BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Three Ways To Ensure Your Remote Employees Don't Feel Lonely

Founder of Four Sigmatic - a functional foods company making world’s most nutrient dense foods more delicious and easier to consume.

Many companies have transitioned their workforce to remote work amid Covid-19. With office reopenings still up in the air, these businesses are settling into a more permanent work-from-home routine. 

I founded my functional food company in 2012 as a fully remote team. I don't like to sit in traffic or be stuck in a busy, distracting office. I value the freedom, peace and quiet that remote work can bring. 

But let's face it. It can get lonely. This is especially true in a world where you can't as easily (or safely) just hop over to your local coffee shop to work around other people or look into new coworking spaces. In fact, according to one study, loneliness is the second biggest struggle with those working remotely. 

As a leader in your company, whether remote or not, connecting with your employees is the best way to ensure that your team stays engaged, company culture stays alive and your valuable workers stay for the long haul. As a leader, you can ensure that fewer people feel lonely by instituting several practices. I believe that if one person on the team feels lonely, you're not succeeding.

1. Bring the personal into the professional.

Whenever possible, reach out to employees on a proactive basis about non-work-related tasks. If you were in an office, you'd be saying "hi" to many people naturally. On Slack, you have to work a little harder, but you can still show your employees that you care. Try sending them birthday or holiday gifts and do other random acts of kindness. (Ordering employees a food delivery for lunch can work well.)

This may not come naturally at first, so don't be afraid to set a calendar reminder. Five minutes of your day Monday-Friday isn't a huge investment but can go so far in terms of employee relations. I also recommend starting every videoconference call with a five-minute talk about the past few days or upcoming weekend plans.

2. Let the shy shine.

In remote Zoom calls, the louder, more extroverted people often take the floor. Try to purposefully create opportunities for even those more shy or introverted teammates to speak more often. 

At my company, we have a 30-minute "All-Hands" every Tuesday. The first 10 minutes we spend on wins. Rather than always having the same 10 extroverts talk about their wins, we preselect three people to share. After that, we have a random wheel to call on other people to share. With the preselections, every single employee speaks at least twice a year to the entire team. You can easily adjust this to your own team size or break it into smaller groups. 

As a leader, you should also make a conscious effort to engage the quieter employees and give credit to people who might not enjoy self-promotion — only when they deserve it of course.

3. Create non-work-related events.

Even when you have a strong team dynamic, there may be some individuals that work more solo jobs. So bringing people together across the company for non-work-related events is key. 

Since the pandemic, my company has added in weekly virtual team lunches and gratitude circles. Many of our team members have a daily gratitude practice, and expressing to each other what we are grateful for both at and outside of work helps establish strong bonds. 

While these are examples of weekly organization-wide events, you can also include bigger week-long summits. Usually, they could be in-person, but you can do a virtual summit as well. During our three-day summit in 2020, we discussed our larger mission, invited external speakers and had themed dinners (costumes required!). Being a little funny and goofy goes a long way in establishing connections. 

Bonus tip: Encourage and ensure that your employees have access to mental health professionals and services. There's only so much you as a leader or manager can do to help people who are feeling depressed or extra lonely. Remove the taboo of seeking professional help, and make sure people get the qualified expert help they need when they need it. 

Connection and community are the strongest anecdotes to loneliness. Every business leader has the opportunity to create a community rooted in connection. Healthy, connected employees will do more for your bottom line than any other investment.


Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?


Follow me on LinkedInCheck out my website