11 great ways to engage remote employees (+ a free action plan)

Remote work is here to stay. While debates about returning to the office continue, one thing is clear: remote work has profoundly changed how we work. And today, as many as one in five professionals have remote jobs.*

This shift has brought undeniable benefits — including more productivity and employee well-being. But creating engaging, rewarding environments for remote employees requires intention and effort. Leaders and HR professionals have an opportunity to rethink how they support remote teams to ensure success for employees and the organization.

This guide outlines 11 ways today’s businesses can engage remote employees — complete with a free, downloadable action plan. We’ve also included a case study from Leapsome, showcasing how we keep our hybrid team engaged.

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* Forbes, 2024
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Our free remote employee engagement action plan

Short on time? Download our free action plan for concrete steps to engage your remote workforce.

😵‍💫 Struggling to carry out engagement initiatives?

Our free, downloadable action plan details eleven remote employee engagement initiatives and how to carry them out.

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What is employee engagement & why does it matter?

Employee engagement reflects how much your employees care about their work, their team, and your organization; motivation and a sense of belonging play crucial parts in this. In other words, employee engagement is about emotional and mental investment — and it goes far beyond paychecks and promotions.

Engaged employees contribute to company growth because they feel valued and motivated. According to Gallup research, companies with high engagement levels see:

• Lower absenteeism and employee churn
• Increased productivity and profitability
• Better customer engagement

When engagement is prioritized, everyone benefits — employees, leaders, and customers.

How does remote work impact employee engagement?

Remote work makes organic connections, like impromptu desk-side chats or casual praise, less frequent. Without careful effort, this can lead to isolation, disengagement, and increased turnover.

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11 ways to engage remote employees

Creating an engaging remote work environment that promotes employee success and well-being demands effort and planning; we’ve put together a list of creative and practical ideas to help you get there!
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1. Improve communication

A little extra communication goes a long way in remote work.

When using email or other messaging and collaboration tools to communicate (especially across different time zones), asking “small” questions may seem bothersome or unnecessary. Moreover, people might even feel uncomfortable sharing praise or feedback through these channels. But without watercooler conversations, these brief interactions make a huge difference in productivity and morale!

As a manager or HR professional, you can help team members overcome this hurdle by establishing a culture of giving and requesting feedback and celebrating success at work. Start by sending a simple request to colleagues via email, instant messaging, or Leapsome’s Instant Feedback tool.

You’ll soon find that people become more comfortable exchanging praise and constructive feedback when you lead by example.
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2. Set clear expectations

It’s easy for expectations to get muddled when working remotely, especially if you have limited opportunities to work together face-to-face. But instead of worrying about how much people are getting done, focus on clearly communicating where you want to go as a team and how you expect each individual to contribute. This should begin right from the remote onboarding process. 

As an employee, being aware of what you should be doing (and how your tasks and responsibilities help the company achieve team goals) makes it much easier to stay motivated and on task. When managers include reports in the goal-setting process, this strategy becomes even more effective for team performance and engagement. 

If you don’t already use goals and objectives, consider holding a team meeting to establish some. Leapsome’s Goals module can help you prioritize steps to achieve your objectives and monitor progress. Make sure to ask people for input on deadlines as well. For example, “Here’s what’s required — how long would this take you?” or “Is this a realistic deadline?”

😬 Not sure what to do when a remote employee is about to leave your organization? Check out our People Ops Playbook on how to offboard remote employees.

3. Assign accountability partners

No matter how focused and motivated someone is, they may still get off track. But that’s less likely to happen if a colleague is around to encourage them and help them stick to their priorities. 

That’s what an accountability partner can do. Accountability partners cheer colleagues on in their professional growth and celebrate their success. Whether by messaging, email, or 1:1 meetings, keeping in touch with a peer who’s aware of what someone is working on and discussing progress, hurdles, and roadblocks can help employees move forward.
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4. Celebrate wins (big and small)

The flexibility to work from anywhere is here to stay: 71% of respondents to a 2023 Buffer report said their organizations allowed some amount of remote work on a permanent basis.

