Making Remote Workers Feel Included

It is undeniable that we are headed to a new chapter in the story of remote work. The remote work movement has gained momentum and is now at critical mass. 

What began as a forced and temporary work-from-home experiment turned into a majority of employees saying, “You know, I kind of like this flexibility thing, and I don’t really want to go back to the office eight hours per day, five days per week. I want that flexibility to work from anywhere.”

This means leaders are going to have to know how to lead from anywhere.

When it comes to teams that work from anywhere—where some of your team is colocated, and others are remote—one of the key aspects that smart leaders pay attention to is making sure that their remote people, or really all of their people, feel included. Making sure that the people who are mostly remote feel as valuable and as vital a member of the team as the people who are spending more time at the office is going to be a core area of focus…and a key struggle when leading teams.

So, in this article, we’ll review four ways that you can make sure that remote workers feel included and, more importantly, that you can send the message to everybody on your team that everyone is equally valuable and has an equally large contribution to make.

Level The Playing Field

The first way to make sure remote workers feel included is to level the playing field. You might not have taken the time to do this if you rushed out to this forced remote work experiment. 

But, you have probably sensed some advantages to being in the office and having the ability to just walk down the hallway and ask a coworker a quick question. 

That gives colocated workers a bit of an advantage when it comes to collaboration and meetings. The ability to be in the room with two or three people before you join a video call with the two or three people who are remote provides a little bit of an advantage and subtly pushes the focus of the conversation to the people in that shared space.

Leveling the playing field is about removing these advantages so all of your team is equally included.

Consider the almost-fully-distributed company, Basecamp. Basecamp keeps a small home office for people to optionally use, but one of the rules that they use for leveling the playing field is that “everyone’s on the video call or no one’s on the video call.” 

That means that if even one person on the team can’t make the in-person meeting at the office, then everyone on the team goes back to their computers and signs into that online call with a level playing field. In the same vein, pay attention to the way that you’re communicating with individuals on the team. 

Those little chit-chats with people that you’re having in the hallways are fine, but make sure you’re doing it with your remote workers as well, even if it means deliberately scheduling time for chats.

Share The Pain

The next way to make sure remote workers feel included is to share the pain. That means paying attention to when and how we’re scheduling team meetings and expecting responsiveness from the team.

If you’re working with a geographically dispersed team, then you quickly learn that time zones are a factor. As the leader of the team, if you’re calling meetings at times that are always convenient to you, you’re sending a message to the people who are inconvenienced that your schedule matters more than theirs. 

You’re sending the message that you’re okay with them having to work late or getting up early to attend that weekly all-hands meeting that you’re calling at the same time every week.

Sharing the pain means that sometimes you get up at an inconvenient time, or you ask everybody to rotate through a convenient time for each time zone so that everybody has to adjust accordingly. 

It means that you don’t think that wherever your company office is located—or wherever your office is located—is the true headquarters of the company. It means that no matter where people on your team choose to be, they always know they are equal team members.

Find Time For Fika

The next way to ensure remote workers feel included is to find time for fika. Fika is a Swedish word that translates to “to have coffee,” but it’s about much more than coffee. 

Fika is about getting to know a coworker or colleague who works in a different company, someone you collaborate with regularly, or even, sometimes, just friends (because insight comes from all sorts of people). 

In a remote work world, with distributed teams, finding time for fika means asking your people to take specific times in the week when they pair off with someone else in the team to have the conversation. 

Ideally, these are nonwork conversations that build bonds. Deliberate fika is a way to bring back those casual chitchats that happen as you walk through a colocated office, but it is also a way to make sure that everyone is participating and everyone feels like they know everybody on the team.

The other great part about finding time for Fika is that it enhances the power of getting everybody together when you can, on that rare occasion. 

Because now you’re not spending that time getting to know each other; you already know each other. Now, you’re spending time reuniting with each other, which is a much more powerful emotional experience. 

