4 Ways You Can Give Your Remote Workforce a Sense of Engagement

Remote working is currently on the increase. And as more and more companies encourage people to work from home, they are quickly realizing that remote working presents some challenges. It's easy for remote workers to feel isolated, and when the majority of your workforce is dispersed it can be difficult to maintain a strong corporate culture. Collaboration, morale and affiliation can be damaged.

Fortunately, the sudden influx of remote workers may be new, but working from a distance is not. Work flexibility was one of LinkedIn's global talent trends in 2019, and it has become increasingly common over the past decade. Many companies have been managing remote teams for years and have found ways to overcome the challenges and build strong and inclusive cultures.

Read below to see how four of these companies have made employees in remote locations feel part of a close-knit team no matter how far apart

1 GitLab encourages remote team members to take virtual coffee breaks and even link them for random video calls
Meet-ups do not have to take place in person. GitLab, a web-based repository manager and the world's largest workforce working exclusively in remote locations, wants its team to experience the fun and camaraderie of office culture through video calls.

One tactic that GitLab uses is the virtual coffee break, where team members can take a break and chat with each other via video call. Employees are encouraged to spend a few hours each week answering these calls, with the goal, according to the company's website, of creating "a more pleasant, rounded work environment.

Virtual coffee breaks are not just between friends. GitLab uses Slack to help employees connect, and in the #donut_be_strangers channel, team members have the option of being randomly matched by a bot called Donut. You can also join the Random Room, a chat on Google Hangouts that is always open to everyone.

These strategies have helped GitLab's staff make more contacts, even though they cover 65 countries. Many have even met in person outside the office.

Communication and video conferencing tools such as Slack, Google Hangouts and Microsoft Teams make it easier for employees to stay in touch, no matter where they are in the world. The technology also provides opportunities for fun, from sharing GIFs to discussing common hobbies, which can help prevent isolation and burnout and create a closer culture.

Many companies, like Revelry and Groove, dedicate a special slack channel to virtual #Watercooler conversations. The LinkedIn talent blog team also has one - it's called Story Squad-Thread!

2 Help Scout holds monthly themed "troop talks" and encourages employees to take video tours of their workspace at home
The Help Scout customer care service believes that planning and effort are the key to building a strong culture at a distance. One strategy he uses is the monthly "Troop Talk", which brings together groups of 10 or more employees using Zoom.

Help Scout experimented with "Troop Talks" for the first time in 2014, but found that these calls were plagued by awkward silence or accidental cross-talk. In order to ensure a smooth process, they introduced more structure and planning.

Today, the head of the company's HR department chooses a topic for each call, such as "recipe party" (sharing your favorite recipes) and "bon appetite" (the discussion about the phone app you can't live without). A date is then set so that employees have time to think about what they want to say. During the conversation itself, conversation and exchange alternate.

Help Scout says that about 25% of the team participates in each Troop Talk, although the number varies according to topic and time. To accommodate employees in different time zones, the talks are recorded and held at different times each month.

While video calls provide a glimpse into the life of a remote employee, Help Scout also encourages team members to create fun little videos of their work areas. Inspired by the television show MTV Cribs, these "At Home with Help Scout" video home tours allow employees to share more of their personality and everyday life with their colleagues. In the past, employees have noticed that some colleagues raise chickens and others have a couchette job.

Common practices like these can make cultures strong, whether or not your employees share them personally. They can also help employees discover connections with each other (such as a mutual love of chickens) that can spark more conversations in the future.

3 Workswell recommends making video calls more playful to create a common atmosphere for all participants
Workswell, a consulting group that helps companies create healthier cultures, recommends incorporating playful elements into meetings to create a shared atmosphere for remote and local employees.

One tactic the company uses is to tell employees at the beginning of a meeting that they need to give "an aha, an apology or an acknowledgement" at the end. This means that they can say something they liked, talk about a light bulb moment that the meeting triggered, or apologize for something they did, such as overreacting to someone else's remark.

"It changes the way employees engage with the meeting, as they may look closer, knowing that they will be asked for feedback at the end," explains Jill Vialet, founder and CEO of Playworks, the company that launched Workswell.

A simple stratagem like this can serve an important purpose: To remind local staff that employees from a distance are participating in the conversation, and to encourage employees from a distance to get fully involved in the conversation. This can help prevent employees in remote locations from feeling isolated and can help create more connections between remote team members who would otherwise not be talking.

4 The CleverTech staff comes together through online video game sessions
Kuty Shalev, founder and CEO of the software development company Clevertech, did not meet his CTO personally during the first three years of the cooperation. This is because Clevertech is a 100% remote company and has been for over a decade. But managing a workforce scattered around the world was not always easy.

"Our turnover was significantly higher than the already high average in the software industry," writes Kuty in the Harvard Business Review. To counteract this, he began experimenting with various strategies to address the cultural issues and build cohesion and trust.

For example, his employees began to play video games.

Kuty thought that playing online video games together would force employees who had never met in person to work together to solve problems. Initially, Clevertech tried mission-based multiplayer games such as Fortnite and League of Legends, but they proved too easy. The teams had to face the fact that they couldn't really join forces and coordinate properly. So the company increased the stakes by adding more complex games like Factorio, which are known to cause even experienced players to stumble.

"It's important to create the same amount of stress and the possibility of failure as they do at work," writes Kuty in HBR. "By adding this complexity, a place was created where the team could learn from failure. . . . This alone has had an enormous impact on interpersonal and industrial relations in our own company", writes Kuty in HBR.

This is not the only strategy Clevertech found useful in bringing its culture together. The company also uses shared content - such as TED lectures, books or online learning courses in which everyone participates - to encourage deeper conversations between employees.

"Our retention rate has improved in the meantime", writes Kuty in HBR. "These tactics were a decisive factor in driving [sales] down. We have also seen a significant increase in the progress of ongoing projects - even those that had fallen by the wayside for a long time - and greater commitment from employees.

With so many multiplayer games available online, this is something that any company can do. The key is to let employees play during working hours (as Clevertech did) so it doesn't feel like an obligation. Make it fun, but challenging and it will quickly become a common part of your culture.

Final thoughts
Remote working does not have to be isolating. Give employees the tools they need to build and share their culture. This can include a dedicated channel in your communication platform, a structured meeting or a game session on company time.

Whatever you decide to do, let employees know why you're doing it and give them the opportunity to express their own ideas about building a shared culture. Employees want to feel connected and part of something at work, so if you make the effort, they will meet you halfway.