With many businesses moving toward online office spaces and remote teams, connecting with your remote employees can seem complicated. Thankfully, there are easy, reliable ways to ensure your remote team feels like part of the office.
From prioritizing employee engagement to taking advantage of programs like Slack and the various apps that make Slack a powerful tool for communication, connecting with remote teams doesn’t have to be a hassle. Below, we discuss how to utilize Slack apps to craft a positive workplace culture properly.
You will also learn how employee acknowledgment, personal growth and wellness, and a sense of social community can all bring your rmote or hybrid team closer together.
Main Points at a Glance
- Utilize Slack Apps
- Craft a Positive Workplace Culture through Employee Acknowledgement
- Healthy Employees Are Connected Employees
- Productivity and Connection go Hand-in-Hand
Utilize Slack Apps
Slack is a powerful communication tool for remote teams and in-person office spaces. Streamline communication, bring social chatter into the modern era, and keep office messages on one secure platform, all with Slack. One thing that makes Slack an incredible tool is the number of app integrations.
Whether it is a Fun List of 31 “would you rather” Questions to help keep the conversation moving or employee productivity apps made to organize your projects, you can always find an engaging way make your office more connected and productive than ever.
With countless Slack apps, it all comes down to finding the right ones for your team. For example, working with a social prompt app can significantly improve employee connection if your team struggles with interoffice communication. Similarly, if you’re looking for an app that organizes all your office work in one place, look for something that streamlines productivity.
By listening to your employees and working with their concerns through Slack integrations, you can connect with your team and show that you appreciate their work and want to streamline their virtual workspace to benefit them.
Craft a Positive Workplace Culture through Employee Acknowledgement
Another way to build relationships with virtual employees is to bolster your workplace culture. While competition can help grow a workplace and connect employees, supportive office spaces help team members feel appreciated and generate connections between team members.
With remote teams, most of your workplace culture centers online. By using online communication forums and moving traditional HR processes to Slack channels or email, you can help remote employees feel connected in the workspace. For example, notifying team members about birthdays and workplace anniversaries, especially for remote team members, can help everyone feel connected socially.
Another way to connect with your team is to prioritize employee acknowledgment. For example, praise (one of the “loyalty anchors” that can help you retain your talent) can help employees feel valued. By encouraging team members to do the same, you can craft team connections no matter how separate the team is.
A big thing to remember for remote teams is that the online space acts like a traditional office. Connections forged online are as valuable as those in a physical office, so prioritizing constant communication, employee check-ins and acknowledgment, and crafting positive social spaces can bolster team morale and forge a solid and productive team.
Healthy Employees Are Connected Employees
Finding the delicate balance between promoting a healthy workplace and overwhelming remote employees is critical to building a strong, connected team. Workplace initiatives for exercise, wellness, and more can all bring a team together.
By working with social wellness apps for Slack, you can automate mental wellness and break check-ins and help stave off burnout across your team.
In addition, employee engagement programs, exercise initiatives, and working personal health days into your work schedule can all forge a strong connection with your team.
Remember, your employees are some of your most precious assets. Staving off burnout and forging an environment where team members can work to their fullest without crashing is crucial to your business’s long-term health.
Offering personal learning opportunities to virtual employees shows you value their continued work with the company and helps bring assets to your team. Online initiatives to help spur continued career development show a commitment to your team.
These help smooth over any lulls between projects and illustrate to employees that their continued growth is as essential to the company as deadlines and turnaround times, making them feel valued.
Productivity and Connection go Hand-in-Hand
While you may be tempted to focus exclusively on office productivity, you can lose essential connection opportunities without supporting your team members, increasing burnout and employee turnover. Think of your team members as an asset to the company. If you drain said asset without performing upkeep, you ruin your investment and cost your company over the long run.
With employees, fostering a positive workplace where they can form interpersonal connections with one another and team leaders can help increase overall productivity through team building. Interconnected teams perform better together and help support one another and foster a positive workplace culture that can benefit your office as a whole.
Offering productivity tools to your workplace can help show your employees you value your time and energy. By cutting down on rote tasks, you show you need their specialized skills and appreciate their work. One ideal example is offering power bi training for your employees, as that it will not only skill your staff on one of the most important skills of the moment, but also offer valuable reports and insights onto the work
Offering productivity tools to your workplace can help show your employees you value your time and energy. By cutting down on rote tasks, you show you need their specialized skills and appreciate their work.
However, offering these tools comes hand-in-hand with showing appreciation for your team.
Social appreciation is as critical as any workplace tool, if not more so. Employees stay with a team longer if they feel appreciated than a team with the latest technology and streamlined turnaround methods. Through personal acknowledgment and social engagement, you can craft a group that strengthens your company and supports one another through strict deadlines and tight turnarounds without breaking down or wearing out.
Check out our other blog posts to learn more about managing your remote team, building company connections with corporate team building activities, and bolstering your team performance through executive leadership coaching programs.
We offer insight into team connections, leadership goals, and becoming a leading force in your workplace. By strengthening your team connections, you can create a more connected, supportive team that brings your organization the great results you want!
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Sean Glaze is an engaging business leadership speaker and interactive team building events facilitator who helps 
organizations develop more effective leaders and build more positive and profitable workplace cultures.
Sean is the author of four books, The Unexpected Leader, Rapid Teamwork, The 10 Commandments of Winning Teammates, and Staying Coachable – each one an entertaining parable with powerful take-aways for team growth and leadership!
What issues are YOU dealing with that would disappear if you could build a team culture that inspired connection, accountability, and a team-first attitude?