How can you promote mental health and well-being in remote teams?

Regular communication is key to managing the wellbeing of remote teams. Here are some top tips: Encourage structure – encourage all staff, though it may be difficult, to start and finish at reasonable times and to take regular breaks. Know your team – try and understand your staff and what makes them tick. Keeping regular contact will help. Be sincere and honest – if you are honest with your staff, they are more likely, to be honest with you. Be transparent and start conversations where possible and appropriate. Home equipment and environment – ensure staff have the right equipment (including a proper chair) to be able to work safely and effectively. Understand that vulnerability has many faces – anybody can be struggling, at any time.

The predominant narrative for promoting and maintaining mental health and well-being in remote teams is communicating frequently and effectively. Yes, this is an integral part of the process. Still, without proper training on how to receive and process information and self-regulate one's emotional state, many staff members find themselves isolated in their attempt to understand their emotional unrest better. Whereas one person may get off the phone feeling great about their talk with a colleague, the other person may leave the call feeling upset by a comment that triggered them. If this person doesn't have the tools to manage their emotional responses, the power of frequent communication can fall by the wayside.

One thing I find is laughter and having fun with my team builds a deeper trust. It encourages people to be their authentic selves and take time to connect with their co-workers. Not everything we is fun all of the time, but we need to make a conscious effort to create a positive culture where our teams enjoy a majority of what they do and to whom they are connected. Creating this team dynamic ensures everyone is included and is geared toward mental health and well being as a remote community starts to emerge. As a leader, you must draw in new members and reconnect old members who may withdraw. Check-ins are not just for your direct reports or new hires anymore. As a leader there is nothing better than reconnecting with every team member!

The most effective way to manage a remote team, and I’m talking about people in other countries or states within the USA, is hire remote first line management. Culture is the most ignored thing in business. Your culture may well not be what your remote employees are dealing with. Their local relationships and environment if not understood will break the business. You cannot learn it because you are not imbedded in alternative locations. Hire locals and treat them well.

Such useful insights flowing from this group! I have been managing proposal development teams remotely since about 2017. I have found that requiring cameras to be on during meetings helps the team collaborate better. We humans really need to see facial expressions (I read that in a science article I barely understood).

Not every day is a 10 out of 10 for everyone. Your team has a whole life outside of work and you never know what might be going on with them. Part of leading a healthy team is setting the expectation that when someone needs a little more room, the team can come together and support that. In the long run, that builds loyalty, trust, and camaraderie that will pay off much more than a couple of days of distracted work ever will. Hire good people. Remember they are good and they are people and give them the space for both.

It's important to know what your goals and expectations are regarding your workload and share them with your colleagues and teammates. Some people are naturally more inclined to speak up on these things, and others require more probing. To ensure that everyone on a team uses their voice effectively, team leaders need to understand better how the individuals on their squad best share this information and then develop a process supporting this.

Ensure you have team and individual goals that align with the company goals. This gives meaning and purpose beyond a task to complete simply because it is on their role specification.

Remote work can make it easy for the lines between work and personal life to blur. It is important to encourage your team members to take breaks, set boundaries, and disconnect from work when they are not working.

We are a remote first organisation which gives the team the flexibility to work from wherever they get their best work done! Not everyone thrives in an office-based environment. Workplace perks like health benefits, additional PTO (our team have the work between Christmas and NYE off) and leading by example encourages healthy habits.

Healthy habits & routines are great but often fall off when stress & pressure hits hard. I would start before these things get in the way of the well-being of my team members. One of the most important aspects is accountability. You can do so with weekly check-ins, monthly chats and quarterly reviews that also include their well-being and support needs outside of work. If the company has extra resources, I teach my clients to offer help in the form of resources, extra benefits or memberships such as buying standing desks, offering gym memberships or supporting therapy sessions as part of a benefit package to support the well being of team members in combination with accountability.

Regardless of the work environment, people desire human connection. Ignore this, and people starve. Therefore, it's imperative to create learning and development opportunities where participants discuss heartfelt issues and challenges and are taught to support one another by listening intently, observing from a place of neutrality and non-judgment, and asking powerful, exploratory questions.

A key reason people leave organisations is the lack of development. Planning in that time for team building, knowledge sharing, courses or additional training means it can't get forgotten about or become a 'when we have time' thing.

Diverse teams give diverse opinions, ideas, and many more ways to solve problems. Not everyone fits into a specific way of working. Inclusion can be as simple as running virtual events that include remote team members, socialising during work hours for those who have external commitments and socials that do not revolve around alcohol.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace is a starting point for avoiding "groupthink", increasing productivity, and building a healthy team or organization. Belonging and Accessibility are also necessary keys to employee engagement, satisfaction, and longevity (LESS costly turnover). The nature of remote work lacks equity. Every employee has a different work environment. It takes Intentionality to create a remote safe space, built on mutual trust, where employees are empowered to be vulnerable and supported in attaining Whole Health Wealth- complete wellbeing which includes physical, mental, emotional, social, intellectual, environmental, spiritual, occupational, and financial health.

To show empathy and compassion towards others, you must show them for yourself first; otherwise, it's impossible to insert yourself into another person's shoes. When you find it challenging to access empathy and compassion for others, remind yourself that we are all reflections of one another. There's a good chance that another person's pain and anguish is something you've experienced at one point in your life or something similar. Creating this type of familiar connection helps you open up when otherwise feeling shut down and averse to supporting someone else.

When you have a remote team you are now a guest in the homes of those you lead. You are a silent guest who sits in the corner or on the kitchen table. You see their spouse leave in the morning with a goodbye kiss and then return in the evening with a handful of groceries. You are there when there’s a sick kid laying in their lap and you’re there when the dog comes in the room with a dead squirrel (that’s a real story). You’re a guest. Act like one.

I've found this is very important to have empathy and at the same time, one needs to have a better EI (Emotional Intelligence). Empathy is part of both EQ (Emotional Quotient) and EI but evidently both are not same. EQ is the reaction to an emotion where EI is having a maturity and non-bias realization of the event.

In order to promote mental-health, we must recognize that various dimensions of wellness are interdependent. Complete wellbeing includes physical, mental, emotional, social, intellectual, environmental, spiritual, occupational, and financial health.

I think there are many ways to promote mental health and wellbeing with our remote teams. First of all, it is important to respect people’s schedules and remember our team members have a life outside work, and keeping this work and life balance is essential. Something else I find useful is to organize activities for team building. During the pandemic, my team and I started our “Share It” sessions, which basically are online moments for a team member to teach or share something they feel passionate about. Attendance is voluntary. We have had sessions about dancing, cooking, yoga, personal finance and more. It has been a way to strengthen our bonds.

Promoting mental health and well-being within remote teams is essential for sustaining productivity and a positive work environment. It starts with creating a culture that prioritizes work-life balance, ensuring that employees feel comfortable setting boundaries and taking time off when needed. Regular check-ins and providing access to mental health resources are also key. Encouraging open conversations about mental health can destigmatize it and help team members feel supported. Additionally, offering flexible working hours and encouraging regular breaks can help maintain well-being. Ultimately, it's about recognizing that our teams are not just employees, but people with diverse needs and challenges.

Como líder de equipo, asumir la responsabilidad de fomentar una cultura de trabajo positiva y de apoyo es clave. Priorizar el bienestar de nuestro equipo remoto contribuye no solo a la productividad, sino también a la calidad de vida de cada miembro. Juntos, debemos hacer que el trabajo remoto sea una experiencia enriquecedora y sostenible.