You’re spending time collaborating. Both of these are the core reasons for getting distributed teams together in person at times.

Watch The Water Cooler

The last way to make sure remote workers feel included is to watch the water cooler. 

Years ago, in colocated offices, the water cooler was the primary spot where people gathered together to have nonwork conversations. (Of course, in the last decade or so, it moved to the downstairs coffee shop or the kitchen suite—but why change a great metaphor?)

Many distributed teams benefit from creating a similar virtual space. This space could be a channel on Slack or a similar chat platform or a dedicated section in your project management software. 

The key—and why it’s called “watch” the water cooler—is that it’s a dedicated space for nonwork conversations.

You want to make sure that this is a dedicated space where everyone feels welcome to join but no one feels obligated. If you’re mixing work and nonwork discussion in this virtual space, it becomes just another place everyone must check and another source of communication overload. You may not want to create that digital water cooler space, and that’s okay. 

Maybe your team gets enough social time before or after video calls. But if you do, you want to make sure it’s a space where everyone feels welcome, but no one feels obligated and that the conversation is focused on helping people build bonds and build relationships. 

Now, this may sound like a lot to accomplish, and you don’t have to do it all. 

But if you pick one and put it into practice. If you level the playing field, if you share the pain, if you find time for fika, or if you watch the water cooler, then one of the things that you are going to find is that people get to know each other on a level that even colocated teams often struggle with. 

You’ll find that the bonds built are stronger, and the team collaboration becomes even better. We know that when everyone feels included, their work quality improves. Everyone’s work gets even better when the team is committed to including everyone.

Prioritize Clear and Transparent Communication

One of the most important parts of remote work is communication. You need to make the remote team not just part of your office but also make them feel included. 

Keep them connected and informed of whatever is happening or any changes or innovations taking place in your office setup.

Keep your communication channels clear and open. Here are some good strategies to follow:

Use a Single Source of Truth

Keep all useful information in one accessible platform. Use tools like Google WorkSpace so everyone can take notes of the meetings, give project updates, and keep up with organizational announcements.

Use shared dashboards for efficiency so your remote team can track their progress.

Document your policies and changes in a centralized repository so everyone can access them without asking for them.

Over-Communicate Key Messages

Send out important updates regularly to ensure you reach out to everyone.

For instance, after every meeting, send a summary email outlining the key decisions made and the next steps.

Also, share the updates regularly on Slack or Microsoft Teams.

Encourage Open Feedback Loops

Establish feedback loops to overcome challenges in communicating and problems of the remote team members. 

You can host anonymous surveys to see the team’s satisfaction with the communication process and monthly one-on-one check-ins to see what’s working.

Make sure each employee is heard and incorporate their valuable feedback into your systems. When your people feel heard and important, they will invest more effort into the work and be more dedicated to their jobs.

Celebrate Wins and Milestones Equally

Celebrating milestones can be challenging for the remote team. However, as the leader, you must ensure that all wins are celebrated, no matter how big or small.

There are ways to do that. You can create virtual events and get your employees to participate in them. For instance,e there are Team happy hours on Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Get creative and add some interactive games like trivia and pictionary to make the celebrations fun.

Acknowledge Contributions Publicly

Recognize individual contributions widely, whether at the start of every team meeting or by emailing company.

Use tools like Slack and create channels like #kudos or #employeeoftheweek to celebrate achievements with the team.

There are countless ways to reward or encourage effort. You can also send out small tokens of appreciation to make your employees feel valued. It can be a personalized thank you card, digital gift card, or milestone achievements like birthdays or anniversaries.

Wrap Up

When communication and achievements are prioritized, a culture of inclusivity and growth is created. Since remote work is the new normal, we need to make everyone feel like they are part of the team, whether near or far.

A sense of belonging creates a culture of positivity and inclusivity, a collaborative work environment where everyone is valued and empowered, and, hence, likely to stay.