HR Tools We’re Using to Keep Remote Teams Engaged
Building trust on your team has always been important. Now, as many teams face the possibility of a permanent shift or hybrid approach to remote work, it feels more important than ever.
The question is, how can you build trust on a remote team? And once trust is established, how can you sustain it? “The answer is technology,” explains Becky Hathaway, our director of employee experience. “There are so many tools available that can help support your team in the digital space.”
Here’s a look at the digital tools Becky’s team relies on to build and maintain trust here at Tango Card—from Namely and Slack to RG Integrate and 15Five.
We use Namely as our Human Resources Information System (HRIS). Like other HRIS platforms, Namely has a newsfeed that makes it easy for employees to see what’s happening outside of their teams. Along with regular announcements and updates, our newsfeed includes employees celebrating wins, recognizing peers, and posting thank-you messages. “Having a public space makes employees feel more comfortable engaging with people outside of their teams,” explains Becky.
Slack is great a tool for conducting business and doing day-to-day work, but we also rely on it for peer-to-peer engagement and recognition. “Not everything needs to be exclusively related to work. We have certain channels that are strictly for fun and keep people looking forward to their day,” explains Becky. Our #kudos channel, for example, lets employees view and celebrate peer-to-peer recognition in real time throughout the day.
RG Integrate makes it possible for you to automate reward and incentive programs without relying on in-house developer resources. “As you work to build trust on your team, you need tools with incentives for engagement,” explains Becky. That’s why we’ve taken our own product and integrated it into 1,000+ popular apps in the Workato directory—including Namely and Slack.
Donut is a tool that recreates the office watercooler with thoughtful prompts in Slack. “We use Donut to encourage conversations that normally wouldn’t happen,” explains Becky. Employees that participate in our Donut group on Slack are introduced to coworkers across all Tango Card locations and teams. It pairs our participating employees together every two weeks for a 30-minute coffee date, allowing them to have conversations that don’t feel awkward or forced.
“It’s a popular tool,” explains Becky. “Of the 187 people that work at Tango Card, there are 34 Donut meetings each month. This translates to roughly 80 people connecting in a way they normally wouldn’t.”
We believe in empowering our managers to be engaged with their teams. To support their efforts, our managers use 15Five to lead one-on-one meetings, set personal goals, and track objectives and key results. Ultimately, employees that use this tool spend 15 minutes each week reflecting on their own accomplishments, establishing upcoming priorities, and asking for help. Our managers spend five minutes to review each employee’s 15Fives and provide feedback as needed.
Watch our webcast to learn more about Becky’s approach to building and maintaining trust on remote teams.
We offer a variety of information and resources to help you learn how to build an employee reward program—or improve an existing program—with digital gift cards. You can also reach out to sales@tangocard.com with any questions.
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