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Now more than ever, our working environments have become remote working environments. In most cases and for this writing, this means working from home. Many workplaces were pushed into a remote working environment with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. As workplaces moved to remote environments, great emphasis and concern were placed on staying connected to our colleagues. Throughout these past couple of years, comments from professionals whose work environments have either gone fully remote or some hybrid format of working remotely have shown a lot of advantages to working from home. Practical advantages such as saving on gasoline, work getting started earlier because we don’t have to commute to the office, more flexibility in work hours, or a better work-life balance, to name a few. These advantages may look slightly different for everyone, but working remotely has had some positive outcomes for employers and employees. However, that momentum of staying connected with colleagues has started to wane.

Even though working remotely has provided these positive outcomes, we still have some challenges with the physical separation from our colleagues and the office environments in which many of us have spent most of our careers. Having space for collaboration and personal connections is easier to address in an in-person setting. Let’s not forget about all the conversations and ideas shared around the proverbial “water cooler.” That interpersonal interaction that gets lost in the remote work world can have the relational effects of being misunderstood, misread, or misinterpreted. For some, this has created a space of isolation and loneliness.

The importance of recommitting to connecting with our colleagues in our remote environments becomes an intentional exercise that we must undertake if we want to create and sustain spaces to connect and collaborate. As well as to find those colleagues with which you may share similar interests. This responsibility doesn’t just rest on leadership in the organization but every contributor to the organization in the remote work environment.

With it looking like remote work environments are here to stay, let’s look at a few ideas to remind us to connect and continue building those workplace relationships and interactions.

Virtual/In-Person Lunch or Coffee Breaks

Virtually, this can be done within a department or with other colleagues in the organization. Many of us can probably remember when we were working in the office and asking a colleague out to lunch that we wanted to get to know better or just take a break from the day. Why not do this virtually? Schedule time over the lunch hour or schedule a 15-minute coffee break using your favorite virtual platform, and rotate colleagues to interact with. Keep in mind this can still happen in person as well; it just may take a little more effort and planning.

Intentionally Schedule Time with Colleagues

With everyone working from home, the likelihood of running into a colleague in the hallway is zero. So meaningful time doesn’t have to be lunch or coffee. It can be intentional time carved out of your day to connect with someone one-on-one, or it can be a virtual group gathering. Another place of intentionality is when you have that new employee that starts at your organization. Reach out with an invite to a virtual meeting to get to know them and start to build that inclusivity to the organization outside of their immediate department. Or you can reach out to someone you don’t know very well you have always wanted to get to know in another department to learn about what another department does.

Find Ways to Celebrate or Have Teambuilding Time

If you had celebrations when you were in the office for birthdays, work anniversaries, etc., find a way to keep those types of celebrations virtually. Plan a monthly or quarterly virtual meeting to celebrate these types of occasions. You may even want to send out a small gift package to those being celebrated. Teambuilding is another area that can come into play in a remote work environment. An example can be taking some time with your team to have some fun and play some virtual games or other virtual activities. A game or activity that is fun and a step away from the typical workday with the team is a nice space to experience your team in your remote environment.

While these are a few ways to connect with colleagues in our remote work environment, there are certainly other ideas out there to continue to help make these virtual connections. These connections do take some intentionality on our part and a bit of creativity, and it can be done. It is important to continue fostering and cultivating the working relationships in this remote work environment for you as the individual and the organization in keeping with that sense of community and belongingness to the greater goal or mission of the organization. Recommit to staying connected.