How to Get to Know Your Remote Team: 10 Strategies for Stronger Connections

Managing a remote team requires more than assigning work and checking deadlines. When employees work from different locations, managers lose many of the small interactions that naturally happen in an office.

There is no conversation in the hallway, quick question over coffee, or chance to learn something about a colleague between meetings. Getting to know a remote team therefore takes more intention.

The need is real. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2026 found that 22% of employees worldwide experienced loneliness a lot of the previous day. Among exclusively remote employees, the figure was 24%, compared with 18% among employees working on-site in remote-capable roles.

At the same time, Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index, based on research involving 31,000 professionals across 31 countries as well as LinkedIn and Microsoft 365 data, points to a workplace where communication is becoming increasingly complex and fragmented.

For remote managers, knowing how people work, communicate and collaborate can make everyday teamwork easier. Here are 10 practical ways to get there.

1. Learn How People Prefer to Communicate

Not everyone communicates in the same way.

Some employees prefer a quick message. Others would rather discuss a complicated issue on a call. Some are comfortable speaking up in meetings, while others express themselves more clearly in writing.

Ask your team members how they prefer to communicate and which channels work best for different situations.

This can help managers avoid unnecessary meetings while making it easier for employees to communicate in a way that feels natural to them.

2. Ask About Working Styles

Knowing someone’s job title tells you very little about how they actually work.

Ask employees when they tend to do their best work, whether they prefer uninterrupted blocks of time or frequent collaboration, and what usually helps them stay focused.

These conversations can be especially useful in distributed teams, where employees may have very different working environments and schedules.

The goal isn’t to monitor how people spend every hour. It’s to understand what helps each person do their job well.

3. Find Out How They Like to Receive Information

Some people want the big picture before starting a task. Others prefer clear instructions and specific next steps.

The same applies to feedback. One employee may appreciate direct comments immediately, while another may prefer time to review them.

Learning these preferences can make communication more effective without requiring more communication.

4. Make Room for Conversations That Aren’t About Tasks

Remote communication can easily become a stream of deadlines, updates and requests.

Leave some room for ordinary conversation, too.

That might mean asking about someone’s weekend at the beginning of a meeting, creating an optional team chat for non-work topics, or simply allowing a few extra minutes for people to talk before getting into the agenda.

The point isn’t to force employees into social activities. It’s to give relationships a chance to develop naturally.

5. Learn About the Person Behind the Role

A remote manager can work with someone for months without knowing much about their interests or experience outside their current responsibilities.

Ask about previous jobs, skills they would like to use more often, professional interests or subjects they enjoy learning about.

This can reveal useful information that would otherwise remain invisible in a remote environment.

It can also help managers understand which types of projects might interest different members of the team.

6. Understand Time-Zone and Schedule Differences

A distributed team may include people working several hours apart.

That affects more than meeting times. It can influence when people prefer to communicate, when they are available for collaboration and how quickly they can respond.

Instead of assuming everyone follows the same daily rhythm, ask team members about their working hours and establish expectations around availability.

This is particularly important when a team spans several countries.

7. Don’t Assume Silence Means Agreement

Remote teams can make it easy for quieter employees to disappear from discussions.

Someone who rarely speaks during video meetings may have plenty to contribute but prefer written communication. Someone who does not respond immediately may simply be working in a different time zone or protecting focused work time.

Instead of interpreting silence, ask.

Managers can also provide more than one way for people to contribute, such as allowing comments in a shared document or giving employees time to respond after a meeting.

8. Create Opportunities for People to Know Each Other

Getting to know a remote team shouldn’t be limited to the relationship between managers and employees.

Team members also need opportunities to learn who their colleagues are.

Short introductions for new hires, optional virtual coffee chats, informal discussion channels or occasional team activities can help people build connections beyond their immediate projects.

These don’t need to become mandatory social events. The important part is creating opportunities without making participation feel like another work obligation.

9. Pay Attention to Communication Overload

More communication does not necessarily mean better communication.

Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index found that the modern workday is becoming increasingly fragmented, based on analysis of Microsoft 365 activity and research involving 31,000 professionals across 31 countries. A later 2025 Work Trend Index special report also found that the average employee received more than 100 emails and 150 Teams messages per day.

For remote managers, that is a reason to be selective about communication.

If every question becomes a meeting and every update becomes another message, employees have less room for focused work and meaningful conversation.

Knowing your team also means knowing when to leave people alone to work.

10. Keep Learning About Your Team

Getting to know remote employees isn’t something a manager finishes after the first few weeks.

People change roles, develop new interests, take on different responsibilities and adapt to new working situations.

Make it normal to revisit conversations about communication preferences, collaboration and professional interests.

The more managers understand how their team members work, the easier it becomes to choose the right communication method, involve the right people and avoid unnecessary friction.

Why Knowing Your Remote Team Matters

Remote management is not about recreating the office online. It is about understanding the people who make up the team and creating working habits that fit a distributed environment.

Gallup’s 2026 data shows that loneliness remains a significant workplace issue, with 24% of exclusively remote employees reporting that they experienced loneliness a lot of the previous day.

At the same time, the volume of digital communication makes it increasingly important for managers to distinguish between useful interaction and unnecessary noise.

A manager who knows how employees prefer to communicate, when they work best and what helps them collaborate has more information to make those decisions.

For remote teams, that understanding can be just as valuable as another meeting or another productivity tool.

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