Many technology jobs may be performed offsite, so tech companies were using remote workers long before this approach became widespread during the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, countless organizations across industries discovered what many in tech already knew—that it comes with both benefits and drawbacks. The benefits include higher productivity and greater employee satisfaction, and the drawbacks include collaboration challenges and a decrease in employee engagement, which encompasses commitment, loyalty, motivation, and trust.
The reasons for decreased engagement among remote workers aren’t particularly mysterious. Many of the factors that drive engagement when working with teams in close physical proximity are absent with remote work, including the following.
- Frequent contact with and easy access to leaders and coworkers
- Immediate feedback and recognition
- Impromptu work-related and personal conversations with coworkers
- Spontaneous learning and mentoring opportunities
- Visibility into company operations
- Elements of the physical workspace
- Sense of community
- Immersion in company culture
- Work-life separation
But employers may find it less easy to understand what to do about decreased engagement among remote workers. There are no easy or quick solutions, but organizations can implement a variety of practices to ensure team members experience many of the elements listed above—though often in a different way. In the following sections, we offer practical, actionable ideas for fostering employee engagement on remote tech teams.
1. Relay Company Objectives
When team members understand how they fit into larger company objectives, they become more engaged. To help them arrive at this understanding, consider taking the following steps:
Clearly articulate objectives. Use concrete terms to communicate objectives to team members. This information might come from executives, middle management, or team leaders. Reiterate goals frequently, such as in meetings, written communications, and town halls.
Provide context. Help team members understand how objectives fit with the company’s mission, vision, and values. Then guide workers in seeing how their efforts contribute to the higher-level goals.
Invite questions and suggestions. Ensure team members know they can ask questions about the company’s goals and how their work contributes to them and make suggestions for improving processes. These measures give them a sense of involvement, which increases engagement.
Provide updates. Keep team members informed about progress toward company objectives. Provide regular updates on key milestones and achievements, as well as challenges overcome. This transparency helps team members see how their collective efforts contribute to the advancement of important goals.
Encourage ownership. Encourage team members to align their individual goals with company objectives. Discuss and define individual aims that directly support broader targets and provide autonomy for team members to take ownership of their work.
2. Set Expectations
When team members understand what is expected of them, they are more likely to be engaged. Consider taking the following steps to effectively help workers understand how you want them to contribute:
Clearly define goals. Take the steps in the section above a step further by outlining specific team and individual objectives. Use the SMART system—meaning goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound—to ensure goals are more easily understood. Put them in writing somewhere that is accessible to all at any time.
Provide support. Ensure your team members have the resources they need to meet the goals you have set out for them. They could be in the form of hardware, software, documentation, and training.
Reinforce expectations. Reiterate expectations at every opportunity and tie them in with lower-level tasks. For example, use daily check-ins to ask team members what obstacles they’re facing in meeting stated goals.
Establish metrics. How will you and your team know when goals have been met? Establish metrics and milestones to define what constitutes success.
Communicate. Two-way communication is key for setting, working toward, and achieving goals. Let team members know they are welcome to ask questions or request clarification on anything they don’t understand about your expectations, and allow them to suggest modifications. Check in often to learn how you can help them move forward and celebrate accomplishments.
3. Provide Training
While tech workers are highly skilled at creating digital products, they may not be proficient in every application you use. That means you must provide robust opportunities that help them get up to speed. Training can be provided in numerous ways, including videos, tutorials, or live sessions. You can also direct employees to experts within the company to help with any difficulties and encourage team members to ask each other for assistance.
Tech workers may also need to be trained in specific methodologies, languages, and systems. As with application training, it can be done in multiple ways, as follows:
- Structured training programs such as live workshops that include hands-on exercises
- Online modules that employees can complete at their own pace
- Mentorship opportunities in which a more experienced employee is paired with a newer one to pass on important information
- Documentation and knowledge repositories where team members can go to look for specific information
- Hackathons in which tech workers hone their skills by competing with others
- External training and certification programs that may be paid for by the company
4. Use Project Management Tools
One of the most critical things you can provide to teams to keep them engaged is structure. When everyone knows what to expect and what is expected of them in each process, demoralizing chaos cannot reign. According to a recent Forbes article, “Kanban boards and other flow charts or tools like Miro are beneficial when you can screen-share over video collaborations…charts and Kanban boards clarify who the project manager is and which contributors are responsible for outcomes.”
Other project management tools include Asana, Trello, Basecamp, or the one we use at BairesDev, Jira. In addition to providing the structure already mentioned, they offer a centralized location for communication and collaboration, so team members always know where to go for project information, updates, and discussions. These applications also integrate with other tools and systems to give workers a sense of consistency and a positive digital experience, both of which contribute to higher engagement levels.
5. Communicate Effectively
Onsite teams rely on aspects of communication that are absent with remote teams, including face-to-face meetings, in-person presentations and demonstrations, impromptu discussions, and observation of others’ working methods. All of these elements include non-verbal cues, which can be highly useful in accurately getting messages across. However, remote teams can mimic some of these factors and replace others. For example:
- Video calls can substitute for face-to-face meetings. While the quality isn’t quite the same, workers can at least see each other’s facial expressions and hand gestures, which enhance their verbal messages.
