By: Laurel Farrer

All good doctors know that treating an ailment is good, but preventative care can be so much more effective to resolve the concern. What does this have to do with distributed companies? For a moment, think about the three remote work killers. We’ve provided some tried-and-true methods of treatment, but what does preventative care look like for these concerns? How can we prevent the signs and symptoms from ever developing?

Notice that the antidotes for all three killers include supportive conversations. In a brick-and-mortar office environment, managers have more frequent and organic opportunities to check in with their teams to have culture-building casual chats, provide professional development mentorship, and watch for problematic symptoms. In a virtual environment, managers have to intentionally create these opportunities. In an ideal world, supervisors would have the time to host 30 to 90-minute video calls every week with each of the employees and groups they oversee to discuss areas of success and weakness. Unfortunately, most companies don’t have the time and bandwidth to dedicate to feedback, especially as the company continues to scale.

At Yonder 2017, this was a valuable topic of interest, and most of the executives at the table said their secret weapons in regularly collecting feedback from their workforces are new engagement tools designed with virtual teams in mind.

Here are four of their favorites:

1. Office Vibe

2. Tiny Pulse

3. Culture Amp

4. Know Your Company

Being able to regularly collect, review, and track workforce feedback can be a company’s most effective tool in developing culture and enhancing employee satisfaction and loyalty. Just be sure that you don’t rely on these tools alone - nothing replaces the value of real conversations. So don’t hesitate to schedule a phone or video call to discuss a certain response, and always supplement these submissions with a quarterly or bi-annual performance review, no matter what your team size.

Which feedback tools do you use on your distributed team? Any others you would add to the favorites above? Tweet us @yonder_io to share!