However, even the most introverted among us need some human interaction. That’s why businesses need to adapt their cultures accordingly, promoting ways to celebrate victories and support a positive attitude.

As a manager, you can encourage, motivate, and engage people by highlighting their triumphs — no matter how small. And while private encouragement is important, public shoutouts on a virtual Praise Wall or in a dedicated Slack or Microsoft Teams channel will empower employees to do the same for each other. A little recognition goes a long way to make people feel valued, proud of their work, and eager to improve.
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5. Encourage catching up with colleagues via video

Instant messaging, async videos, email, and voice calls are great for professional discussions, but they don’t always give us much insight into how team members are really doing.

Engagement stems from relationships, and nurturing compassionate workplace connections takes effort. But there’s a lot you can do! Add fun icebreakers to your video meetings to spark fun, not-work-related conversation — like show-and-tell activities or multiplayer games that everyone can join in on. You can also use Slack integration to connect coworkers through informal video chats. 

Ultimately, the idea is to build in time for your team members to connect authentically and casually while working remotely.

💡 Setting up regular check-ins with employees is a great way to ensure they’re on track. An efficient way to do this is to schedule regular 1:1s and team meetings — which is quick and intuitive with Leapsome.

6. Make teamwork as seamless as possible

Rather than asking, “If employees are working remotely, how will they work as a team?” ask, “How can we make teamwork easier for our remote employees?” Because teamwork and collaboration should be the last thing standing in the way of remote employee engagement.

Async work has its challenges: It can be hard to ensure everyone’s on the same page when your teams are working across different time zones, so facilitating asynchronous work requires a collaborative effort from managers and employees.

The ongoing innovation of people enablement platforms, task management tools, team communication apps, and video chat have made remote teams more efficient and capable of staying engaged — even from home. This makes it an ideal time to learn more about remote work rather than transition away from it, as long as you implement the right tool stack to make teamwork simple and intuitive.

Use team communication apps for group chatting and task management tools for collaboration as much as possible, rather than relying solely on CC’d emails. And don’t forget to ask employees if they have any thoughts about what you can do to make team collaboration more frictionless and convenient.   

🧐 Need an easy way to gather employee feedback?

Leapsome Surveys enables People teams to send out quick questionnaires, automatically analyze responses, and get tailored action points.

👉 Discover it now

7. Educate employees on remote work-life balance

Remote work has plenty of benefits, but challenges arise when the boundaries between work and home are blurred.

Companies that want to avoid higher burnout rates should consider offering employees resources about setting boundaries and leaving work at work — even if that’s no longer a physical location. This could include providing your people with strategies for focusing more while they’re “on the clock” and offering mental health and mindfulness training with platforms like Oliva (which we use here at Leapsome!) and Calm. Offering flexible working hours to remote employees also helps people build more work-life harmony.
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8. Update your employee recognition and rewards program

Employers use rewards and recognition programs (R&R) to celebrate employee successes and reward them with monetary and non-monetary incentives for their hard work. R&R programs are crucial for employee engagement; if your company is struggling with motivating remote workers, it may be time to revisit your approach to rewards and recognition.

What could that look like for your remote workforce? Here are some employee recognition ideas, which can all be done virtually:

• Online birthday celebrations — these can include things as simple as signing group ecards, encouraging team members to send colleagues birthday messages and greetings, or organizing a group gift.
  
  
• Providing team members with a budget to get together for a virtual meal so everyone can chat and eat together from the comfort of their home or workspace.
  
  
• Employee shoutouts on social media, spotlighting one employee every week, month, or quarter.
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Rewards for remote employees can also be location-independent, including:

• Monetary rewards, like bonuses, stocks, and merit increases
• Non-monetary rewards, like flexible hours, extra days off, fringe benefits, and perks‍
• Unique experiences like trips or tickets to local events‍
• A virtual awards ceremony with creative awards for employees who perform well, embody company values, or overcome challenges‍

💭 Want more ideas to recognize and appreciate team members? We’ve got a comprehensive article with dozens of possibilities — and they work for remote employees, too!

