Strengthening remote teams: A guide for HR professionals

For HR leaders across Australia, the shift towards remote work presents both challenges and opportunities, writes Simon Fowler.

As of 2024, approximately 36 per cent of Australians regularly work from home – a dramatic leap from just 13 per cent before the COVID-19 pandemic. This shift is especially pronounced among professionals and managers, with 60 per cent of them now working remotely. For HR leaders across Australia, this presents a range of challenges and opportunities.

The challenge of building connection and trust

One of the biggest hurdles facing HR leaders managing remote or hybrid teams is the reduced opportunity to truly get to know team members. Research conducted by Insights into global hybrid working found that 76 per cent of managers say that building strong connections with team members is challenging in a remote or hybrid setting.

Effective leadership and collaboration require an understanding of everyone’s strengths, motivators, and frustrations. Yet, in a virtual setting, these insights take longer to uncover. Interactions are often structured, scheduled, and lack the spontaneity of in-person environments.

Trust, too, is a critical foundation of high-performing teams. It usually develops over time through serendipitous hallway chats and shared breaks. While technology enables connection, it doesn’t fully replicate those organic moments.

Onboarding new team members poses an additional challenge. While longstanding employees may already have trust and rapport, newcomers often miss out on bonding experiences, making it harder for them to integrate quickly.

Assessing engagement and performance in a remote setting is tricky, too. Without the daily cues of body language or informal conversations, it’s harder to spot when someone is struggling or disengaged.

These challenges are universal, but in Australia and New Zealand, the emphasis on egalitarianism and relationship-building means that the erosion of informal connections hits especially hard.

Leaders here often prioritise people before the process, so the challenge of remote working can be even more keenly felt.

Understanding working styles as a path to better connection

One of the most powerful ways HR leaders can tackle these challenges is by helping teams understand individual working styles. In a remote setting, we have to be more intentional about connection, since time and opportunity to get to know each other are limited.

Understanding working styles sparks conversations, builds self-awareness, and helps team members appreciate differences. It fosters inclusion, accelerates trust, and helps leaders adapt their approaches to motivate individuals effectively. It also improves communication in a digital context where nonverbal cues can be missed.

One “aha” moment that consistently emerges from working-style sessions I run is when team members understand why colleagues behave the way they do. Instead of interpreting differences as barriers, they begin to see them as strengths.

When people in my workshops realise that an “opposite” type might be their greatest ally, offering different strengths and perspectives, it often transforms how people connect and collaborate.

A real-world example

Consider a travel company in Australia that faced these very challenges. Covering a large geographical area, it was impossible for all colleagues to be together in one place. Three years ago, I ran an Insights Discovery session with them to explore different working styles in the remote world. They embraced the model wholeheartedly, adopting Insights’ language of colour – which presents teams with a clear, easy way to share preferences – to keep working styles front of mind.

Now, every time a new colleague joins, they’re asked to complete a profile and debrief, helping them integrate into the team more effectively. The team continues to revisit their combined colour preferences in meetings, ensuring that understanding working styles isn’t a one-off exercise but an ongoing practice.

Spotting misalignment

So, how can HR leaders spot when a remote team is becoming disconnected?

Look out for quieter team members who aren’t participating, even when different mechanisms for contribution (like group chats or cameras on) are provided. Notice whether the team avoids challenging conversations or appears to be in “false harmony”. Reduced innovation, a lack of shared purpose, project delays, and duplicated work can also be red flags.

Practical steps to boost collaboration

If you’re an HR leader looking to improve collaboration in remote teams, here are five steps you can take this month:

1. Create and share working-style profiles using personality tools. As per the example above, this can help build self-awareness and appreciation of differences.
2. Set clear communication norms. Define expectations around how, when, and where communication should happen.
3. Ask team members what’s working well and what isn’t, to surface hidden challenges and identify diverse needs.
4. Create opportunities for informal as well as formal gatherings, allowing team members to build personal connections, not just share updates.
5. Celebrate strengths and wins across the team to reinforce positive behaviours and recognise individual contributions.

As remote and hybrid work continues to shape the future of work in Australia, HR leaders have a unique opportunity to lead the way in building inclusive, high-performing teams.

By focusing on understanding, trust, and connection, they can help their organisations thrive in the new world of work.

Simon Fowler is the director and co-founder of The Colour Code and an Insights practitioner.