5 Reasons Remote Teams Are More Engaged Than Office Workers

How remote work policies may impact productivity and profitability

Many businesses may be unclear about the impact of hybrid and remote work arrangements on their bottom lines. Do remote environments impact worker productivity? Is it possible to nurture both flexibility and increased engagement within your organization?

According to a survey from Stanford University, 40 percent of respondents felt that they worked more efficiently remotely since no commute was required. The average worker saves about 72 minutes of commute time daily, 40 percent of which they devote to working, according to a report from the National Bureau of Economic Research. 

Remote workers regularly meet and exceed objectives, identify new processes, and contribute to company culture just as much as anyone in a traditional brick-and-mortar setting. They tend to accomplish more, as long as managers set them up for success.

“Managers can boost productivity by making sure employees have everything they need, like good internet, tools, and furniture,” said Anastasiia Sukharieva, marketing manager at DreamX, a UX/UI design and development company with a remote workforce. “Setting clear goals, offering training, and recognizing achievements help keep employees motivated.”

Furthermore, remote work has become a priority for many talented employees — and many say they would quit if forced to return to the office full time. One survey found that half of employees would resign if forced to return to the office five days per week, and most would take a pay cut to switch to a fully remote position. 

Retaining employees and their institutional knowledge is often just as important to productivity as how many tasks a worker completes in a given day. The time and money required to recruit, hire, onboard, and train a new employee can be saved by simply allowing employees to work from home at least part of the time. 

Why remote workers are more engaged

Consider these reasons why remote, at-home working arrangements increase team engagement and, by extension, organizational productivity. 

1. A remote workforce is a more inclusive, higher-quality workforce.

Common human resources wisdom states that engagement starts with recruitment. To maximize job satisfaction — and, therefore, job performance — you need to hire the most qualified, relevant candidates. Unfortunately, businesses are frequently limited by their local talent pools.

Call center positions, for example, typically are entry-level jobs with high rates of turnover. It’s not that employers don’t care, but that few highly educated, experienced individuals are willing to take on low-wage, full-time work in traditional, regimented call center environments. Other would-be candidates have family commitments, geographical restrictions, or disabilities that preclude their ability to sit in an office answering phones for hours.

By shifting to a remote workforce, companies of all kinds can expand their talent searches to include parents, people who work multiple jobs, and out-of-state workers — whoever the best fit for the job may be. 

2. Remote workers are happier — and more productive.

Beyond better hiring and recruitment, consider the benefits flexibility offers to your existing workforce. Remote workers have more room to balance their jobs and personal lives. They can relocate, travel, care for their families, go to the dentist, pursue hobbies, and engage in other nonwork-related activities without sacrificing their careers. 

“In terms of flexibility, remote work offers employees the opportunity to customize their work environments according to their own needs and preferences,” said Alex Li, founder of StudyX, an AI education company. “From this perspective, remote employees may be more focused and productive than those working in the office, as they can better control their work rhythms and environments.”

It should come as no surprise, then, that 78 percent of full-time workers who work from home say that it has improved their well-being, reported Cisco. In addition, 82 percent say that the ability to work from anywhere has made them happier, and more than half (55 percent) say that remote work has decreased their stress levels. But virtual teams aren’t necessarily looking to avoid work — quite the opposite. 

Remote workers say some things are just easier to do remotely, including focused work, which was cited by 70 percent of respondents in Buffer’s State of Remote Work 2023 report, and avoiding distractions, cited by 50 percent. In other words, workers care as much about their engagement as you do, which is why many of them prefer to work remotely.

3. Flexibility fosters self-determination.

Given the nature of their jobs, virtual teams are not entirely confined to conventional working schedules. Someone in a creative field may be compensated based on the projects they complete rather than the hours they put into those projects, while service-oriented professionals can work on an as-needed basis.

These kinds of arrangements not only help companies lower their overhead costs, but also incentivize workers to take their careers into their own hands. Remote workers are able to devote their time to getting the job done, rather than wasting time doing meaningless tasks to look busy until it’s time to go home. Extra time can be spent solving problems, coming up with creative ideas, and being proactive — all wins for the employer.

4. Technology gives remote teams numerous opportunities to connect, collaborate, and contribute.

One common concern among companies that haven’t embraced remote, on-demand work is team cohesion. How do you ensure the members of your workforce don’t become isolated? The truth is that companies should be more concerned about teamwork in their brick-and-mortar environments.

Thanks to the proliferation of communication technology, virtual teams tend to connect more frequently and on a deeper level than they would in person. In addition to everyday tools, such as Slack, Zoom, Dropbox, and Google Drive, which make virtual collaboration easy for any team, remote workers benefit from self-paced and self-directed learning and gamification embedded in their workflows.

Collaboration is built into many remote working arrangements and talent networks. The most effective networks optimize virtual communication and productivity in tandem, bringing together skilled workers across states and countries and allowing members to share tips and stories and forge connections with one another. Those relationships wouldn’t happen outside of a virtual environment. 

5. They have better working environments and fewer interruptions.

By now, you’ve probably noticed a theme: It’s distractions, not distance, that hinders worker engagement. Think of all the distractions present in a typical centralized working environment: office politics, gossip, idle conversation, unnecessary meetings, “check-ins” from micromanaging supervisors, multiple breaks for food and coffee, and so on.

Those distractions can disrupt a worker’s sense of focus, personal space, and well-being, impacting their productivity and morale in ways big and small. At best, someone loses a few minutes of their time. At worst, we’re talking about potential harassment, bullying, and other forms of unsafe and illegal workplace behavior.

Once again, autonomy increases engagement. Remote workers have greater freedom — the ability to avoid a troublesome co-worker, to leave an unproductive conversation, to choose when and how to engage. They’re in control of their own environments and they report feeling less stressed as a result.

