What strategies can ensure inclusion in virtual teams?

As remote work becomes a normalised practice worldwide, one of the most pressing challenges is fostering cohesive teams and inclusive cultures when employees are geographically dispersed. Research has consistently shown that inclusion significantly enhances team performance, innovation, and employee satisfaction. Inclusive virtual teams benefit from diverse perspectives, which leads to more creative problem-solving and better decision-making. Moreover, when employees feel included and valued, their engagement and commitment to the organisation increase, resulting in higher productivity and reduced turnover. However, achieving inclusivity in virtual teams requires deliberate strategies to bridge the physical distance and create an environment where every team member feels connected and empowered to contribute. Addressing this challenge is essential for organisations aiming to thrive.

In this article, we touch upon the reason why we are so invested in proximity and how to bridge these gaps when working remotely:

Why are we so invested in proximity?

Most of us, intuitively feel that going into the office is different from working remotely. We instinctively know that in-person interactions are often perceived as more authentic and genuine because they allow immediate feedback and less opportunity for miscommunication. Reading and responding to real-time cues enhances the perception of sincerity and trustworthiness—something we value greatly in our relations with others.

Spontaneity: Employees can have spontaneous interactions in a physical office, such as casual conversations in the break room or unscripted brainstorming sessions, which can foster stronger interpersonal relationships and a sense of community. These interactions often build trust and camaraderie among team members. Research in organizational psychology suggests that such spontaneous encounters can lead to increased creativity and innovation, as they provide opportunities for diverse ideas to collide and merge organically.

Shared experiences: Physical proximity enables shared experiences, such as participating in team activities or attending events together. These shared moments create common memories and bonds that contribute to a sense of belonging and community within a group. Neurological studies have shown that shared activities can activate mirror neurons, fostering empathy and a deeper understanding among individuals.

Connection: Physical presence allows for the full range of nonverbal communication, such as body language, facial expressions, and eye contact, which are crucial for understanding emotions and intentions. Physical presence often demands more attention and focus, as it is harder to multitask or become distracted when interacting face-to-face. This focused attention can lead to more meaningful and engaging conversations, strengthening interpersonal connections. Physical touch, such as a handshake, hug, or pat on the back, plays a significant role in building trust and emotional bonds. Touch can convey warmth and reassurance, fostering a deeper sense of connection and support. Neurobiological research indicates that physical touch triggers the release of oxytocin, a hormone associated with bonding and social connection, which can enhance feelings of trust and security within relationships. These cues help build trust and empathy, making interactions more personal and genuine. Both are essential for effective collaboration and team cohesion.

Conversely, remote work tends to rely on scheduled meetings and digital communication tools, which can sometimes feel formal and transactional. This structured nature of communication may reduce the frequency and spontaneity of interactions, leading to feelings of isolation or detachment from the team and the organisation. Additionally, remote employees may miss out on the shared experiences and cultural nuances that occur naturally in an office environment, such as company events and team-building activities. This lack of face-to-face interaction can make it more challenging to build a strong organisational culture and can lead to employees feeling less connected to the company's mission, their peers and organisational values. Studies in sociology have found that the lack of informal, spontaneous interactions in virtual settings can hinder relationship-building and the transmission of organisational culture. Additionally, remote workers may experience "Zoom fatigue" due to prolonged exposure to video calls, which can reduce the quality of interactions and contribute to burnout.

Important to note: Whenever I offer insights into human processes, I find it crucial to present a nuanced perspective. While it is important to openly discuss the drawbacks of remote work, this should not lead us to reject or disregard the value of flexible working options. I am a strong advocate for workplace flexibility, as it accommodates the diverse needs of many talented individuals, particularly those from underserved and underrepresented groups.

Remote work offers numerous benefits, including increased accessibility and inclusivity for people who might face challenges in traditional office settings, such as caregivers, individuals with disabilities, people who are sensitive to stimuli, and those living in remote areas. By embracing remote work, we can help level the playing field, providing equal opportunities for success and fulfilment.

However, to effectively address the challenges associated with remote work, we must first understand the specific issues we need to resolve. Acknowledging potential drawbacks, such as communication barriers, feelings of isolation, and work-life balance struggles, allows us to develop targeted strategies that enhance the remote work experience for everyone. By fostering an environment of empathy and understanding, we can create a more equitable and supportive workplace for all.

