3 Tips for Connecting with Virtual Employees by @CrystalSchauf bit.ly/u0rjtD via @intrapromote

— Intrapromote (@intrapromote) December 19, 2011

Telecommuting. Working remotely. Virtual workers.  Call it what you want, the idea is here to stay.

Here are a few recent statistics about the virtual workforce:

• Best Buy, British Telecom and Dow Chemical found that virtual workers are 36% – 41% more productive.
• The work-from-home nature of virtual work reduces absenteeism by $1,134 per employee, every year.
• 79% of traditional workers would prefer to work from home, and 61% would take a pay cut to be able to do so.
• Virtual workers get an extra 2-3 work-weeks of free time in commuting savings, and report they use this time to spend with family, friends and for leisure.

As more and more companies allow employees to work from home, it’s important to think about how, as a company, everyone can stay connected.  Some of the things that people look forward to in the workplace disappear in the virtual workspace.  If you have employees all over the country, it’s not exactly easy to meet for a company dinner, a holiday party or even bring in coffee from “the really good place” as a Monday surprise.

It’s important for employees to connect with other employees.  For one, it’s nice to know who you’re working with.  It also makes work more enjoyable.  At Intrapromote, we have a blend of staff who work from our headquarters in Northeast Ohio and we have employees who work virtually. We’re all pretty good at staying connected! How you ask?  Here are three things we do to keep our people (“IPeeps”) connected:

Office Assistant Penny is a regular guest on Yammer

Yammer.  If you haven’t heard of Yammer, you should climb out from under that rock and check it out.  It bills itself as an “enterprise social network” and we use it for pretty much everything.  Sharing jokes, funny pictures, new baby pictures and dog pictures are just a few of the items floating around on there.  Yammer even allowed us to easily have a Virtual Ugly Christmas Sweater contest.

That’s just the playful side.  We “yam” updates on new clients, send kudos to staff on client wins and celebrate staff anniversaries via Yammer. We also set up groups to share industry articles which are extremely helpful in an industry that changes like ours! There are also department-specific groups to quickly brainstorm and more often than not, we use these to start conversations that lead to creative and fascinating new ideas for our clients.

Instant Messenger. It may seem obvious or it may seem like something pulled out of 1993, but Instant Messaging is often the fastest way to contact somebody when you need a quick bit of information or if you simply want to say hello to someone working 1,000 miles away.  Whether you use Gchat, iChat, AIM or Adium, most of these offer simple integration between the various applications and each one gets the job done.  Instant Messaging is also important as a part of our next tip…..

Fun (And Happy Bombs!). A famous lady once said, “For every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.”  I’ve worked in places that didn’t understand the importance of fun.  Guess what?  I don’t work there anymore.

This is not to say that fun should overrule work, but it is important to have fun in your day.  Example: We’re known to make use of what we call “happy bombs.”  When a co-worker is having a rough day, someone will get the wheels moving and we coordinate a massive attack of fun and happy on that one person.

How so?  Well, that Instant Messenger service sure comes in handy when you need to relay multiple happy thoughts and jokes to one person simultaneously.  Yammer helps out too.  It might sound silly, but how can you not smile when your screen erupts with dozens of IMs of pure joy and support?  You can’t.  It’s science.

A recent development in the virtual fun is #fridayfun.  Again, Yammer makes this possible.  #fridayfun is a thread in Twitter where a question is posted and one by one everyone shares their answers.  It started with “share something about yourself that no one knows” and has included “share something that makes you furiously happy” (mine was grown men screaming like little girls, for the record).  Allowing your employees to have a little bit of fun is a wonderful thing.  Learning funny stories about your co-workers is a great way to connect and there is something to be said for knowing the people you work with as real people and not just people on a project.

These are three pretty simple things that any company with virtual employees can do.  In fact, these can be utilized by non-virtual companies as well.  There are clearly many other ways to stay connected in this virtual world; what are some of the things your company does?

Crystal Schauf is our illustrious Director of Human Resources who joined Intrapromote in mid 2009. After graduating with degrees in Theatre, History and Italian (aka The Unemployable Degrees), Crystal spent her days as her secret identity working in the administrative world and her nights were spent running shows at various Chicago theaters (sometimes with a cape, sometimes without). Wanting to do grown up things like pay bills and eat, she left the theatre world and dove into the link development realm. Recognized frequently for her “nerdiness” and her great wit, her colleagues love to watch her trade puns with Mr. Dafforn.

Crystal is our resident movie quote expert and knows a thing or two about the Harry Potter. (Seriously, it’s kind of creepy how much she knows.) She also has a wonderdog named Penny that entertains the rest of us with her antics. Crystal blogs about corporate culture, link building, interesting Facebook phenomenon and the occasional pet peeve, just because she can.

Follow Crystal on Twitter:
Follow @CrystalSchauf

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