How to Foster Community in Remote Workspaces

Remote work challenge: How do you build a connected culture when teams are miles apart? At Bunny Studio we’ve discovered that intentional connection is the foundation of our remote culture. This means consistently reinforcing our values while creating spaces where every team member feels seen and valued. Four initiatives that have transformed our remote culture: 🔸 Weekly Town Halls where teams showcase their impact, creating visibility across departments. 🔸 Digital Recognition through our dedicated Slack “kudos” channel, celebrating wins both big and small. 🔸 Random Coffee Connections via Donut, pairing colleagues for 15-minute conversations that break down silos. 🔸 Strategic Bonding Events that pull us away from routines to build genuine connections. Beyond these programs, we’ve learned two critical lessons: 1. Hiring people who thrive in collaborative environments is non-negotiable. 2. Avoiding rigid specialization prevents isolation and encourages cross-functional thinking. The strongest organizational cultures aren’t imposed from above—they’re co-created by everyone. In a remote environment, this co-creation requires deliberate, consistent effort. 🤝 What’s working in your remote culture? I’d love to hear your strategies.

The Empathy Edge: 8 Ways to Maintain Emotional Connection in a Remote World In a digital age where screens replace face-to-face interactions, empathy is the bridge that keeps teams human. Here are eight strategies to nurture emotional intelligence and foster trust, even through a monitor: 1. Send “How can I support you?” instead of “What’s the status?” ↳ Reframing demands as offers shifts the dynamic from surveillance to collaboration, reducing defensiveness and building trust. 2. Start every meeting with: “How are you really doing?” ↳ A simple check-in sets a tone of care and reminds everyone that people come before tasks. 3. Celebrate the “invisible” work publicly ↳ Highlighting silent efforts boosts morale and reinforces the value of each team member’s contribution. 4. Turn cameras ON during conflict ↳ Body language builds empathy faster than words alone, helping to de-escalate tension and foster understanding. 5. Create a “No Judgment” virtual zone ↳ A safe space for sharing struggles encourages vulnerability, strengthens bonds, and sparks innovative solutions. 6. Replace emails with “human” video chats ↳ Cameras humanize interactions, turning pixels into people and creating moments of genuine connection. 7. End every call with clarity + gratitude ↳ Closing with “Thank you for your time. Here’s our next-step plan.” combines appreciation with structure, leaving everyone feeling valued and aligned. 8. Send one unsent message this week ↳ A simple note of recognition—like “I noticed how you [specific action]. Thank you.”—can have an outsized impact on morale and engagement. Remote work doesn’t have to mean robotic work. By intentionally weaving empathy into digital habits, you build teams that feel seen, heard, and valued—no office required. 📌 Which of these strategies will you try first? Share below! ♻️ Repost to lead the empathy revolution in remote work! Follow Natan Mohart for more science-backed soft skills.

Last year, we rolled out an experimental company perk: Ethena employees can expense up to $100/month towards bonding activities with each other. Why? Because even though a good chunk of the workforce has gone remote, employees still crave a sense of community. And as many of us in the HR/People space have had to learn the hard way: *More* virtual happy hours and pizza parties isn't going to cut it. So what's a People professional to do? Explore new and experimental ways to provide the sense of community employees want — while keeping things sustainable for both the People team and the company budget, of course. So how did our little experiment shake out? - The response was instantaneous. All across the company, our location-based Slack channels started pinging with employees eager to organize get-togethers: Dinner, rock climbing, trips to the nail salon for a fun mani-pedi. We've even opened the perk up to virtual bonding activities, i.e. a virtual cooking class with a personal chef. - Our employees are leveraging this perk in exactly the ways we hoped they would. So far, employees all across the US and Canada have met up to: Watch a Broadway play, go out for tapas, spend a day canoeing — and more! - The sense of camaraderie and inspiration around this perk has been incredible to watch. People are sharing pictures of their meetups on Slack, getting others excited about arranging get-togethers for their own local groups, and showing us as a company the many, varied ways of building team culture and employee satisfaction. And before you ask: No, we're not overly prescriptive about it. If the money is going towards hanging out with someone (or several someones) at the company, we tell our employees to go ahead and expense it. Although this is just one of many efforts we've continued to make towards fostering a sense of community at work, it's one that has stood out for the flexibility it allows employees to connect in the ways that work best for them without requiring an incredible lift from the People team. What are your favorite ways of building community at work?