The increasing universality of communication technologies is contributing to a rapid rise in remote workers. While virtual work has benefits like happier employees and higher productivity levels, it also comes with a downside: remote employees, separated by distance, increasingly feel disconnected, disengaged, and isolated from their coworkers, bosses, and overall workplace community. This is problematic because being engaged at work, and feeling senses of belonging, safety, community, and friendship are critical to workplace wellbeing.

Most scholars agree that engaged employees can be defined as those who fully show up at work—physically, cognitively, and emotionally. Engaged employees are devoted to their job’s daily tasks and longer-term vision, praise their organizations to others, voluntarily help others, and take initiative to improve organizational policies and practices.

But engagement is suffering in U.S. workplaces. An August 2018 Gallup poll finds that 53 percent of workers are not engaged at work, meaning they are not “cognitively and emotionally connected to their work and workplace.” Worldwide, workplace engagement is only 12 percent.  This is a high number of employees who are risk of leaving their jobs when a better offer comes along, and organizations are at high risk of losing good workers.

In addition to working remotely, employee isolation is being caused by high turnover, growing numbers of diverse workers who often can be left out or marginalized, and misunderstandings or intolerances among the five generations in the workplace. These are the groups at higher risk of isolation, and they need extra attention. Address their communication needs in the following ways:

• Assign each employee a mentor specifically tasked with their engagement and inclusion. This could be a supervisor, manager, peer, or someone outside of their department.
• Use their preferred channels to communicate with them. This is especially important when dealing with cultural or generational differences. Baby boomers might be more open to email newsletters or Facebook, while Gen X and millennials likely will respond best to texts, video, or other social media. Cultures that value hierarchy and respect for authority will do better with in-person communication or communication from higher ups.

In addition to working remotely, employee isolation is being caused by high turnover, growing numbers of diverse workers who often can be left out or marginalized, and misunderstandings or intolerances among the five generations in the workplace.

• Instill a culture of kindness, listening, and noticing. Everyone can be a wellbeing ambassador by inviting a new employee, who might be sitting alone in the cafeteria, to join their lunch group. Or by checking on someone who they notice rarely leaves their office. Make sure remote employees are communicated with daily, involved in meetings and included in social activities.
• Build communities that encourage positive coworker relationships. These can include employee resource groups and communities based on both outside interests and hobbies and work-related projects.
• To put it simply, find and build your organization’s version of the old-school water cooler. This is the organic place—real or virtual—where employees can gather. Motivate them by creating consistency and implementing easy-to-use tools. For this, companies are using messaging programs like Google Hangouts and Slack or video services like Skype or Zoom. Use your water cooler technology to include virtual workers in your onsite meetings, and make sure you’re effectively engaging them during these meetings.
• Connect with remote workers at least weekly by phone or Skype for a live conversation informally and more often regarding projects and tasks.
• Bring in your remote workers for in-person meetings and social outings as often as possible.
• Don’t rely on your intranet as the default employee connector. Most employees find it difficult to connect to and navigate even the best-designed intranets and choose to get their information and engagement elsewhere. Know what works for your employees.

Today’s workplace is more complex, challenging and productive because of the wonders of technology. We can be more efficient and diverse by closing geographical gaps and including people on our teams that otherwise wouldn’t be accessible. All of this comes with a risk to human connection, which is the foundation of all successful workplaces. As change is a constant, so are human needs in the workplace.