Remote and hybrid work have redefined how teams connect, but connection hasn’t become less important; it’s become more intentional. Without hallway conversations, shared lunches, or spontaneous check-ins, remote teams face unique challenges in building trust, alignment, and belonging.
The good news? With the right rituals, tools, and human-centered practices, leaders can create meaningful connection across distance. Here are creative, practical ways to help remote and hybrid workers feel seen, supported, and truly part of the team, no matter where they work.
Key Takeaways: Creative Ways to Connect Remote and Hybrid Workers
- Make sure to schedule consistent check-ins, shared routines, and meeting openings to help remote employees feel anchored and included.
- Create shared digital spaces and open collaboration channels to close the connection gap between remote and in-person workers.
- Making space for social connection and clear norms (like camera use) improves communication and trust.
- Focus on fully remote-friendly team building to improve skills while strengthening relationships.
- Knowledge sharing builds resilience. Cross-training, lunch-and-learns, and show-and-tell sessions deepen trust and future-proof teams.
Start with Rituals That Build Consistency
Creating a shared routine builds a strong cadence that your team, remote and in-person, can rely on. Do this through daily or weekly team huddles, with time to report and connect casually built in.
Opening rituals for these meetings can help establish trust and consistency. Ask for recent wins, gratitude rounds, or personal check-ins to start off calls right.
The key here is to help everyone feel connected and engaged with each other, regardless of where they’re located. Being a remote employee can be isolating, so creating reliable communication rhythms will keep people anchored. Build these rituals around what motivates your team and watch it transform basic interactions into long-term meaning.
Use Technology to Create Shared Spaces
One of the biggest hurdles for remote workers is having the kind of access to connection that their in-person peers already have. When you’re in the office together, you can pop in the doorway and ask a quick question without the friction of getting hold of someone.
Close this connection gap with technology. Utilize collaboration channels on your chat tool that are open for questions and concerns, and make sure all team members use them, not just the remote workers.
You can also create virtual lounges or coworking rooms to enable easier communication. Having a voice chat open where people can hop in and problem-solve together makes connection easy.
Make Meetings More Human
Instead of just getting through calls, make them something your team looks forward to. Build in time for socializing at the beginning or end, and rotate facilitators to spotlight each other.
Use your cameras intentionally! Depending on your team culture, the expectations can be varied for camera use, but eye contact and facial expressions are valuable information during conversations.
Come up with a camera use policy everyone agrees on. You can use cameras intentionally—on when connecting, optional when working.
Invest in Hybrid-Friendly Team-Building
Team building doesn’t have to be in person! Embrace remote-friendly workshops and games, like a virtual healthy cooking demonstration, collaborative games, virtual trivia, or online escape rooms.
Virtual events don’t have to feel like afterthoughts! They can be exciting and engaging for your entire team—you just have to know what they’re interested in and adjust accordingly.
These activities also help develop communication skills, problem-solving as a group, and collaboration under the pressure a competition offers (which means low-stakes practice for real-time challenges).
Encourage Knowledge Sharing
Knowledge sharing not only strengthens your team’s relationships, it also enhances your talent pipeline and promotes upskilling within your organization.
Having multiple people who understand how to complete tasks makes the entire team more resilient and it also builds trust; if an employee is cross-trained and can cover their team member during an emergency, their relationship will strengthen.
Encourage your team to conduct lunch and learns where someone teaches a skill, or hold show-and-learn sessions where people quickly demonstrate tasks to help each other work through the day better.
Support Employee Well-Being and Belonging
Mental and physical wellbeing are crucial for your remote or hybrid team. Many people think that remote workers have it easier than their colleagues in-person, but research shows that 28% of remote workers report higher levels of burnout in comparison to their colleagues working in traditional office settings, and 86% of remote workers are experiencing burnout.
Support your entire team’s well-being with scheduled breaks, remote workshops for meditation and stretching, and encouragement to connect over wellness.
Create clear norms around communication and boundary-setting, and follow them with all team members in the same way. Again, consistency is the key to success.
Conclusion
Connection doesn’t happen by accident on any team, no matter if they’re remote, hybrid, or in-person.
By creating rituals on the team, strategically using technology, making meetings meaningful, and supporting knowledge sharing and wellness, your organization can create a team that can endure whatever the market throws at you.
Want to find out what really motivates your team? We’ve got the tools to help.
