The 5 Ways to Engage Your Remote Team
Cultivating culture and connection for a remote team is freaking hard! I’m just going to start with that. You’re not alone in feeling it’s near impossible to find ways to keep all these different personalities engaged at all times. Luckily, I’ve tested, failed and succeeded at many different tactics for engaging your remote employees. For this installment of “The 5” I’m going to give you my top 5 programs and practices for keeping your remote teams feeling seen, heard and connected.
1. Employee Birthday Perks
Yes, engagement can come from something as small as acknowledging someone’s birthday. At the heart of it people just want to be remembered. And who doesn’t love getting gifts! What’s even better is this can be done for all size teams, without hurting the company bottom line.
Birthday Perk Ideas
Birthday Box: This one is great for larger teams. Work with a swag vendor - I use Brilliantmade - to curate a small birthday acknowledgment. You could include things like a confetti popper, birthday candles, a recipe card for a birthday cupcake - something little but thoughtful just to say “Hey! We remembered, Happy Birthday!”. Expert Tip: For smaller teams you can find awesome birthday boxes on Etsy for under $25.
Favorite Dessert: If you want to get REALLY thoughtful, (mostly for small teams under 50 people) You can find out what they’re favorite dessert is and send it to them on/around their birthday. However, once you get over that 50 person stage, I would consider looking into a universal treat for your employees. For example, If your entire team is located in the domestic US, Baked by Melissa is an amazing and efficient solution for a universal birthday treat. They are also one of the only large dessert distributors that caters to vegan and gluten free dietary restrictions.
Make a birthday donation: Let’s be honest, sometimes we just don’t need more stuff. It can be really impactful to send a card as the acknowledgment, letting them know you have made a donation to their preferred charity or planted trees in their name. Expert Tip: If you choose this route, when you collect birthdays, also collect their preferred charity or give them a list of 3 charities to choose from.
Gift cards / Food vouchers: I know, I know...some people will be like, “how impersonal!” But it’s not! Remember: It’s rarely about the gift, it’s the thought that counts. Also this route is SUPER scaleable, and easier on you with HUGE teams. It’s also the most inclusive and environmentally friendly option. Expert Tip: Form a relationship with different global delivery vendors like Uber Eats or Doordash to get discounts on bulk orders.
Birthday Perk Management Tips
Tracking the birthday data: Some companies have birthdays in their HR programs, Workday or Bamboo. These HR management tools are capable of generating reports isolating specific info, like birthdays. If your company has this, half the work is done for you. I didn’t have this when I first started doing birthday perks, so I just created a simple google form that I distributed to my teams to collect their birthdays. Once I collected them all, I simply exported the list to a google sheet and used it as my source of truth. Expert tip: Only ask for month/day. Asking for a year can get questionable. ;)
New Employees: If you have an HR management tool, you will simply schedule an updated report for the first of each month. New employees will/should be automatically included. If you are taking the manual route of keeping your own spreadsheet, I collected the birthdays of new employees as part of the onboarding process.
Set a birthday management reminder: Set a reminder on your calendar, I do the 1st of the month, and take care of sending all your acknowledgments on that day. Receiving their gift in their birthday month is all that matters.
Automate distribution for large teams: If your team is over 100+ people, or globally distributed, consider looping in a swag vendor to take over distribution. For most of my swag initiatives I use a company called Brilliantmade. I worked with them to put together a small birthday package ($25). They created them in bulk and stored them in their warehouse. Every 1st of the month I sent them the list of addresses I needed the gifts sent to. Super thoughtful for my team, super simple for me. Win/Win. Expert Tip: Brilliantmade is listed on my vendors page. Give them a try. You won’t be sorry.
Create a how-to: Once you have tweaked and perfected this process, create a simple how-to document and share it with your leadership/team. That way if you take time off, or even leave the company, someone can step-in and maintain this initiative. Continuity is paramount for successful culture cultivation.
