Just because employees are working from home doesn’t mean you can’t have an engaging office culture! Connecting with teammates can help employees feel more normal, more productive, and less stressed. So while it’s tempting for leaders to succumb to the overwhelm, now it’s more important than ever to develop employee engagement.

Here’s how:

• Keep that new-hire welcoming tradition if you are hiring new employees or have recently brought someone new on board. You may not be able to celebrate your latest hire over a team lunch, but you can welcome them with fanfare on Zoom, arrange delivery of a restaurant meal to their house, or send them a fun gift or care package. Your company culture may look a little different right now, but you can show your employees it’s still awesome.
• Be sure to check in with your employees, who are now (yourself included) functioning on a totally modified schedule, possibly juggling work alongside a spouse, children, and six Pomeranians. Nothing is as it was, but there’s still work to do! Regularly touching base—and feel free to schedule these check-ins on your calendar—lets employees know you’re thinking of them, that they are still valued priorities, and that you’re here to help if they need anything.
• Steer employees toward healthy work habits when you do check in. As freelancers and the self-employed already know, it can be hard to set “typical” work hours from home. That means it’s even harder to turn off from work mode, and who wants to live in constant hypervigilance? Communicate expectations around flexible schedules and the number of work hours, the importance of taking breaks and days off, and overall resting, recharging, and unplugging. Many employees are at home with their families—a great energy to tap into!
• Schedule smaller online social gatherings, because you wouldn’t Zoom with your entire extended family, nor is it fun to Zoom with your entire company. Even a dozen people can feel like too many for comfortable conversation, forcing the naturally quieter folks into the background. Mix things up with smaller rooms of 3–4 people, pairing different attendees each week.