How can we create inclusive cultures effectively?

Below, you will find general strategies and tools that work. They are the basic ingredients you will need when working with remote teams. However, as any enthusiastic cook would tell you, you never simply follow the recipe, but you add your personal touch and adjust the recipe to the ones who will sit at your table. How to adjust your recipe to make it work, is something no one can tell you without knowing the dining guests and your kitchen. And even if you do know the guests, like many chefs, don’t be afraid to experiment and try out different recipes to see how they are received!

1. Open communication: It is great to standardise certain processes within teams to make use of shared time more effectively and reduce the chance of miscommunications. Yet it is also important to normalise conversations about preferences and communication styles. Make sure you value both. When you have developed team norms that prioritise inclusivity, respect, and collaboration together, ensure you communicate these clearly, adhere to them and reflect on them together with the team regularly.
2. Goals and Roles: Clearly define team goals and individual roles to ensure everyone understands their responsibilities and how they contribute to the team’s success.
3. Ensure participation: To create an open and inclusive team environment, it is important that all members can contribute during meetings. This can be supported by various techniques, like round-robin, direct questioning, structuring the agenda, sending some core questions to participants beforehand or using tools like Mentimeter to promote more anonymous contributions.
4. Use various forms of communication: We all have our preferences in terms of communication. Some prefer calls, others prefer e-mail, working via a collaborative platform, or chat. Think about how you can bring these communication channels together to ensure an effective user experience and use both synchronous and asynchronous channels for communication. Whatever form of communication you use, make sure to avoid slang, abbreviations, jargon, etc and include visualisations of your messages as employees will have varying knowledge levels of the shared language.
5. Use supportive tools: Normalise the use of accessibility tools such as closed captioning, text-to-speech, language translation, speech recognition, noise-cancelling tools, transcriptions, and screen readers. Invest in tech tools that support personalisation and adaptability. Customisable user interfaces that allow employees to adjust font sizes, colours, and layout preferences can also make remote work more accessible.
6. Virtual (office) spaces: Implement virtual office platforms that simulate a physical office environment, allowing for spontaneous interactions and social gatherings. Online platforms that virtually simulate human interactions usually rely primarily on visual and auditory modalities, providing limited or no capacity for the exchange of tactile cues. Interestingly, current research indicates that the visual representation of social touch is sufficient to virtually communicate touch-related cues that impact social affiliation, but the influence of touch may be dependent on the interaction context. So make sure to follow up on the research in this area to ensure that you create an optimal environment. Research on the use of holograms and VR technology is surely one to follow as this could elevate the employee experience even further by creating more lifelike interactions.
7. Regular check-ins: Schedule regular one-on-one and team check-ins to discuss progress, challenges, and well-being. This helps maintain a connection and shows that team members’ voices are valued.
8. Cultural awareness: Celebrate diverse cultures and backgrounds by acknowledging cultural holidays, sharing stories, and organising themed virtual events. But also create a shared calendar for employees to note their time away. Give everyone the ability to add their days off on a cloud-based schedule, so you can quickly see who’s available and who’s out of the office.
9. Encourage feedback: Create an environment where team members feel safe to express their opinions and provide feedback without fear of judgment or retaliation.
10. Acknowledge contributions: Recognise and appreciate the contributions of all team members to make them feel valued and included. This can be done in a wide variety of ways and which works for you depends on both the recipient and the sender (you). Some ideas: a virtual wall of contributions, a personal note (mail or card), sharing success stories with the team, celebrating milestones with a party kit (send to the home) or a virtual event or flexible rewards like an educational budget, a salary increase, a promotion, gift cards, extra time off, additional vacation budget or a personal gift.
11. Virtual team-building activities: Organise regular virtual social events, such as online games, coffee breaks, or themed challenges, to strengthen relationships and create a sense of belonging. Pair these virtual activities with several in-person activities each year.
12. Peer recognition programmes: Implement peer recognition systems that allow team members to acknowledge each other’s efforts and achievements. This can be as simple as sending a co-signed thank-you email after a contribution, giving a shout-out during a virtual meeting or enabling them to send each other a gift card when they have supported each other well, just remember to make it personal and sincere.
13. Accommodate different time zones: Schedule meetings at times that are convenient for all team members, considering their different time zones. Use Time-zone management tools and integrate them with your communication channels to ensure everyone will remain mindful of each other's time. Additionally, you can set up do-not-disturb options in their calendars so they can share times that are off-limits for work. Establish a master time zone reference that serves as a compass for your global workforce and link them to your meeting schedule tools.
14. Support dedicated workspaces: This can be done in various ways: by offering remuneration to create a suitable office space at home, by letting them rent a space flexibly and even by offering them the ability to travel around the world and set up small office spaces in different locations where they can come together as a team, or work together with other employees.
15. Incorporate well-being activities: Working with people in different time zones may lead to an overspill of work into life at home. This means that we need to be mindful about how to support a healthy work-life balance. Several tools can support teams by encouraging them to exercise, practice mindfulness, work in the garden, go for a stroll or a swim, paint or listen to music. Help them find activities that help release tensions or stress. Another great tool one can offer is a platform or tool that enables them to seek psychological support wherever they are.
16. Normalise flexible work: Trust your employees to be masters of their workload. Whether it is due to sensory sensitivity, energy regulation, caregiving responsibilities or other commitments, having the freedom and ability to accommodate the schedule to support their well-being, is important. Remember that flexible work is more than just deciding on your hours, it can also mean working more hours in one week and less in another, sharing a job with someone else or working part-time.
17. Conduct surveys and feedback sessions: Regularly assess the inclusivity of virtual teams through anonymous surveys and feedback sessions to identify areas for improvement.
18. Measure progress: Use metrics to track progress on inclusion goals and adjust strategies based on the insights gathered.
19. Personal and team development: There are many ways in which you can support growth. This can be done through offering mentoring, coaching and training programmes and online (accessible) micro and macro learning (make sure to include the inclusive competency or cultural awareness). Important to note is that not everyone fares well with online tools and sometimes, people will prefer a more personal track. So offer the opportunity to do so if needed and preferred. Train leaders and managers to be inclusive role models and to create a supportive environment for all team members.
20. Passion projects: Especially people working fully remotely, might feel the need for human connection. Offer them a percentage of their working hours to spend on a personal passion project. This can be done by coaching the local kid's baseball team, by helping in a soup kitchen, by offering services to an NGO nearby or by working on a special in-house project with other employees.