How to attract and retain remote workers

Now that you know how beneficial remote working can be for your company, how do you attract and retain remote workers? Follow the steps below. 

Develop a strong employer brand online.

Since you will be recruiting remote workers online, it is imperative that when potential applicants research your company, they find plenty of information that will encourage them to apply. It’s especially important when the potential job candidates are not local, since people who live close by are more likely to be familiar with your company or even know someone who works there.

Your website’s career section should showcase your company’s culture, not just by describing it, but also by giving examples of your culture in action. That may include photos or videos of employer-sponsored community service events, office parties, and employee recognition ceremonies. You can also feature testimonials in which employees talk about the company and why they like where they work.

Your job listings should describe your company culture and the compatible characteristics that a successful job candidate should have. It goes without saying that your company should treat employees with honesty, respect, and empathy. If it doesn’t, that’s sure to come out on Glassdoor and other online venues where it can sour a prospective applicant’s desire to apply for a job at your company.

Post in remote work job boards.

Large job-searching sites, such as Monster and Indeed, have filters for people seeking remote work, but you are likely to get more applicants for your remote positions if you post your job on remote-focused job boards or specialized remote worker social media groups. Some of these are: 

• FlexJobs
• We Work Remotely
• Working Nomads
• Workfrom or Nomad List (Slack communities)
• Digital Nomad Jobs (Facebook group)

Don’t be afraid to ask current remote workers to act as brand ambassadors, telling people they know who are looking for a job about open positions. 

Use technology to interview and assess candidates.

You will probably do most of your interviewing via video call. In addition to stand-alone software, such as Zoom and RingCentral, you can use Spark Hire, a specialized platform that enables you to capture, review, and compare candidate interviews. Other platforms, such as Jobma, allow you to post interview questions and have the applicants upload a video with their answers on their own time or even do an initial interview via text. 

“Project management tools like Trello and Asana can be used to track progress in real time,” Li said. “Besides task completion, the effectiveness of team collaboration is also an important indicator for measuring productivity. The smoothness of task handovers, the efficiency of meetings, and so on can all reflect employees’ contributions to the team.”

When you have developed a short list, you can use tools to assess candidates’ likely cultural fit, predict how well each candidate will work in the role, or remove any unconscious bias in recruitment on the part of the interviewer.

Design an attractive compensation and benefit package.

Remote workers may be willing to accept a slightly lower salary to be able to work from home if the alternative is an in-person job, but you will need to be competitive if you are competing with employers who are also offering a work-from-home opportunity.

As a small- to medium-size business, you can create a competitive employment package even without a higher salary by offering compelling and unusual benefits, such as duvet days, sabbaticals, and other creative perks for employees. You can also sweeten the deal by offering paid professional development or company retreats or paying for any needed office furniture or equipment.

“Managers can keep remote teams engaged by being open and transparent, promoting work-life balance, and creating a strong company culture,” said Sukharieva. “It’s important to empower employees, offer mental health support, and provide perks like gym memberships. Asking for feedback and acting on it is also a great way to show employees they’re valued.”

Plan regular and meaningful person-to-person interactions.

Working remotely is generally enjoyed by the people who do it, but it’s not without its downsides, including feelings of isolation and a fear of being forgotten when it comes to promotion. That’s why it is important to create events for remote workers who live within a general area to get together in person. It can be for training, team building, or something purely social. Just periodically seeing co-workers in person can make remote workers feel more connected to each other and the company. 

“Without an office structure, it’s easy to procrastinate. Noise from kids or roommates can be distracting, and friends or family might interrupt, not realizing remote work is just as serious,” Sukharieva said. “To handle this, employers should focus on results, not hours. For example, at DreamX, we have a daily meeting where everyone shares what they worked on yesterday and their plans for today. These meetings help us stay on track and aligned.”

To make remote workers feel that they have promotion opportunities within your company, institute a mentorship program. It could be monthly video calls between each employee and a mentor or, if they live in the same area, periodic in-person meetings. In addition to getting valuable help and advice to advance their careers, remote employees will also become more engaged, knowing that the company values them and sees them as an integral part of its future.

“Internal communication has a massive impact on employee engagement for remote workers,” said Sam Naficy, CEO at Prodoscore. “According to Prodoscore data, almost two-thirds of managers only speak to their employees once per week, and only 16 percent of managers have daily contact with all of their team members.”

Checking in more often and finding opportunities to give feedback to and receive feedback from remote workers can help them stay engaged with their team and their roles.  

Create, maintain, and encourage a positive company culture.

As with in-person employees, remote workers will not want to keep a job that has a toxic work culture. If you have particularly high employee turnover, complaints, or burnout, it may be a sign that you need to improve your work culture. Start with a code of ethics and code of conduct to establish the values you want the company and its employees to demonstrate and properly train managers and employees in what is expected of them. 

It can be challenging to have a consistent culture in a remote work environment, since everyone is scattered. You can and should, however, express your culture through your policies, your management style, and your communications to employees, customers, and vendors. In addition, you can reinforce your company’s values and priorities through company-wide in-person or virtual events, such as charity fundraisers. When employees know the company’s values align with theirs, they are more likely to have high morale and loyalty to the company.

It’s important to mention that remote work isn’t for everyone. Not every worker possesses the drive and discipline to transition out of an office job. More often than not, however, it’s because the individual wasn’t the right fit in the first place. It’s hard to make yourself care about something you’d rather not do, even with a supervisor standing over you.

Fortunately, plenty of people who care are out there, just waiting to work for your business.

Tejas Vemparala and Greg Hanover contributed to this article.