish in good conversation.
9. Check In “Just Because”
Many business owners fall into the role of being “all business, no fun”. If every meeting is about goals and sales and company problems, remote employees can feel a bit disheartened.
Checking in to genuinely see how your employees are doing helps build a strong personal connection. Your remote team will get a sense that you care about their well-being (not just their sales quotas). A simple “How are you doing?” email can go a long way.
10. Honor Your Commitments
Connection with your employees is a two-way street. While they may report to you, you are also responsible for honoring your commitments. If they can’t depend on you, they won’t come to you when they have a problem.
Make sure you are accessible when they need you — or at least have a system in place for fielding their questions. Show up on time for meetings, send them the information they need, and set them up for success. These are all valuable tips for empowering your team the right way.
11. Don’t Overwork Your Remote Team
A survey conducted by Buffer found that one of the biggest challenges that remote workers face is not being able to “unplug” after regular work hours. This is likely because your remote team is not tied “to the clock” like office workers are.
Especially if you have workers in other timezones, it can be easy to hit them up when it’s convenient for you (but not convenient for them). This may pressure workers to work outside of their regular work hours (like in the middle of the night or early in the morning).
To ensure that your remote employees aren’t overworked, make sure you make it clear when a task is time-sensitive vs when it can wait. Also, respect their time when you schedule a meeting during inconvenient hours. Waking up at 4 am to take a call just to realize that the other party bailed does not a happy employee makes.
Track time spent on tasks and set time estimates using ProofHub time tracking tool. Sign up for FREE.
12. Ask for Feedback
Even if you follow the previous 11 steps above, it’s likely that your connection with your remote team won’t be perfect. That’s why it’s important to ask for feedback so that you are constantly improving your approach.
A simple anonymous survey can help you gather important feedback from your employees. This is the true gauge of how connected and satisfied your employees feel in working with your company.
The key here is to stay in tune with how your remote employees are feeling. Are they being left out of the company dynamic? Heed their feedback and do what you can to help them feel more connected.
Author Bio: Emil is the Founder of Helpjuice, a leading knowledge management platform used by large and medium-sized enterprises. He is an expert in knowledge management & author of Knowledge Management: A Theoretical and Practical Guide for Knowledge Management in Your Organization.
If you enjoyed this…
Read the other articles:
If you enjoyed reading this article:
Clap: so others can find it
Comment: if you have a question/suggestion you’d like to ask
Follow: ProofHub to read all the articles