- Conferencing tools enable workers to provide information with many of the same tools used in person, including slides, visual demonstrations, and whiteboards.
- Messaging apps like Slack allows you to create communication channels for specific projects and teams with file sharing, voice note, calls, video conference, and other features. This is particularly useful, as plug-ins make it possible to get your Google Calendar, Jira, and other platforms’ notifications in Slack.
- Screen capture tools like Loom enable team members to create videos of how they perform various tasks, and explain in just a few minutes, what a situation looks like, and how to go about solving an issue with a detailed screen recording.
The Forbes article recommends that remote teams “keep the channels of communication centralized and uniform” by choosing one platform and sticking to it and “[keeping] email threads and comment sections as singular as possible.” Further, the article suggests overcommunicating by making the implicit explicit.
Use meetings strategically. For example, have a monthly or quarterly meeting to set high-level goals and discuss possible challenges. Use a weekly check-in to take the temperature of the team and learn their needs and accomplishments. Use a brief daily call to set goals for the day and address any issues.
6. Support Emotional Well-being
Happy employees are productive and engaged employees, which is why you should support their emotional well-being.
Foster a positive culture. Encourage open communication, empathy, and mutual trust and respect. If needed, provide training on how to express these qualities. At BairesDev, we’ve opened well-being channels on Slack for people to share their recommendations and experiences around well-being. This opens the conversation for all to partake.
Encourage work-life balance. When setting expectations, include factors like work hours, breaks, and time off. Because they often work from home, remote team workers must be particularly diligent about delineating between the two. This element is especially relevant for the IT industry, given the tendency of companies to push workers to the point of burnout.
Weave self-care practices into work routines. During long meetings or work sessions, announce and encourage breaks. Offer suggestions for brief activities that can help with physical and mental fatigue, such as stretches, eye exercises, and stress management techniques.
Provide mental health resources. Many employees don’t know about mental health resources available to them, especially through employee assistance programs. Others may feel uncomfortable taking advantage of them. Work to destigmatize mental health services and repeatedly share information about how to take advantage of them.
7. Create Clear Career Paths
Another way to keep workers engaged is to help them feel secure in their employment. One key to this strategy is creating clear career paths so they know what they are working toward, giving them a reason to do their best and stay motivated.
Create development plans. Help team members see possible career paths within your company and let them know what the requirements are to move through them. Start with the next position they could aim for and create specific steps for them to take. Regularly meet to discuss plans and progress.
Offer training opportunities. If the next job requires skills that a team member doesn’t possess, help them find ways to acquire them. Options include external coursework or certificates, informal teaching and mentoring, cross-functional training, or internal workshops.
Support leadership. If you see leadership potential in team members, nurture it by providing chances for them to develop these skills. In addition to the options mentioned for training opportunities, seek out projects or initiatives to assign to these future leaders.
8. Recognize Good Work
In addition to giving team members something to strive for by helping them see a clear career path, it’s important to note their accomplishments along the way. Rewards for a job well done can come in many forms, like simple thank-yous, public recognition, shout-outs on internal or external communication channels, or gifts. Another possible way to recognize good work is to grant the promotion they’ve been working toward.
9. Have Fun Together
The truism that “teams that play together stay together” is just as applicable to remote teams as it is to teams that work together in one physical location. According to a recent blog post from OfficeRnD, “You can help combat the feeling of loneliness by creating environments in which team members connect, such as social hours and virtual team-building activities.” Some of these activities are usually not prioritized, but they help workers get to know each other as people, which contributes to team cohesion, which in turn supports employee engagement.
At BairesDev, we have “Meet & Chill” sessions for teams to connect in a relaxed environment. The intention is to take a break from their usual schedule and get to know their peers with a snack in hand! Another way to connect is the Global Ambassadors Program, where teams meet face-to-face and engage in social activities. This program is currently held in a few regions, like Brazil and Colombia, but will soon be expanding to more countries where our team is distributed.
Remote Work Is Worth the Effort
With remote teams, you may have to put in some extra work to promote or increase engagement. But the work is worth the effort when you take into consideration the following benefits of this type of team.
- Productivity. Remote workers spend less time commuting and performing other non-essential tasks, so they can focus on what really matters.
- Lowered costs. Reduced or eliminated office space use means a huge reduction in operational costs.
- Scalability. With no physical footprint, you don’t have to worry about “moving to a bigger facility” to grow.
- Access to top talent. A remote team can be selected from anywhere in the world, so you’re no longer limited to those only in your immediate region.
- Sustainability. You use less, or even no office space that requires driving to get to and high energy use, so you’re helping the environment.
Despite the many factors that can decrease engagement on a remote team, success comes down to factors that don’t rely on proximity or technology, including smart planning, reliable processes, and setting workers up for success.
