15 Ways To Help Employees Connect When They Work From Home

1. Make sure there are opportunities, whether onsite or virtually, to have small groups of remote employees have coffee meeting from time to time (say, on a quarterly basis) to hear directly from the organization's leaders, including opportunities for Q&A. Keep the groups to less than 8 people for maximum engagement and involvement
2. Assign a mentor to connect with employees monthly. Not just for mentoring specifically, but also company communication and especially for the office grapevine.
3. During zoom meetings, assign one person who asks for remote staff input.
4. When office social events resume – especially office lunches, make sure to send delivery services to remote employees.
5. Remember birthdays and work anniversary dates remote employees.
6. Set up daily Zoom Office Lunches. Whoever wants to join, can. No pressure. Very informal, and make sure to keep most of the bosses away.
7. Encourage remote employees to have virtual coffee breaks, cocktails, or even walks with their peers.
8. Direct supervisors should have a regular ‘check-in’ session with remote employees and even discuss issues that aren’t business related.
9. Send some company branded items/swag remote employees can put in their office, and any time similar items are distributed, make sure they’re sent to the remotes.
10. Create an electronic newsletter/Slack channel to keep remote employees in the loop and to recognize them.
11. Make sure you have the right people managing remote employees. Managers who are competent, but not great communicators and connectors are not appropriate to manage remote employees
12. Set expectations and manage to them weekly. Not ‘how’ or ‘when’ to do things, but results. These days, goals are far more important than activity.
13. Ask remote employees individually for their suggestions on improving engagement, whether they be new tools, or communication ideas, or how frequently to communicate. They’re in a better position to know what works than you do.
14. Friendly competitions are always fun. Create a company-wide trivia game on a Slack channel. One question daily.
15. Ask each remote employee for their best practices when it comes to health and wellness when working from home.