Ideas for Making Remote Employees Feel More a Part of the Startup

As a startup grows, the demand for specialized skills grow as well. With significant talent shortages for key technology positions, more startups and companies are resorting to remote employees as a long-term solution. Working in a different geographic location from the majority of the team makes it difficult to feel the same as a team member that’s in headquarters. It’s important for entrepreneurs to recognize this and go out of their way to make it the best situation possible.

Here are a few ideas for making remote employees feel more like they’re in the home office:

• Fly the team member to headquarters for one week per quarter to reconnect and celebrate with the team
• Incorporate Google Hangout or Skype Video into the weekly routine so that there’s a face-to-face connection (e.g. staff meetings, all hands meetings, etc)
• Coordinate trade show opportunities so that remote employees have a chance to work the booth or meet customers with other team members

Several or our employees work full-time from home and these techniques have worked well. With technology, effort, and the right personality types, remote employees are just as happy and effective as in-house team members.

What else? What are some other ideas for making remote employees feel more a part of the startup?