9. Offer development opportunities

If your company has a hybrid work model, remote-only employees may worry they’ll be overlooked for career development opportunities. And even if your organization is remote-first, team members may have difficulty envisioning what meaningful development looks like.

But with a tool like Leapsome Learning, learning and development (L&D) can be just as seamless for remote employees as it is for in-office team members. Our platform allows companies to build training materials from scratch or use industry-leading courses out of the box. Employees can expand their professional skill sets even in remote settings, and managers can monitor their progress and completion rates for better oversight.

And with our Competency Frameworks, you can create a visual, step-by-step process for team member growth, defining the specific skills employees need to move forward in their careers.
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10. Check in with employee engagement surveys

Your engagement efforts won’t go far without feedback from your people. That’s where engagement surveys come in — they allow you to gather the quantitative and qualitative data you need to create a better remote employee engagement action plan.

Here are a few ideas if you need inspiration for your remote working survey questions:
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Questions with scored answers (1–10)

1. The management at [company] effectively communicates with everyone working remotely.
2. [Company] offers the right tool stack to enable remote collaboration.
3. My manager checks in with me regularly (both professionally and personally) while working remotely.​​
4. I feel productive while working remotely.
5. Working remotely doesn’t negatively impact my mental health.
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Open-ended questions

6. What additional support do you need while working remotely? 
7. What are three challenges you’re facing while working remotely? 
8. Considering your role and responsibilities, how often would you prefer to work from home?
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11. Provide opportunities for in-person gatherings

While this depends on where your employees are located, the option for in-person meetups and gatherings allows team members to connect, network, and chat in person.

In some remote-first companies, employees choose to organize coworking time to enjoy the benefits of flexibility while still having impromptu meetings and conversations with colleagues. Some organizations also arrange regular get-togethers for colleagues, making space for both high-level planning and informal team building.

The key is to make these in-person meetups inclusive and engaging. If you can make them accessible via videoconferencing for those unable to attend in person, all the better!
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Engaging remote employees in action: Leapsome’s case study

We have employees in different countries and a hybrid work environment with a wide range of internal processes that enable employees to work from home (or elsewhere!) most days, if they prefer. 

These are some of the initiatives we’ve implemented to make our workplace enjoyable, engaging, and motivating for team members, even when they’re not in the office. We hope you can take inspiration from this list and try some of these ideas out within your own organization!

• Home office stipend — We provide team members with a stipend to set up their home offices so they have everything they need to focus and do their best work.

• Strong asynchronous culture — We have a strong culture of documentation, ensuring resources are easy to find asynchronously and team members don’t experience blockers even if they’re not working at the same time of day.

• Flexible hours and working arrangements — We understand that not everyone prefers working in an office environment from 9 to 5. We give employees the flexibility to work from home and adjust their hours. 

• Code of conduct — No matter where Leapsome employees live and work, we expect them to follow our code of conduct so all team members feel comfortable, safe, and confident collaborating. 

• Global offsite once a year and a budget for team events — We don’t expect colleagues to bond and get to know each other purely from chatting in the office from time to time. We invest in our team’s interpersonal relationships by planning a global offsite once per year and providing a budget for team members to come together regularly, plan events, and have fun. 
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The power of investing in remote employee engagement

Remote employees make up a significant portion of the global workforce — and that trend will only continue to increase. Whether your organization employs in-office, hybrid, or remote workers (or a combination of the three), engaging all team members is crucial. After all, high engagement levels lead to happier employees, more productivity, better performance, and a more successful business overall.

As we’ve seen, there are many different ways to engage remote employees! Be sure to bookmark this article and download our remote engagement action plan so you can refer to it whenever you need fresh engagement ideas. 

And don’t forget: technology enables remote work setups and remote employee engagement initiatives, too. People enablement platforms like Leapsome have tools for Instant Feedback, Surveys, Learning, and much more, making it much easier to engage remote employees.

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Leapsome can help you understand employee sentiment and carry out meaningful action plans to engage all employees.

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