How to keep your team connected when they’re working remotely

We’ll skip the usual pandemic preamble (you’ve heard it before) and just say this – working from home is our new shared reality, and it isn’t going away anytime soon. What’s perhaps more surprising is that remote work has also largely proven to be a successful experiment.

According to Statistics Canada, 90% of Canadian teleworkers report being at least as productive or more productive working remotely. It’s also proven popular with employees, with over 80% of new teleworkers indicating that they would like to work at least half of their hours from home once the pandemic is over. Employees also report saving money (largely avoiding costs of commuting), and companies report saving as much as $11,000 per half-time remote employee on workplace expenses.

Between enhanced productivity, greater employee happiness, and cost savings for both remote workers and their employers, there’s a lot of good things to say about remote working.

That’s not to say there aren’t challenges – and team management is a big one. Studies show collaboration improves significantly when employees meet in person. It’s also tougher to build a positive workplace culture with everybody at home. And simply keeping your staff connected and in sync on a day-to-day basis can be a struggle for managers.

That’s not to say there aren’t challenges – and team management is a big one. Studies show collaboration improves significantly when employees meet in person. It’s also tougher to build a positive workplace culture with everybody at home. And simply keeping your staff connected and in sync on a day-to-day basis can be a struggle for managers:

1. Communicate efficiently

   Communication is key for managing a remote team. But that doesn’t necessarily mean more video calls.

   In 2021, employees reported spending one-third of their workday on video calls, but almost a quarter of employees found those meetings unproductive. Too much time spent on video calls can take away from doing actual work, and can lead to employee frustration. It also leads to screen fatigue, as excessive amounts of close-up eye contact can be highly intense.

   Instead of defaulting to video calls, consider other forms of communication that can quickly relay information, such as texting, chat channels like Slack, or productivity management apps like Basecamp (more on this below).

   Video calls will always be a key part of working from home, but relying on other forms of communication in certain situations can help your team operate more efficiently.

2. Create opportunities for spontaneous connection

   Office environments are full of natural opportunities for small interactions – think friendly updates in the elevator or quick chats by the water cooler. As informal as they seem, studies show information gleaned from these quick asides actually plays a key role in empowering employees to be at their best.

   Group meetings via video calls work well as substitutes for boardroom meetings – but they don’t replace these friendly interactions. Consider ways to encourage spontaneous connections, like a separate chat channel to exchange non-work information, like local news or personal updates. Or start group meetings with personal updates, like “this weekend I went hiking…”.

   Being able to talk about more than work will bring team members closer together and provide an outlet for the small-talk and social chatter that’s absent from remote work.

3. Use Project Management Apps

   With everybody under the same roof, it’s easy to know the status of a group project, or what your neighbour is working on at any given time. Even if not related to their own tasks, employees report feeling more connected when they know what’s going on with projects their team is working on.

   Using apps like Slack can help teammates share status updates or projects or client requests quickly and efficiently.

   Apps like Basecamp offer task management tools that allow groups to be created so team members can see ongoing progress on projects in their scope, without being inundated with constant updates about the work of a different department.

   There’s a fine balance between over and under-sharing, and project management apps can be helpful in finding the best level of information sharing for you and your team.

4. Create Breakaway Groups

   Connecting on a smaller scale is another way to balance the undersharing/oversharing dilemma and respect your team’s time.

   Smaller breakaway groups within a larger remote team allow employees to work more closely together, sharing a more appropriate level of detail on a certain project, and allow for better alignment on targets and assignments. Calls or video meetings can be shorter and more focused on project-specific problems and objectives. Meanwhile, other team members have more productivity time to work on their own tasks.

   It’s also easier to build relationships and get to know each other in small groups, and breakaway teams will be motivated to report back to the full team with a collaborative view of their work.

5. One-on-One Check Ins

   In a remote working environment, managers need to put in extra effort to make sure every team member is feeling supported and has access to the information they need.

   Without those natural micro-interactions around the office, employees can feel left out of the loop.

   Setting up regular one-on-one meetings with your team members creates a predictable structure and an open channel for them to express any questions or concerns they might have. Managers should put an emphasis on actively listening during these conversations.

6. Recognize and Reward Your Employees

   One of the downsides of remote work: only 25% of remote employees feel recognized for their output. While employees report being more productive, they also report working longer hours and being less appreciated for the work they do.

   It’s important to try to recreate your recognition rituals from the office in the work from home environment. Whether it’s a team lunch, or gift cards for coffee, employers and managers should not underestimate the value of rewarding hard work.

   Team morale gets a boost when team members are recognized for their accomplishments, and better team morale results in higher productivity.