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In my last role in Corporate America I had 14 people working for me, but only two of them were actually physically co-located with me in the office in San Francisco. On my team I had people in eight different cities covering three different time zones. It wasn’t practical or cost effective to have frequent in-person off-sites , although I did try to do that at least once every eighteen months.
I get asked the following question probably more than any other one when I speak to audiences, “How do I engage my remote employees and make them more a part of the team?” To answer that, it is first important to understand that even your employees co-located in the same facility, can feel remote. How many times has someone that worked for you (or maybe even yourself) relied on emails, texts or in-house instant messaging systems to tell you something, rather than get up and talk face-to-face? Remote doesn’t have to be defined by miles or hours.
Here are some tips to keep everyone on your team engaged and I’m going to warn in advance that I’m going ‘old school’.
1. Think of each of your employees as remote workers, regardless of location so that you are starting out on an even playing field. That means that one group is not more important than others, a common complaint that many remote workers feel when there is a group of people co-located with the boss.
2. The concept of ‘one-on-one’ weekly meetings is not only not dead it is imperative that with a remote workforce this happens. You must make the time for a personal interaction with everyone on your team. That doesn’t mean you aren’t talking more if needed, but rather its about making a statement that this time between you and your employee is sacred and reinforces how important they are to the organization. Even if it’s just 30 minutes, it’s time well spent.
3. You must have a scheduled all team staff meeting at least once a month that doesn’t get cancelled. As important as a manager’s one-on-one conversation is with each person on the team, there is such power in the collective group.
4. With all the tools available today for video conferencing, use this whenever possible so that people can virtually ‘see’ each other. Unfortunately it’s not always feasible when you have people in so many locations including those working from home offices but perhaps make it a rule that at least once a quarter people need to go to sites that have the technology so that connections can be strengthened.
5. When you have staff calls, make sure to start off by connecting first with each person on the phone by going around the horn and asking a question that relates individually to them, be it about a work project they are involved in or asking how their child’s birthday party was that weekend. That small act will get them engaged in the conversation from the get go rather than lose them while you have a dialogue with the people sitting physically around your conference table.
6. Always follow the golden rules of being transparent, sharing information and giving context by explaining the why behind the what of decisions you’ve made.
Because I’m feeling generous today, here is one bonus tip that I’m going to share:
7. Make your celebrations virtual by including everyone. One of my rituals during the end of year holiday season is to have each person on the team be assigned one of their colleagues to buy a gift for and put a price limit on the gift to ensure everyone can comfortably participate, I usually did $25. It’s amazing how creative you can get with so little money. The rules were that the wrapped gift had to be at their office three days before the group call and it couldn’t be opened beforehand. We then all dialed in and virtually went around and had people open the gift. Many took pictures and emailed it to the group.
There are so many share apps out there in tech land that can help you connect as a team. Explore ways to keep everyone plugged in to what’s going on and allow them to have input in to the conversation. While what I’m suggesting may seem overwhelming in terms of time to a manager, it is well worth it in the long run. Having engaged employees who are aligned with where you are going, and are able to have a voice in the business will mean more productivity, less turnover and more commitment to the team in the long run.