Actionable Tips on How to Engage Remote Employees
In our experience, remote employees stay engaged when they know what is expected of them, can decide how to do it and hear back when they speak up. We recommend building those three first and treating recognition tools and social events as the layer on top. Here is how we do it at Kipwise, a 100% remote team across the Americas, Europe and Asia that started with remote co-founders.
1. Hire only the cultural fit
We put this first because if it goes wrong, the tips below will not help much. Someone with the wrong mindset spreads negativity and lowers morale, so spend the time to hire the right person.
We look for three traits in remote hires: (1) passion, (2) proactiveness and (3) self-discipline. Unlike tactical skills, these are hard to train. Fit here means those three traits, not similarity to the people already on the team. Hiring for “someone like us” narrows the pool and repeats the team you already have, while hiring for the traits lets people with different backgrounds fit, as long as they bring passion, proactiveness and self-discipline. For more on the traits and how to screen for them, see “Remote work not working? Some people just don’t fit in remote-work”.
2. Measure by results not hours
When you cannot see your employees, it is easy to worry that they are slacking. That is not a remote-only problem: someone can sit in an office all day and not be productive.
Set clear goals and avoid micromanaging
At Kipwise, we believe trust is a two-way street. Instead of checking whether teammates are online during set hours, we set goals the team wants to reach together every two weeks, and teammates plan their own task schedule. They coordinate with each other on tasks that have dependencies.
Except for customer support roles, which need set hours, we do not mind when teammates work as long as they hit the planned schedule. Some start at 7am and some work later, and sometimes a teammate swaps a weekday for a Saturday to handle family or bank errands. With self-disciplined people this does not hurt productivity. It helps, because people work when they are most productive.
Break tasks into smaller pieces to show daily progress
Not checking in at all hurts productivity too. We do not check in because we doubt anyone’s discipline. We do it to find roadblocks early and offer help.
Progress is easier to share when tasks are small. Instead of “I will build Feature A this week”, break it into steps with an expected completion time for each. Managers see roadblocks sooner, and teammates who depend on your work can estimate their own timeline.
Use project or task management tools to better track progress
To track progress across tasks, use a project or task management tool. At Kipwise we use Trello, with two add-ons.
Trello + Slack power-ups
Trello’s Slack app and Slack Power-Up send notifications to Slack when cards or boards change, and you can choose which Trello actions trigger a notification when you add the alert to a board.
Planyway for Trello
Planyway adds calendar and timeline views to a Trello board and can connect several boards, which makes it easier to see who is doing what and when.
3. Give your teammates more autonomy
A University of Birmingham study of about 20,000 workers, reported by NBC News, found that the more autonomy people had, the higher their job satisfaction and wellbeing. When employees feel their ideas and contributions are valued, they are willing to contribute more.
Involve your teammates when making decisions
Involving teammates in decisions makes their contribution matter and makes them more accountable for the goals. At Kipwise, teammates add ideas for features and initiatives to a Trello board, and every two weeks we go through the board together and pick what to implement. For important decisions we communicate openly and ask for feedback.
We recommend answering every idea on the board, including a no with a one-line reason. An idea board only works while people believe an idea gets an answer. A no with a reason keeps them proposing, and silence teaches them to stop.
Try to align personal goals with organizational goals
It is hard to force someone to be productive at something they do not enjoy. If you hired for the right fit and a real passion for the job (point 1), you should be able to find a sweet spot where their goals and the organization’s goals align.
Communicate the company’s vision and goals clearly, and use regular one-on-one meetings to discuss how each teammate can best contribute while pursuing their own goals.
4. Show recognition and appreciation
Besides autonomy, showing people that their contribution is appreciated keeps remote employees engaged. It does not need to be a formal reward. A shout-out in the Slack channel when someone does a great job is a good start.
A recognition bot such as HeyTaco! makes it a habit: teammates thank each other in Slack with an emoji and a message, in real time and across time zones, and its leaderboard can feed a monthly or quarterly shout-out.
5. Build camaraderie among remote teammates
People work better when they like their work and the people they do it with. In an office, casual moments like grabbing a coffee together happen by themselves. On a remote team you have to create them.
Create opportunities for casual chats
At Kipwise we have a #watercooler channel on Slack (read more tips on how to organize your Slack channels) for non-work conversation. Because teammates live in different countries, we often share fun facts about our countries and the history behind local customs on the day of a festival.
When a new teammate joins, we ask them to fill out a profile (see our Teammate Profile Template) and share the other teammates’ profiles with them. We keep the profile fun by asking questions like “what are your secret talents?” and “what is the favourite place you have travelled to?”, not only roles and responsibilities, so it sparks conversations beyond work. In our all-team meeting we also spare 5 to 10 minutes for personal updates.
Do some fun activities together online
Depending on your team’s hobbies, set aside some time every month to do something fun together. We have hosted remote dinners and lunches, where teammates just eat and chat over a video call, and we have tried exercising together over Zoom.
6. Regular face-to-face meetings
Regular video meetings help remote employees feel they are working with real teammates, which text alone does not.
At Kipwise we hold a daily standup for a quick sync, a biweekly all-team meeting for big-picture updates and a biweekly sprint retrospective to look back at the past 2 weeks, what can be improved and the priorities for the next 2 weeks. Managers also hold one-on-one meetings to ask for feedback, give feedback and show appreciation.
If your team spans several time zones, rotate the slot of the all-team meeting and write notes for everyone who misses it. A fixed slot means the same people always join at the edge of their day.
For more details on how we run these meetings, see point number 3 of our blog post 5 ways to improve communication for remote teams and our templates:
If you change one thing this week, answer every idea that is still waiting on your board.
