We’ve embraced remote work. Our team is spread out.

It’s easy, however, for remote workers to feel left out and disconnected.

Remote work provides lots of advantages, and it’s good for employees as well as for the business. But there’s risk involved.

The Benefits of Remote Work

The remote work culture of our law firm gives our team members the flexibility to be where they need to be. That might mean they work from the home of a sick parent or child. It might mean they do a longer vacation trip because they can stretch it out by working some. It might mean they get to work in their pajamas because it’s cold and rainy outside. It might mean they get to avoid a 30-minute drive to the office.

There are as many reasons to work remotely as there are employees. Of course, sometimes those same folks prefer to work in the office, and we give them space to choose that option as well.

Our lawyers resisted the idea of working remotely—for about 20 minutes—because lawyers resist change. Then they embraced it. We’d face rebellion if we suddenly started requiring our lawyers to show up at the office each day.

Remote work has been good for the law firm as well. It saves us big time on real estate. We’ve cut and cut and cut down on our space. We have a small fraction of what we once had. It saves us on furnishings and upkeep. It makes relocating simple and easy.

Remote work enables us to hire from a broad pool of candidates. We sometimes save in payroll expense as a result of hiring from lower-cost areas. We’re able to find folks with the exact skills we need, and we’re able to minimize hiring compromises as a result of the large pool of applicants. Hiring for remote positions gives us the opportunity to find the exact right person for our needs.

The Downsides of Remote Work (That You Can Manage)

It took us a while to evolve to our present state. We didn’t start out by going fully remote. We evolved to this point by loosening up on our requirements over time and slowly having people drift further off. Today, our team is spread out all over a bunch of different time zones.

But, with people working on different projects and in different time zones, it’s easy for team members to feel disconnected. In fact, it’s sometimes easy for us to nearly forget that someone is working for us. That’s especially true when a team member is handling a big project that doesn’t require much involvement by the rest of the team.

When remote workers start to feel disconnected, they drift away. When they feel like they’re part of a secondary team that’s disconnected from the firm’s leadership, they lose their sense of ownership and pride in the organization. When they feel like they’re being left out or forgotten, they start looking for other options.

It’s essential that remote workers share an equal voice. It’s essential that they be included as equal partners in the decision-making related to their roles and that they have every opportunity to engage with the team like everyone else. Remote workers, like everyone on the team, need to be engaged, given feedback, and encouraged. They need to feel included, or they’ll find somewhere else where they are included.

How to Step Up Your Remote Game

Here are some things you can do to get even more benefit from your openness to remote work:

1. Remote First

Think of the remote members of the team first. Put them at the head of the pack and work backward for including others who may not be remote. That’s the opposite of what many managers do, and that’s precisely why it works so well. It flips your thinking upside down.

2. Team Communication

By putting the remote folks first, you’ll automatically schedule meetings online rather than in person. You’ll stop booking conference rooms and start arranging video conferencing. When you put the remote people first, you’ll end up with everyone in their own space in front of their laptop. That’s dramatically better for everyone than having one group sitting in front of a big screen while one or two team members are far away on their laptops. Make everyone equal.

3. Manage Everyone

Employ the same management techniques for everyone, regardless of whether they’re remote. Do weekly one to ones, daily meetings, etc. in the same way regardless of location. Communication is key, and you need to do it in the same way regardless of where anyone else may be working.

4. Get Out

If you’re not working remotely and you’re in charge, then get out. Go get on the road or get in your pajamas or whatever. It’s much easier to understand the plusses and minuses of remote work if you’re a remote worker. Hit the road, and you’ll be on equal footing with everyone else, and you’ll also have the opportunity to work from the Irish coast while watching the sunset.

5. Listen to Everyone

Get input from everyone instead of just the people you bump into in the hallways. Be aggressive about seeking input across the board. Seek out input from the remote team members. Ask them for their thoughts and opinions during your online meetings with them. You need to affirmatively offset the subtle influences you feel when you get feedback from others around the office. You need to seek out the feedback of the remote workers, or it won’t happen.

Focus on the Connection

Remote work brings huge advantages to your operation. It gives you flexibility and savings you many not fully appreciate until you begin your remote experiments. But remote work is different. It requires different thinking, and you must manage it in a different manner.

Go ahead. Let your team spread out. But manage it so your team members, no matter how disconnected, still feel connected.