Remote Managers: 5 Tips to Stay Connected to Your Team

2020-03-23

More people are working remotely than ever these days. In fact, Learning Tree's employees have recently gone fully remote temporarily to manage current public health concerns. As a remote manager, it can be difficult feel connected to your team when not meeting face to face. As Learning Tree's Human Resources Director, I recently worked with Learning Tree's management team to provide a checklist of 5 tips for every newly-remote manager to do every day to keep themselves and their team member engaged virtually.

#1: Connect with each team member daily via Teams (camera required)

We are requiring all Learning Tree employees to turn on their webcams during meetings so that everyone can see each other face to face. We've found this really improves engagement and keeps discussions going better than just a regular phone call. It's important to keep that one-on-one interaction going as well.

#2: Connect with entire team twice a week via Teams (camera required)

Teams should also check in twice per week as a group to ensure updates that normally happen face-to-face are still happening, and that everyone is engaged and involved.

#3: Send daily activities to the team

We suggest our managers recommend daily or weekly activities (either individual or as a group). Suggestions have included:

#4: Encourage group interaction by sharing photos of what they are doing to stay healthy, their new colleagues (pets), a selfie outdoors, or a home project.

It's important to keep the social aspects of office life going strong when working remotely. Be sure to share pictures, stories and other personal insights so that everyone remembers there's a human at the other end of the computer connection. Just remember to keep it HR Friendly!

#5: Reach out to a co-worker and have a quick "Coffee Chat" or "Happy Hour"!

One new thing we're encouraging all employees to do is to have virtual coffee chats!