How to Engage Remote Employees: Virtual Activities, Strategies & Ideas

How do you read the room from behind a screen? Are you imposing when you set up a meeting with a remote employee? Is your feedback welcome, and do they know theirs is?

One of the biggest struggles with virtual teams is using our communication time wisely. Individual employee challenges, level of understanding, and connection with the work can be difficult to ascertain. 

Effective onboarding and rapport building resolve a lot of this. But the bigger answer is hooking them securely into the company network. Virtual team engagement activities help employees feel sure of their purpose and place within the collective.  

Employee engagement vs. team engagement

Ah, employee engagement. The magical metric that tells us how dialed in a worker is. An employee’s level of engagement represents their mental and emotional connection to work. The connection manifests itself as motivation, loyalty, quality performance, and overall satisfaction. 

But which part of the work are they connecting with–their role, the company, or the people who work there? It’s an important question. “Employee engagement” is actually the sum of three types of engagement:

• Work engagement. This is how an employee feels about their role in particular. How they execute it, their confidence in doing so, and their satisfaction with the results.
• Organizational engagement. How the employee feels about their employer. Assessing and aligning with the company’s values, benefits, ethics, culture, and leadership.
• Team engagement. The one we’re talking about today. The level of support, participation, understanding, and pride that an employee associates with their community of coworkers.

How are team building and team engagement different?

Team-building refers to exercises, activities, and other group events. The goals are to increase trust, rapport, problem-solving, or communication.

Team engagement is one way to describe the results of team-building efforts. We maximize team connection to ensure the individual employee has a favorable experience on that team. Their participation, enthusiasm, and productivity reflect how engaged they are with colleagues.

So, peppered among some of the remote employee engagement activities we share today, you’ll find team-building. But the focus is on each person finding their place and enjoying a sense of belonging. 

Four types of virtual team engagement activities

Naturally, we can’t set up a virtual water cooler and wait for camaraderie to ensue. Implementing two to all four of these types of virtual employee engagement activities is a more comprehensive way to cover everyone’s needs.

1. One-on-one meetups

There are a lot of platforms today that’ll gladly link two remote employees up for a quick coffee chat. Smaller group chats and one-on-one linkups are good settings for a few reasons.

First, for employees who may be hesitant to raise an issue during a larger meeting. Connect employees in similar roles or the same department. They can commiserate or offer workarounds for the job’s little snags. 

Second, to foster familiarity and awareness of the company as a collective. Connecting to one or two humans at a time makes remote employees feel less isolated. They gradually associate more names, personality traits, and roles with their company. 

It helps them put together where and how everything they do impacts operations outside of their home office.

2. Team-building activities

Trivia tournaments, happy hours, two truths and a lie. Many traditional team-building activities can be carried out virtually for trust-building, problem-solving, and a healthy measure of fun. 

One important consideration is to include and rotate various types of team-building. A virtual lunch-and-learn can help coworkers refine their skills together, getting the benefit of one another’s strengths and perspectives. 

Group meditations can demonstrate a commitment to employee well-being and burnout management. Classic exercises like Six Thinking Hats support analytical thinking, collaboration, and team communication. 

3. Interest-based groups

Strava users, gamers, musicians, film buffs, home bakers, and more. Make getting to know an employee’s interests part of the onboarding process. Connect employees who have similar hobbies and skills that they can share with one another.

This is huge for larger companies with team members who don’t have a lot of collaboration opportunities. Employees create connections with like-minded coworkers, enhancing that sense of belonging. 

4. Peer recognition tools

It’s much easier to jump in and participate in a positive team chat. Peer recognition tools build praise into workflows. When someone has a great idea, helps someone out, or encourages others, they get instant positive feedback from coworkers. 

Being validated by peers doesn’t just make people feel like they belong to the team. It motivates employees to continue performing those positive actions and to recognize others’ small wins, too. 

It also helps build rapport, making those coffee pairings and interest groups a lot less awkward. Check out this blog on peer recognition to get more examples and ideas.

Remote team engagement ideas to try this month

Everyone’s used to being online. Interacting on social media is a daily habit for millions. Building a community of people who have never met in person isn’t as challenging as it might have been a decade or two ago. 

Try these engagement activities for remote teams and watch as employees form easy, natural connections that increase engagement:

• Home/home office tours
• Virtual escape rooms and museum tours
• Spreadsheet pixel art competition
• Quarterly care package program (participating employees are paired off to exchange care packages every quarter)
• Guest workshops with industry experts
• Live coworking hours
• Team-led meetings recapping everyone’s week

Check this post on remote team-building ideas for more. 

Employee engagement activities for remote employees

The most effective ways to engage employees virtually begin with onboarding. Promoting a culture of connection right away helps prevent isolation and keeps employees motivated and growth-oriented.

• Mentorship opportunities (pairing a new employee with an experienced employee)
• #Welcome channel for introductions
• First week agenda
• Gamified orientation and training
• Shared feedback doc where an employee can leave questions and observations as they work

Get more inspiration from this list of employee engagement ideas.

HeyTaco: The fun way to engage with global teams

Virtual engagement activities don’t require a lot of planning or moderation. HeyTaco was designed to put engagement in the hands of employees. 

Each day, employees receive five virtual tacos 🌮. Each one symbolizes appreciation. Employees distribute them to their coworkers as a lighthearted-but-heartfelt form of recognition. This practice helps recognition become an active habit, one that catches on easily.

Companies like Eugeniuses use it to create belonging on remote teams. With dozens of employees flung all over the globe, they needed a positive way to connect. “Everyone knows what they need to do for work, but it’s the personal connections that are harder to maintain,” explains their project manager. “It’s not just about the tasks—it’s about the relationships we build along the way.”

Increase virtual team engagement one taco at a time with your free trial.