There are several advantages to working remotely for both the organization and its employees. Organizations are able to save costs and expenses by having fewer on-site employees, and remote workers can enjoy the flexibility and the work-life balance that a remote environment provides.
However, having a team of virtual workers comes with its own set of challenges, such as building strong connections among team members who may or may not be working for the same location.
Remote workers need to feel connected to the organization and their work, and it’s up to the company to ensure their success. Your remote employees must be more than words on a screen; they’re a face on a video call and an integral part of the team, no matter how far they are from the office or their time zone.
Building connections with remote employees is more than just attending brief video calls on a Monday morning; it’s investing in their careers, creating open and positive lines of communication, and providing support with their flexible schedules.
Here’s a guide on how to build meaningful connections with your remote employees.
The Importance of Connecting with Your Remote Teams
Don’t underestimate the power of connections, especially for remote employees. From day one, remote employees need to feel connected to their work, colleagues, and the company.
Whether your company decides to set up virtual coffee breaks or introduce extravagant game nights and communication tools, it’s essential to create a personal connection with your virtual employee at every step of the way.
In fact, building connections and being available for your team is considered a sign of a good manager or employer. Plus, having an open-door policy and engaging in break room-type conversations with your virtual teams can increase productivity.
Your remote employees will be more open to feedback and are more likely to approach management with their innovations and concerns.
How to Connect Remote Workers During the Onboarding Process
The onboarding process is one of the initial interactions an employee has with the company. During this interaction, it is important to connect with your remote employee. This can immediately be achieved through a streamlined, remote onboarding process. A successful onboarding procedure is integral when connecting remote employees to their roles, team, and the company as a whole.
Onboarding is more than just taking care of contracts and payroll; it allows remote employees to engage with each other, understand the organizational structure, and learn about the company culture.
Building connections creates a binder among the workforce, which is key to having a strong and successful team. While remote teams don’t have the chance for face-to-face interactions or casual conversations in the office, they still can feel connected to the organization and to their colleagues — it just takes some creativity. Having open dialogue, constant communication, and collaboration can enable effortless connections among your remote team members.
Ideas on How to Connect with Your Remote Workers
For managers and employers who are used to communicating and onboarding new hires face-to-face, here are a few ideas to connect with remote employees.
Video Conferences
By scheduling regular debriefing sessions and video meetings, your remote team won't miss out on the many advantages of having face-to-face interactions. This will help your team connect with one another, create a sense of belonging, and become even more productive in the long run.
Collaboration Tools
Project management and communication tools, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams, allow for real-time collaboration and communication. This will encourage remote workers to contribute to ongoing project discussions, resulting in engaged teams.
Virtual Team-building Activities
Just like in-office teams, your virtual staff also benefit from team-building activities. The only difference is that these trivia games, happy hours, and friendly challenges are done behind a screen. With various team-building activities, your remote employees have the golden opportunity to get to know each other and strengthen their bond. This is a vital trait for teams to have, especially when working in unison with each other daily.
Provide Opportunities for Feedback
By regularly asking for feedback from your remote workers about their experience and the potential challenges they may be facing, you can express your concern for eliminating bigger problems.
This small action of asking for feedback also demonstrates that the employer values its employees' inputs and is willing to address the issues that get in the way of their growth and development.
Recognize and Celebrate Achievements
Acknowledging and celebrating the achievements of your remote workers through company-wide announcements, reward programs, or even a simple congratulatory message can go a long way.
This form of reinforcement creates a positive work environment and a sense of belonging and appreciation, despite the employee working outside the office.
Encourage Virtual Lunches or Coffee Breaks
By encouraging your remote staff to schedule virtual lunches or coffee breaks together, you can create an informal setting that allows for both the growth of professional relationships and personal ones.
When colleagues share a personal bond with one another, they are able to express themselves more freely and this can positively affect the company. Personal relationships accompanied by professional ones can often lead to stronger communication channels amongst a team. Spending lunches and breaks together can make working more enjoyable since it fosters strong bonds among your employees.
Maintain Open and Clear Communications in Your Remote Teams
Creating open lines of communication for remote employees is essential. They can’t pop into an office for a quick chat; they rely on communication channels.
While face-to-face interactions leave little room for misinterpretation, it’s trickier with virtual communication. There’s no way to determine one’s body language or tone of voice, so sometimes, it can be difficult to understand the tone and urgency behind the conversation. This creates the challenges of how to keep remote teams connected.
When conveying messages of a certain tone, it’s important to be as clear as possible with your remote employees so there’s no room for miscommunication.