Before concluding this article, I would like to let you go with one last important consideration. And that is the consideration of pay. The more you fall back on remote work, the more importance this topic will carry. The concept of pay is already leading to many debates in international organisations. While the majority falls back on COLA, this strategy has several pitfalls and complexities. That is why some organisations are starting to offer equal pay for equal work, regardless of location. These organisations use one specific location - in an area with a higher cost of living- as their baseline. Both approaches have advantages and offer certain challenges. The decision between geography-based salary levels and a universal pay scale should be based on a company's priorities, its ability to manage administrative complexities, and its desired company culture. Some companies might find a hybrid approach or a gradual transition between the two methods to be the most suitable solution. Whatever you decide on, do so with transparency and clarity.

Have fun cooking!

Further reading:

• Theory of Social Presence
• Cultural Variations in Proxemic Behavior by Edward T. Hall
• Face-to-Face Versus Computer-Mediated Communication: A Synthesis of the Experimental Literature" by Joseph B. Walther
• Proxemics in Asia: The Development and Application of a Concept by Howard M. Giles and Richard St. Clair
• Oxytocin and the Biology of Social Trust by Paul J. Zak
• Exploring the Role of Physical Space in Organizational Culture by Ashkanasy, N. M., Ayoko, O. B., & Jehn, K. A.
• Cultural Differences in the Impact of Communication Effectiveness by Gudykunst, W. B., & Matsumoto, Y
• Remote Work and Organizational Identification: The Role of Proximity, Visibility, and Social Capital by Alexander Brem, et al.
• Diversity and Inclusion in the Remote Work Era: Challenges and Opportunities by Zafar Iqbal and Mudassir Hussain
• Exploring the Relationship Between Remote Work and Employee Diversity by Jessica Lee and Rosalie Hall
• Promoting Diversity and Inclusion Through Remote Work: Insights from Global Organizations by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner
• Diversity in the Digital Age: Understanding the Impact of Remote Work on Workplace Inclusivity by Anjali Gopal and Samira Abbas