How to Keep Your Remote Team Engaged and Productive

You sent an urgent message to your remote team 47 minutes ago and it's still unread. 

You think they are working, but you can't be sure. 

To make matters worse, you're coming off a week where this same remote team missed a key deadline. 

You're frustrated as a team leader. You're not sure your team is giving their best effort. 

And the worst part: you're not sure how to fix it. 

Good news: it's easier than you think.

Let's get into it. 

What We Lose with Remote Teams

Remote teams existed before Covid, but the pandemic engrained this working style in our work culture. By 2025, Upwork estimates that a 1/5 of the workforce will be remote. 

While this is a win for team members by eliminating commute times and creating more flexible work hours, it's come with a tremendous cost to productivity. Here's why:

• We Lose Accountability :: No one wants to be managed by a "butts in seats" mentality, however it creates a visual accountability that the team is at least in a position to work and increases the likelihood that work gets done. This lack of accountability leads to missed goals and deadlines. 
• We Lose Progress :: Remote teams lack the proverbial water cooler to "bump into each other", or the office/cubicle to drop in for a quick question. This is particularly challenging when a remote team member hits a road block and has to chase down other remote team members for support, as opposed to walking into someone's cubicle/office and asking for help. This slows down your progress as a team. 
• We Lose Culture :: Scott Beilke famously said "Culture is caught, not taught". Without physical proximity to each other, we lose hours a day of "catching" culture, leading to less engaged team members.

We can't just tell our remote teams to come back to the office (33% of workers say they'd quit their job if forced to return to work - Source), so how can we help our remote teams stay engaged and productive? 

How to Keep Your Remote Team Engaged and Productive

Good news, there are solves for all the items we lose when teams go remote, it simply requires some additional actions for you as a team leader. 

• Restore Accountability with Shared Calendars ::  As I wrote in a recent article, you can dramatically increase goal achievement through simply requiring your team to block their calendar with their priorities, share the calendar with the team, and defend why what they blocked will drive their goals. This has the side benefit of creating a cultural standard around focus and goal achievement.
• Restore Accountability with Goals-based Work ::  Instead of asking your team when they are working, ask for their plans and commitment to achieve your shared goals. This may make you uncomfortable, but ask yourself this question: if you either could know your team is working a full 8 hour day OR you could achieve your shared goals, which would you choose? Obviously it's the latter. Here's a simple structure to empower your team to drive your shared goals. 
• Restore Progress with 15 Minute Daily Meetings (aka Daily Standups) ::  The agenda for a Daily Standup is incredibly simple: each person shares what they completed yesterday, what they're working on today, and any road blocks. The primary value of a Daily Standup is realtime collaboration to remove roadblocks and keep your team working efficiently. Daily Standups hav the cultural side benefit of synchronous human connection, and creating a standard around daily progress.  
• Restore Progress with Crossover Work Hours :: By defining set crossover hours, such as 2pm to 4pm PT daily, you create guaranteed time for team members to collaborate on items together. You might even consider creating a virtual conference room once a week in Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet where team members join and simply work, allowing for organic conversations to happen as anyone has a need. This has the obvious cultural side benefit of human connection as well. 
• Restore Culture with Prioritized Face Time :: In-office work allows for natural face time connection without any intention. Remote work requires us to schedule this time. Give your team permission to prioritize cameras-on connection with each other. You could even "host" lunch every two weeks where you cover food delivery and your team simply eats lunch together on Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet. This has the side benefit of improving empathy between team members, leading to stronger collaboration and accountability. 
• Restore Culture with Remote-first Bonding Activities :: This can be as easy as having your team members post a pic from their weekend, latest pics of their pets, etc. It simply requires someone to lead the charge of creating virtual spaces where people can share and express themselves.  In addition, planning shared team-bonding experiences can lead to people developing real relationships. Post Covid there has been an explosion in games and services to support remote-first teams with these type of experiences. 

Productivity Begins by Being a Boss of Your Time

Remote team members must have strong time management skills or they will be consistently distracted by their non-office world. If they've never been taught how to manage their time, this challenge can feel daunting for them, and frustrating for you as a team leader. If you're not sure where to start, I recommend the Time Boss Weekly Operating System Masterclass. This free 90 minute webinar walks your team members through how to become a boss of their time, with the simple Time Boss Habits they can run week in and week out to make their goals happen. These are the same habits we've used to coach over 100 people this last year to help them find their Highest Sustainable Pace, and your team members can put them into practice starting today!