Maintaining an open dialogue of communication is important for every company, but even more so for remote employees. Remote employees need to feel connected to the organization, and their only way of doing so is through communication channels. Having open communication for both on-site and remote employees encourages a company culture that’s honest, collaborative, and connected.
An honest, collaborative, and connected work environment can be accomplished with some of the following strategies.
Trust Your Remote Employees and Allow for Flexibility
If a company has a remote work initiative, it’s important to enable flexible policies. After all, the culture behind remote work is to have increased flexibility and agency in comparison to an office environment.
Companies that encourage flexibility rather than resisting it will have a more successful and seamless remote work experience, likely resulting in lower turnover rates.
Implementing flexible remote work arrangements doesn’t necessarily mean “work when you can,” but it allows remote employees to arrange their work schedules best suited to their needs. For example, if remote employees need to take care of family members or have appointments throughout the week, it’s important to be flexible and supportive.
By having a flexible and adaptive approach to remote working, your remote employees will feel more appreciated, respected, and connected to the company.
Invest in Development
While engaging with remote employees regularly is essential, investing in their professional development and helping them flourish in their careers is critical to forming a strong relationship.
Investing time and money into your remote employees and their career development shows that you and your company appreciate them, respect their talents, and want them to go further and grow within the company. Not only will this aid in building strong connections, but it will also help with employee retention.
By investing in the development of your employees, you can attract a diverse group of skilled and motivated talent while retaining and training your existing team of remote employees.
Virtual Events
Virtual events, networking events, and business gatherings are also effective tools you can provide your remote employees.
Ease the stress load and encourage healthy work-life relationships with virtual events that let your team bond with each other, relax, and try something new. An example of this is hosting a virtual museum tour. Events like this will provide your remote employees with the opportunity to learn something new. They will also be able to step back and take a break in the fast-paced corporate world while strengthening their bonds with co-workers.
By hosting networking events, you can provide your employees with the opportunity to connect and meet professionals who can help them climb the ladder of success.
Provide Tools to Succeed
Remote employees, especially in a distributed team that spans many time zones, may often feel disconnected and disengaged if they don’t have the right tools. To establish strong connections with remote employees right away, provide them with the right tools to succeed in their roles and feel connected to the organization.
These tools are often tailored to individual needs including a home office stipend, the ability to go into a coworking office when needed, and access to platforms that encourage communication and collaboration. Providing these tools to remote employees shows that the organization cares about their careers and success.
Here are a few tools that can help your remote employees.
CamScanner
This mobile app lets your employees use all the functions of a real scanner. Your remote staff can easily generate PDFs, JPEGs, and high-resolution images of documents. This will save them the cost of purchasing a scanner and can be a convenient way to work while on the go.
Clockify
Clockify is a great app designed especially for remote workers. With this tool, your remote employees can track their hours and even set up timers to motivate them to complete each task with proficiency.
I Done This
I Done This is a user-friendly tool that tracks team progress, lets managers monitor performance, and provides reminders. With this tool, your remote team can create to-do lists, update everyone on the team on their status, and keep a record of their progress.
AnyDesk
AnyDesk is a remote desktop that lets you connect to your computer from anywhere. Whether you're out in the city travelling or in a meeting, you can access the files on your office computer or company network from virtually anywhere. With AnyDesk, you can also transfer files and have access to a fast connection that lets you download your work within minutes. This tool is perfect for remote employees who are always on the go and need to work off their phones.
Krisp
Have you ever been in a Zoom call where you simply can’t hear the other person talking because of the background noise from your end or the other participants' end? If you answered yes, then this tool is for you. With Krisp, you can more clearly hear the person on the other end of the call – and they’ll say the same for you. This noise-cancelling software identifies and removes background noise during your calls and allows you (and the other person) to clearly hear without any disturbances.
How Borderless Helps Prioritize Remote Connections
Hiring and connecting with remote employees may seem like a tall task. It may seem overwhelming, from onboarding to forming strong, trusting working relationships. But with Borderless, it doesn’t have to be. Our platform makes the onboarding process as it should be: straightforward and seamless.
With the onboarding process taken care of, connecting with new remote employees will be achieved easily and effortlessly. To make connecting with your remote employees your main focus, use Borderless. Speak to us today and find out how we can assist in helping foster stronger connections with your remote employees.
Disclaimer: Borderless does not provide legal services or legal advice to anyone. This includes customers, contractors, employees, partners, and the general public. We are not lawyers or paralegals. Please read our full disclaimer here.
