Top 10 Ways to Engage Remote Employees

Remote work has become increasingly common, and with it comes the challenge of maintaining remote employee engagement. 

Engaging remote employees is an essential part of maintaining a productive and satisfied workforce. 

Here, we explore the top strategies to keep your remote team motivated and connected.

Why engage remote employees?

Engaging remote employees is important for several reasons:

• Boosts productivity: Engaged employees are more motivated and efficient, leading to better performance and output.
• Enhances retention: Employees who feel connected and valued are less likely to leave the organisation.
• Improves team morale: A strong sense of engagement promotes a positive work culture and employee satisfaction. 
• Fosters innovation: Engaged employees are more likely to contribute ideas and take initiative.

If you’re struggling to come up with employee engagement ideas, why not have a read of our article exploring some of our favourite employee engagement activities? 

How to engage remote employees?

Engaging remote employees requires deliberate strategies that cater to their unique working environment. 

At Dharma Centre for Wellbeing, we are a fully remote team, so we want to share the top 10 ways we enhance engagement in our company to see if we can help you devise strategies to engage your own remote teams:

Promote regular communication

Effective team communication is at the heart of engaging remote employees. Regular check-ins and open communication channels help maintain a sense of connection and alignment.

• Schedule regular meetings: Weekly or fortnightly team meetings keep everyone informed and involved.

We have a weekly team meeting, which involves each of us sharing our “sweets and sours”, as well as any top tier company updates. Sweets and sours are both personal and professional and they are essentially the positive and negative points that each of us has experienced over the course of the week. These meetings are great, because it gives us the chance to be candid and open about the things that are going on around us at home and at work, as well as check in on a strategic level. 

• Utilise collaboration tools: Platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams facilitate continuous communication.

Our main collaboration tools are remote communication and task management platforms, which allow us to approach work asynchronously. 

As you can imagine, remote work means we don’t necessarily share the same time zones and schedules. So, being able to see the team’s workload, assign tasks and schedule messages are key components of our asynchronous working style. 

Promote work-life balance

Supporting a healthy work-life balance is vital for remote employees who might struggle to separate work from personal life.

• Encourage flexible hours: Allow employees to adjust their schedules to fit their personal needs.
• Set clear boundaries: Encourage employees to set specific work hours and take regular breaks.

Offer opportunities for professional development

Continuous learning and growth are crucial for keeping employees engaged. 

Providing access to development programs shows your investment in their career progression.

• Provide access to online courses: We offer a wide range of training offerings for employees and leaders alike. Anything from focus and concentration at work all the way to executive coaching. 
• Encourage skill development: Support employees in pursuing certifications relevant to their roles.

Host virtual team-building activities

Building a sense of community and camaraderie among remote teams is essential, and can be supported by virtual team-building activities that help strengthen relationships and foster a positive team culture.

• Host virtual social events: Organise online games, trivia nights, or virtual coffee breaks.

Our annual Christmas quiz is a great example of virtual team-building activities that we like to hold. One of our team members created the quiz (which we actually shared with our newsletter subscribers), and the rest of us participated (making sure to be wearing something wintery/Christmassy). It was great fun – even if the questions were ridiculously hard. 

We actually take team-building a step further and meet up in different countries for 2-3 days every 6 months, but we know this isn’t always a possibility when it comes to team building for remote employees and that doesn’t matter because virtual events are great for building connection and engagement too! 

• Collaborate on non-work projects: Encourage teams to work together on creative or charitable projects.

Encourage open feedback

Creating an environment where remote employees can share their thoughts and feedback without hesitation helps to foster trust and engagement.

• Conduct regular surveys: Use tools like SurveyMonkey to gather feedback on various aspects of work.
• Hold 1-to-1 meetings: Regular check-ins with managers provide a platform for employees to voice their concerns.

Support mental health and wellbeing

The isolation of remote work can impact mental health. Offering support and resources for mental wellbeing to mitigate remote-work loneliness can significantly enhance engagement.

• Provide access to counselling: Partner with mental health services to offer support.
• Promote wellbeing programmes: Encourage participation in activities that support mental and physical health.

Other than weekly team meetings, we also have monthly team enrichment sessions, where we explore our training offerings as a team. Not only does this provide us with the chance to apply the teachings from our employee wellbeing courses to our own personal and professional lives, it also gives us the opportunity to assess and improve our training for clients. 

Build a strong company culture

Maintaining a cohesive company culture in a remote setting is challenging but essential for engagement.

• Communicate core values: Regularly share and reinforce the company’s mission and values.

At Dharma, our mission couldn’t be clearer, in everything we do, we strive to heal the business world through workplace wellbeing. 

Like our mission, our values are a part of us too, because: Love, Innovation, Trust, Excellence and Service, is what we do and believe in.

• Encourage participation in cultural activities: Involve remote employees in events and traditions that promote company culture.

Engaging remote workers…

…Is an integral part of maintaining productivity and morale in a virtual work environment. By implementing these strategies, you can create a supportive and engaging experience for your remote teams, ensuring they remain motivated and connected to the organisation.

We hope that our practices help you to take the right approach to connecting with and engaging your remote team members!