Camaraderie is an essential component of success in every workplace. Having a sense of mutual trust and friendship among coworkers makes for a healthy, productive, and enjoyable work environment where employees can thrive.

In remote teams, it is especially important to prioritize camaraderie among workers, though it may be more challenging to accomplish without in-person interactions on a day-to-day basis. Lucky for you, we’re going to be uncovering five ways you can build camaraderie in a remote team today!

1. Use Tools That Allow for Fun

Integrating a real-time communication tool into your team’s work routine can make a world of difference when it comes to building camaraderie.  GIFs have forever changed the way remote workers express themselves online, and any platform that supports the use of these bitmap images will also, in turn, foster kinship among employees. Remote teams have long favoured the instant messaging platform Slack because you can quickly drop relevant GIFs and keep the inside jokes coming!

2. Rely Less on Emails and More on Video and Phone

Emails are an excellent medium for communicating with clients that are on a different schedule and/or in another time zone, but they aren’t as effective at building friendly relationships among team members. Relying heavily on emails for internal communication can come off as impersonal and lead to a lot of unnecessary misunderstandings. By jumping on more video and phone calls with your team, you’ll open up the door for more authentic and fun interactions to take place.

3. Establish Roles and A Common Mission

Uniting your team under a common mission and having clearly defined roles in establishing said mission is a great way to build a rapport among employees. You should also make a conscious effort to lead by example and abide by your company’s values so that your team follows suit and stays connected in their common purpose.

4. Encourage Non-Work Related Conversations

The only way to foster personal connections is to build them over time by talking about things that aren’t work-related. As a boss, you can help make this happen by encouraging non-work related conversations (in moderation, of course). Setting aside the first 10 minutes of video conference meetings to catch up on everyone’s life creates the perfect environment for more meaningful conversations to materialize.  

5. Get Together in Person

As much as instant messaging platforms and video conferencing tools have helped improve communication in remote teams, there’s still no better way to get to know your coworkers than actually getting together in person! Try to get your team together at least a few days out of the year, whether that be in the context of an annual holiday party or a networking event.

At Project Spaces, our Toronto coworking spaces were created around the idea of building camaraderie among remote workers. In addition to our flexible membership programs, we hold weekly member events where digital nomads and badass business owners can come together and bond over the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship. Book a tour of our spaces and be on your way to building the dream remote team!