The well-known adage “culture eats strategy for breakfast” doesn’t just refer to the culture created in an office. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that remote working, whether hybrid or company-wide, is here to stay.

But companies are still struggling to stem the tide of employee burnout that’s directly tied to remote working conditions.

Here are Cake’s top tips for keeping remote teams engaged long past the end of the pandemic, whenever that may be.

Offer work from home perks

The small things add up and make a workplace feel more like home. So how do you transition these perks when your employees are literally working from their own homes? They’ve already got their tea, coffee and meals sorted, so you might need to think outside the box.

Companies like Employment Hero offer (in their language) Hero Dollars which provide access to discounts and Employment Hero’s online marketplace with reduced prices on thousands of everyday items. Not bad, right?

Instead of a gym membership, consider organising Zoom yoga classes, learning and development opportunities or have some tasty treats delivered to your team members’ doors. From cookies to DIY cake mix, the culinary world is your oyster.

Make play a priority

This might sound like a fluffy suggestion but hear us out.

Working remotely can be super isolating. Team members miss out on day-to-day gags with their co-workers; impromptu moments of surprise and delight! There are no banana peels to slip on or ping pong games to dust off the cobwebs. And gifs over Slack are fun but might not always cut the mustard.

Believe it or not, these little moments of play and connection are often the difference between what makes us stay or leave an organisation, whether we realise it or not.

Also Read: How to successfully onboard your remote team in the virtual world

Creating social events online that have absolutely nothing to do with work and everything to do with creativity and play brings teams together. It generates innovation by providing much-needed breaks from one’s day-to-day responsibilities.

Try a Zoom drawing or painting class, dance session or talent contest. How incredible would it be to see Sally from accounts play the guitar? Or Gary, the developer, does the splits? Talk about a bonding session.

Remember to include remote workers

This is particularly important if you have a blended working environment. That is, some workers at home and some at the office. When most of the team is in-situ, it’s easy to forget the few participating in cyberspace.

If you treat employees as “out of sight out of mind”, the results they produce are likely to nosedive and, worse, you might see them look for an environment that considers how to manage their remote needs better.

Some easy ways to include your remote team are:

Invite them to events in the office
Organise team lunches to attend
Offer them alternative perks (see above!)
Ensure office technology is set up in a way that is remote-friendly (i.e. big screens for meetings and speakers to ensure everyone can hear)

Reward team members with equity

Set up an Employee Stock Option Plan. Potential ownership of a slice of the company means employees start thinking like business owners. It’s common to see a spike in collaboration, productivity, and innovation when teams are incentivised with equity.

The Cake platform tracks vesting and automatically updates team members each time they achieve a vesting milestone. Yahoo!

Transparency on the Cake platform makes equity feel more tangible and means you don’t need to keep track (and keep reminding) of your team when their equity vests.

You may not be physically present with your team members. Still, when they see their equity vesting over time, they’ll be reminded their hard work is paying off, keeping them connected and energised to achieve the company goals and mission.

Encourage career development opportunities

According to Employment Hero, 1:1 feedback sessions can play a vital part in developing your individual team members:

“89 per cent of HR leaders agree that ongoing peer feedback and check-ins are key for successful outcomes? So with this statistic front of mind, it’s never been more crucial to pencil in some time with your remote workers. When you have honest conversations with your direct reports, you increase trust. And when trust is built, employee engagement improves.”

A significant part of any employee lifecycle is discussing room for professional growth, development and opportunities. What better way to do this than during scheduled time, dedicated to individual employees weekly or monthly.

Also Read: Top 3 signs your business will need a remote tech team

Arguably, remote workers need this dedicated attention more than those workers feeding off the buzz in the office. So, hop to and start scheduling those Zoom meetings!

Begin the week with team check-ins

Many companies start the week with team huddles or meetings to set priorities for the week ahead. But how many teams take 10 minutes to ‘check in’ on a personal level before getting into the nitty-gritty of work?

So what is a “check-in”?

Each team member receives two-three uninterrupted minutes to let the rest of the team know:

Their energy level out of 10: In a remote environment, energy levels wax and wane, and it’s important to know where your team is at. If someone’s at a 10, you’ll know it’s all systems go, and you can safely stretch them out of their comfort zone. If they’re at a 3, you know to be a little more gentle with them that week.
Anything that’s distracting them: This could be anything from anxiety about a pending work project to waiting to hear about an offer they’ve made on a rental property, or maybe someone has proposed to their partner, and their mind is buzzing with romance and excitement! It’s a great way to connect with the team on important life events and understand where their focus, beyond work, might be pulling them. If you’re a team of less than 10, it’s possible to do a company-wide check-in. If you’re larger than 10, it may be wise to break the Monday check-ins into smaller groups or break out rooms.
Their top 3 goals or priorities for the week should relate specifically to work. Getting each team member to articulate and record their goals in a small group setting, fresh-faced on a Monday, not only helps teams stay accountable to each other but can help the less organised list-makers among us get on top of their to-do list.

Remember to record these goals and check back in on them at the beginning of next week’s check-in.

Now, go forth and remotely prosper!

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