How to support overwhelmed and disconnected remote workers, step by step

There are many perks of remote work. Research suggests that giving workers flexibility in where they work enhances workplace culture, improves productivity, and boosts profits.

But there’s one growing pain that many teams are still trying to overcome: a feeling of disconnect from our duties, teams, and workplace among remote workers.

Some have used this feeling of loneliness as a scapegoat for why workers should just return to the office five days per week. But what’s often left out of this conversation is that creating a healthy hybrid work culture is a two-way street. Although managers of remote employees can feel disconnected from their virtual teammates, they don’t always realize that remote workers feel the same way until performance begins dropping. Suddenly, emails are ignored, deadlines are missed, and meetings are canceled at the last minute.

It’s as though the stakes are lower and the relationships are less “real” when they’re mediated through video conferences and communication platforms. When we don’t feel embedded and engaged in our jobs, our relationships, outputs, and job satisfaction can suffer. But by deepening a remote team’s connection and sense of ownership over their work, managers can help their teams (and themselves) overcome disengagement and build exciting workplaces that have all the benefits of remote work—without the disadvantages getting in the way.

Here’s how any team can support overwhelmed and disconnected remote workers, step by step.

Evaluate performance and environment

There are a few warning signs that should indicate to managers that something isn’t quite right. Are employees becoming unresponsive and unreliable? Are they consistently delivering substandard work? You may even notice a pattern of last-minute submissions and irregular working hours. Of course, part of the appeal of remote work is the flexibility it affords. Sometimes irregular work patterns help people do their best work. But if it corresponds with a drop in quality, it’s time for a check-in.

This conversation will require delicacy and humility. After all, chronic employee disengagement can’t be registered solely as a sign that employees are personally failing to work hard—it’s also a sign that they haven’t been given a reason to. Something about the workflow and culture has indicated that last-second work and infrequent correspondence are sufficient, that great work wouldn’t be recognized or rewarded anyway, and that relationships with the team just aren’t strong enough for anyone to go the extra mile to help others.

In this scenario, simply telling employees that better work and a deeper sense of ownership are expected from them won’t be effective. It may even indicate that management doesn’t have a clear sense of what the virtual workplace feels like, deepening a sense of isolation.

So the first step of having this conversation is to truly understand what your virtual workplace culture does feel like. What would it take for the team to feel connected, personally invested in doing great work, and eager to further company goals? How can you build into the work environment this acknowledgment that disconnection is a common side effect of remote work, and use this recognition to rally the whole team around a solution?

Set and accept expectations

Answering these questions requires listening just as much as doing. After all, it isn’t enough to observe declines in employee performance. We also have to see why certain remote employees chronically underperform. If there’s something about remote work environments that’s to blame, then it’s the job of managers to help overcome those impasses. Taking on a “we’re in this together” mentality goes a long way toward restoring a sense of connection and establishing a shared experience with the team.

To reinforce this mentality, bring the team together to discuss the challenges of remote work. Make it clear up front that this isn’t the type of meeting where employees have to say the “right” thing to be good team players. Ask about feelings of isolation, the tedium of workflows involving multiple online platforms, the unclear expectations. All of these factors lead to feelings of disengagement.

Open up the floor to your team, and never miss a chance to join the conversation. After all, everyone has one thing in common: You’re all navigating the many ups and downs of remote work. Lean into it. Let your difficulties become a shared experience through which you build connections.

Based on the feedback you receive, you should have a clear sense of what must change to ensure remote work isn’t a hurdle but rather a model that gives everyone the freedom they need to do their best work, live full lives, and feel a sense of personal investment in the team.

For instance, if there isn’t an incentive to do work beyond the bare minimum, then setting up quick weekly meetings where the team presents and discusses what they’re working on may help. This may also highlight to employees that when they submit their work, it doesn’t just check a box. It’s handed off to someone else whose job is made easier when they’re given great work. These meetings can become a space where good work is acknowledged and the significance of individual actions to achieve team successes is reinforced.

As the team recognizes that structural changes are being made to address their concerns, it will be much easier to set and enforce expectations. Now they’ve seen firsthand how dedicated you are to constructing an environment in which work is enriching and impactful. The environment is there—now everyone needs to show up.

Build social capital

Now that pain points have been identified, processes have been changed, and the team has begun developing a bit more connection, it’s time to focus on social capital. What would it take for employees to proactively engage with their colleagues, not just for work-related matters but also to learn about other projects, departments, and opportunities? Or just engage in some water cooler chatter?

The goal here is to build a network of relationships among the team that can be relied upon when someone needs feedback or guidance. For instance, imagine bringing the team together to discuss shared projects and brainstorm solutions. Whenever conversational detours break out, follow them through to their conclusion. Let colleagues provide their insights, relate personal stories and interests to the matter at hand, and ask questions about their teammates. And then, ensure it’s as easy as possible for employees to reconnect with colleagues so they can follow up, start new conversations, or keep old ones going.

This is a great way to strengthen interdepartmental relationships, but it also provides opportunities for isolated remote workers to make their projects a bit more lively and collaborative. By keeping informal channels open, and ensuring the team has enough time to use them, employees will be able to share ideas, ask questions, and get feedback from their colleagues.

Establishing a mentorship system is another great way to train employees and develop practical relationships. Rather than feeling like their job is to get their deliverables done and then log off, mentorships highlight how the quality of our work now moves us closer to where we’d like to be later. By using existing expertise within the team to increase knowledge and motivation for everyone, mentorships are a great way to keep people motivated and deepen connections.

Suddenly, the remote office doesn’t feel like a bunch of disconnected people trying to engage as little as possible. It’s a lively hub of people motivated to do great work on their own so they can put it in front of others, engage in meaningful discussions about projects, and get to know their remote colleagues.

More than that, you’ll find that this process of building up practical connections among the team lends itself to one of the most important solutions managers have to combat disengagement—developing, strengthening, and maintaining personal connections.

Facilitate team connection

Relationships are paramount in any workplace, but they take on additional significance in remote settings. After all, the best office relationships aren’t just about what other people can do for you but about meaningful interpersonal connections that shape how we think, how we learn, and how we want to develop our careers. These are the types of relationships that become possible when employees and managers turn the remote office into a well-connected and well-oiled machine.

But it must be noted: There’s a limit to how well such meaningful connections can be “managed” into existence. For instance, setting quotas for informal chats among employees probably won’t be conducive to meaningful conversations. Instead, it may become yet another tedious box to check that makes remote work feel less inviting—and more anxiety-inducing. However, continuing to make the work environment as streamlined, enriching, and sociable as possible will open up plenty of opportunities for strong connections to emerge organically.

Keeping communication channels open throughout the day that employees can enter at their leisure will encourage meaningful relationships. Managers can also set up get-togethers that begin with a focus on shared team projects but develop into more informal conversations that allow for people to pair up and talk one-on-one.

To that end, it’s important to avoid forcing employees into awkward team-building exercises, which can feel inauthentic and, sometimes, a bit embarrassing or condescending. Instead, continue to promote organic interactions by listening to feedback, giving the team plenty of shared experiences to discuss at work, and then making sure there’s always a space with a relaxed atmosphere where work relationships can deepen into personal ones.

Remote work has a lot to offer—as long as teams can overcome its many hurdles. One of the most imposing is a sense of disconnect that turns the remote office into a tedious and unpleasant place. To reduce employee disengagement, managers need to have honest conversations with their teams, make tangible changes based on what they hear, and open up spaces where pragmatic relationships can deepen into interpersonal ones. That’s how we can turn hybrid teams into a lively and sociable hub of professionals who work hard and get to enjoy the flexibility of remote work.