2. Lifecycle Acknowledgements
In addition to Birthday perks, you should be recognizing your employees commitment to the team. Acknowledging work anniversaries is a great way to do this. On Trello we called your annual work anniversary a Tacoversary, as a husky named Taco is the Trello mascot. Every year on their anniversary Trellists would receive this small Taco statue as a token of our appreciation for another great year on the team. Taco statues were $30 each and at most $10 to ship. Once the process was automated, it was a simple click of the mouse to send the address list for that month's distribution. Small effort = Priceless results.
This was and still is a defining Trello culture program. Collecting your taco statue made you feel seen and appreciated. People would proudly display them in their zoom backgrounds and refer to them when asked what made them feel connected to their teams. Just think about that, a 3in dog statue bonded people.
That’s because it wasn’t the statue, it was the consistency. It could have been any trinket, but the shared experience of receiving something to honor their time and commitment, that’s what made the difference.
I highly encourage you to think of a way you can consistently recognize and appreciate your people. I won’t go into the nitty-gritty details of how to manage an initiative like this because it’s very similar to the ways I explain managing birthday perks above. If you’re interested in replicating this type of program, please refer to those tips or feel free to reach out via “Ask Liz.” I’m happy to brainstorm some ideas with you.
3. Social Virtual Events
Okay, let’s acknowledge the obvious, after covid and being forced to do everything virtually most teams are experiencing serious zoom fatigue. The suggestion of doing anything virtual probably brings up some PTSD. That’s fair and I get it! However, and this might not be a popular opinion, but the majority of teams who weren’t originally remote, and had to adapt to remote in a time of crisis probably didn’t make the transition all that intentionally. I say this with ZERO JUDGEMENT! We were all very much in survival mode. Doing the bare minimum until normalcy resumed is not wrong, it’s human. Unfortunately, your team culture and connection probably suffered a little for it. Let’s see if we can refresh it for them. Here are a few tips for creating more engaging virtual events for your teams.
Create a schedule - Virtual teambuilding events shouldn’t be a one off occasion. In order to keep building on the bonds you are creating you need to establish routine. I recommend sourcing a virtual events vendor that you can build a schedule with. One virtual event per team/per quarter tends to be a great cadence. I go into more detail about this type of schedule in [insert blog post link for successful virtual events once written]
Vet your Vendors! There are a ton of awesome virtual events vendors out there. There are also way too many shitty ones. Do yourself a favor and don’t go by reviews alone. Try them out yourself! Take a sample class or grab a small group of teammates to try it out with before you roll it into your rotation. If you don’t have the time or budget for that process, you can trust my judgement. (I’m SUPER picky!) Please check out this blog post that spotlights my favorite virtual events vendors. [insert link to post] I have included direct contact links to make connecting super easy.
Change it up. Use different vendors, try weird classes, experiment! Always keep surprising and delighting. Don’t be afraid for something to flop - the flops can sometimes create the best memories. Expert tip: If you are working with a smaller team consider involving them in the planning. For instance, each quarter a new person picks the event. This will not only be more engaging for the team, but you get to spotlight a different teammate allowing everyone to connect with them in a new and interesting way.
Send Surveys - Metrics are EVERYTHING! How are you supposed to know what your teams like, what’s working, what’s broken...if you don’t ask them? I send surveys for practically everything. Need to know dietary restrictions to plan a cool cooking workshop? Send a survey. Want to know how your team felt about the Lego experience you planned? Send a survey. Want to check the pulse of your team in general? Send a survey. Here are some examples of my pre/post event surveys to give you a little inspo. (Or copy them, that’s what they’re there for. 😉)
4. Annual IRL Programming
I know you’re probably thinking, “This post is supposed to be about engaging REMOTE teams. Why is IRL in here?!”
Bottom line - Your people need to meet in person. Even if it’s one annual company retreat a year, your teams need to have quality time, outside of work, to create the bonds that help them work more productively when they are remote. The context they get from an IRL experience is rarely acquired during weekly zoom calls. Here’s some tips on how to find the right IRL fit for your teams.
