The new team dynamic

6 ways to help your remote workers feel at home

Work is no longer a place.

Thanks to innovations in technology, and the help of forward thinking companies, geography no longer limits your job opportunities.

But with the increasing popularity of remote workers comes a shifting definition of the workplace and its relationship to the worker. We are now in the era of the cult of overwork—a result of how easy it is to reach workers at all hours of the day on their smartphones or tablets. And without the boundaries of office hours or the comfort of knowing your boss sees you physically at work, it’s hard to tell when the workday ends and your personal life begins.

In the cult of overwork it’s easy to feel like you’re always on—like you should be ready to jump into a task at a moment’s notice—something that quickly becomes stressful and can easily ruin the morale of your team.

When you work face-to-face, it’s easy to create a sense of belonging among workers: you share in jokes, hang out after work, or go grab lunch together and casually chat about what project you’re working on. But when team members are spread across countries and continents, there’s no water cooler talk to provide the social bonding necessary to improve morale. So how do you make your remote workers feel at home?

Company retreats

The most obvious answer is to give your team the opportunity to meet in person and create those personal relationships. Hosting a company retreat is the perfect opportunity to bring everyone together in a casual environment and reward them for a hard year’s work. (Plus, if you host your company retreat somewhere tropical and relaxing, it serves as an extra vacation for your employees.)

But there is a right way and a wrong way to throw a company retreat. Resist the urge to hire a clichéd motivational speaker and make sure the retreat caters to introverts and extroverts. Which brings me to my next point: the retreat can’t be forced. The point is to create a safe and relaxed environment for your employees to spend time together and build the personal bonds that will help them collaborate and work through issues when they head back home.

How successful your retreat is can often depend on your company culture and how you embrace it. If you’re an eccentric company that values creativity and craziness, opt for goofy ice-breaking games like Giants, Wizards, Elves, or Never Have I Ever (also a great drinking game). If your company is more serious and action-led, brainstorm small projects to be completed over the retreat by members who wouldn’t normally work together.

Get to know each other… virtually

If retreats aren’t in your budget, or you’re not planning one for quite some time there are other ways to bring your remote workers into the folds. Nothing really says bonding like late-night burritos after a post-work drinking session, and while it might be hard to virtually go grab munchies, you can still build camaraderie by playing drinking games over Skype or Google Hangouts. Now, it’s also fair to assume that this is more helpful for remote workers who live in the same time zone, because no one wants to pound down whiskey shots at 6 am. If you do, you’re probably this guy.

If drinking isn’t your thing, or isn’t a part of your company culture, you can implement other casual virtual updates. Rather than being just another work catch-up, these updates should focus on what’s going on in each other’s lives. The point is to get to know your team as people, instead of just productivity-machines.

(Sqwiggle’s ‘Tap and Talk’ feature is a great tool for casual get-togethers as it mimics being able to pop into your coworkers cubicle for a quick chat)

Swag it up

One of the hardest parts about working remotely is not feeling like you’re really a part of the company you work for. You don’t get the benefits of the office space or the weekend events your co-workers take part in. One way to get past this barrier is to outfit team members with plenty of free company swag. T-shirts, hats, and messenger bags with the company logo serve as a visual reminder of what entity they belong to. That’s why sports teams and the army wear uniforms, because it creates a sense of community and belonging.

Create a digital suggestion box

Employee morale could be low because your team members are not feeling heard. It can be difficult to bring up serious issues when you’re working remotely. The casual conversation you might have with your boss in the kitchen is replaced by just text in a box or a phone call—things that feel more deliberate and often, more awkward. Using a digital suggestion box solves those problems because team members can anonymously voice their concerns without fear of any repercussions. Suggestion Ox, IdeaScale, and Free Suggestion Box are great tools.

Mandatory vacations

It’s time to talk about the v-word: vacations. Research shows that employees that take vacations are happier and more productive. But what do you do when your employees don’t take any vacations, like 25% of the American population?

Some companies try to tackle this issue by offering unlimited vacations. But that has an unintended side-effect–employees take even less vacations. One alternative is to follow in the steps of this company that gives their employees $7,500 to go on vacation.

For companies that can’t afford that approach, the solution may lie in attacking the root of the problem. Many employees feel that taking time off makes them look lazy and may negatively impact their career in the long run. This is why it’s important to encourage your employees by actively talking to them about their vacation plans. Let them know that it’s okay if they take time off.

But sometimes words aren’t enough. Show your team how much you want them to unwind by scheduling time to talk about their adventures after they return from their trip. They’ll feel appreciated and won’t feel guilty about taking time off in the future.

Boundaries, boundaries, boundaries

As I said before, when you work from home, you don’t know when your work day ends and your personal life begins (if ever).

The problem with team communication tools is that you often end up receiving requests at odd hours. And even though you know that people are just sending you messages so you don’t forget, you still feel the pressure to respond instantly. And that can make workers a little crazy, especially if they are essentially on call all the time. This can get even worse if your distributed team works across time zones. What might just be an innocent request or comment could ruin someone’s evening plans or wake them up with unnecessary alerts.

Help your employees and teammates achieve work-life balance by respecting their schedules—take the time to talk with them about their optimal weekly schedules and how you can both achieve it. You’re never going to be able to accommodate everyone’s schedule, but showing that you’re committed to helping them achieve work-life balance by respecting their other obligations shows that you value them and their time.

Just because you see your team members through screens instead of face-to-face that doesn’t mean you can’t be close—it just means that you have to work a little harder to bond with one another.

Take comfort in the fact that you’re in great company. Zapier, Buffer, and Basecamp are just some of the organizations that have achieved great success with a remote team (⅓ of the Crew team now works remotely!).

Remote workers are more productive and satisfied with their job than traditional workers. And if you’re completely foregoing office space, you’ll save a lot of money on overhead.

But it’s not about the money. The possibilities are endless when you have ability to recruit the best people from the world. But to keep your dream team, you need to make them feel like they belong. If your team is happy, you’re happy. Yes, there will be growing pains, but it will be worth the extra effort in the end.