Discuss cadence with Team Leads: Some leaders might feel they need to meet in-person often. Others might feel an annual company retreat is sufficient. Consider gathering the team leads and coming to a mutual decision on the cadence for IRL gatherings. Then build a schedule together that everyone is comfortable with.
Build a schedule yourself: Contrary to the advice above, there is such a thing as too many cooks in the kitchen. You know your teams best, and maybe your people respond better when given direction. If you are in charge of gathering for your company, create a flexible annual gathering plan to share with team leads.
Ex: Your team must participate in one virtual teambuilding event a quarter and attend 2 IRL offsites in the FY. Optional attendance at the annual company retreat.
As part of this annual plan you should provide guidance in the planning process for those who would like it. Resources such as travel/accommodation support, dinner/activity recs, sample agendas etc. The goal is to empower them to connect their teams themselves, but know they are fully supported if they don’t want to do it alone.
Start with an annual retreat: If your remote team is new to planning offsites it could beoverwhelming to tell them they must plan more than one for their teams. Take the pressure off by planning a full company retreat first to set expectations. Show them the benefit of meeting in person. If done well, you might find you only need an annual retreat to keep people connected.
Hire an event planner: Let’s face it planning an offsite is a full-time job, and not everyone has the skills to do it. Putting that responsibility on your EAs, COS’s, or team leads can lead to inconsistency in experience, which inevitably leads to culture issues. If you do not have someone on the team that enjoys taking on this task, hire externally. Whether you hire a full-time employee experience manager to join your team or contract an offsite planning vendor, like TeamClass or Nomadic6, you can be sure you're providing a consistent experience across the board.
5. Town Halls
We’ve all heard of these meetings, whether they’re called All-Hands, Town Halls, All-Staff etc. They all bring to mind a similar reference, and most of the time that reference is not entirely positive. A lot of leadership talking at you and not to you, boring business updates that don’t apply to you, endless slides...or the worst, deafening silence. Let’s be honest, more than a few of you have joined the meeting, promptly put yourself on mute with camera off, and just went about your day while it plays in the background. I know that because I’ve done it...many times. This a tragic missed opportunity for team connection. Here’s a few ways to make sure your All-Team meetings are not-to-be-missed, engaging events.
Develop a consistent format: People like structure, but they also like to be surprised and delighted. Your team meetings need to strike that balance. I achieve this by experimenting with regularly occurring segments, such as Founders Updates or Project Spotlights, and once I find the format/segments that work, I keep them in the format while always evolving the content/presenters in them.
Integrate social content: The best way to pump-up the vibe of a boring team meeting is to add a connective element. On Trello the first couple of segments were team acknowledgments. First, we had the MC announce and celebrate work anniversaries. Then we would have each new hire that started that month briefly introduce themselves. We used a format for that too. Name, location, role/team, and then one interesting fact about yourself. This ALWAYS lit up the chat and spawned side conversations & connections. Consistently starting the agenda with these short, thoughtful segments set the tone for the rest of the meeting.
Elect an MC: I believe it’s a common misconception that your Founder, CEO, or senior manager should be the one running an all-staff meeting. Not all leaders are good speakers, or have the natural ability to capture an audience. In order for your all-staff to be successful you need an engaging host. Select a teammate who can command an audience. Someone who is naturally energetic, warm and authentic. If they have a great sense of humor, that’s always an awesome bonus. This person should also own or at least assist with the content creation for the meeting. This way they have the context they need to be the best host they can be. Expert tip: Teams want to hear from their CEO’s and Founders - make sure they have an update segment. Something they can prepare in advance.
Create a ‘home’ for this meeting: There should be a place in your teams suite of tools where everything for this meeting lives. Upcoming agendas, past agendas, recordings etc. In order for this meeting to be impactful it needs to have a history. Transparency never hurt anyone either. So whether your company uses Notion, Trello, Confluence or another project management tool, create a home for all things All-Hands.
Hopefully this provided you with some inspiration for how to engage your remote teams. If you have any questions, comments, or even recs of your own, I’m always down for a remote work nerd-out. Please visit the Let's Chat page to connect with me.
