Remote and hybrid work have given employees more flexibility, but they’ve also changed what it takes to keep them engaged. When teams aren’t sharing the same space every day, leaders have to work harder to create connection, support growth and make sure employees feel valued rather than isolated or overlooked.
That challenge has pushed many companies to rethink how they use technology, management strategies and workplace design to build stronger employee experiences. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council discuss innovative approaches that organizations can adopt to boost engagement and keep their best people around for the long haul.
Measure Digital Friction
You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Before leaders can improve engagement, they need to get granular on their employees’ digital experience. Where are the points of friction? System latency, redundancy and too much app switching can cause frustration, boredom and attrition. Once you use behavioral data analysis to identify and quantify the problem, you can work to address it. - Scott Voigt, Fullstory
Use AI To Coach Early-Career Talent
Redesign entry-level roles so AI isn’t just a speed hack; it’s a coach. Let AI clear the grunt work, then use the time it frees for real teaching—walking juniors through decisions, reviewing their work and giving targeted stretch projects. In a remote world, that’s what makes beginners feel they’re actually growing, not just clicking prompts faster. - Malar Mangai Kondappan, GM Financial
Build Clear, Skills-Based Career Paths
Employee engagement isn’t driven by compensation alone—it comes from growth, clarity and support. Tech leaders can adopt skills-based workforce strategies, using recognized frameworks to map career pathways, guide learning and development and make progression visible. This can strengthen engagement and long-term retention in hybrid environments. - Brendan Hooft, ESPER
Create An Async-First Documentation Culture
Develop an async-first documentation culture with tools like Loom or Notion. When knowledge lives in searchable artifacts instead of meetings, remote teams gain autonomy and context without time zone constraints. Engineers especially value this—it respects their deep work time while building institutional memory that survives turnover. Transparency scales better than synchronous check-ins. - Anuj Tyagi
Match Projects To The Right Talent
In many organizations, projects suffer because they aren’t matched with the right talent. By leveraging smart AI technologies, we can intelligently pair projects with the individuals best suited for them. This does more than just boost productivity and quality—it ignites passion. It can also drive innovation: Free up creative energy by reducing the friction of poor project placement. - Rachel Tam, Bristol Myers Squibb
Make Time For Informal Team Connection
There are loads of work-related things you can do to increase retention, like covering educational expenses and offering career growth opportunities. However, it’s also important to have informal gatherings—even virtual ones—including regular meetings, team-building activities and so on. Employees who can have fun together are more likely to deliver great results than those provided solely with tasks. - Roman Vrublivskyi, Attekmi
Prioritize Human Engagement Over More Tools
Resist using technology to solve a human problem. We’re programmed to look for tools and apps to increase engagement, but the truth is that people often don’t feel engaged because they’re not being engaged on a personal level. Remote work is a blessing and a curse. Use technology to support the work side of remote work—use personal engagement strategies to support the human side. - Lewis Wynne-Jones, ThinkData Works
Personalize The Employee Experience With AI
AI‑driven personalization can elevate engagement in remote and hybrid teams by tailoring each employee’s day‑to‑day experience. By adjusting workload cues, learning recommendations and collaboration patterns to match individual work styles, organizations create a more supportive, human‑centered environment that enhances connection, well‑being and long‑term retention. - Sunny Banerjee, First Citizens Bank
Use AI To Map Personalized Career Growth
One powerful strategy is using AI-driven “career pathing” platforms that dynamically map employees’ skills, interests and performance data to personalized growth opportunities inside the organization. In remote and hybrid environments, a lack of visibility—not a lack of talent—is often the engagement gap. Intelligent systems can surface stretch projects, mentors and internal mobility paths in real time. - Alex ZAP Chernyak, ZAPTEST
Strengthen Agile Team Ownership With AI
One strategy I’d bet on is AI-enabled Agile methodology—not just for speed, but for ownership. Used well, AI connects work to customer problems, making context, feedback and impact visible across the team. That expands responsibility beyond a “small patch” and reduces the sense that success depends on one manager. When people feel closer to the customer and can act, engagement rises and retention follows. - Nick Puntikov, First Line Software
Design Meetings To Be Inclusive
One key way to improve engagement in hybrid environments is to design meetings as inclusive experiences, not just calendar events. When technology reduces friction and gives everyone, whether remote or in-person, an equal voice, collaboration becomes more human. Engagement grows internally when people feel seen, heard and able to contribute meaningfully. - Oliver Van Camp, Barco
Build A Culture Of Trust And Clarity
One of the most effective strategies is designing work around trust and clarity rather than constant presence. This means fewer meetings and clear ownership of various tasks so people can do their best work on their own time. When employees feel trusted to manage their work and understand where it falls in the bigger picture, engagement goes up and retention follows. - John Pettit, Promevo
Pair New Hires With Mentors
Remote culture differs from office culture and must be intentional from day one. Strong engagement requires not only the right tech tools for collaboration but also meaningful one-to-one relationship building. Effective remote leadership pairs new hires with mentors who guide them through processes and culture, immediately fostering connection, belonging and alignment with the company’s mission. - Dustin Johnson, Seeq
Provide Simulation Training And AI Coaching
From the contact center perspective, simulation training and personalized coaching for employees—especially remote employees—are essential. In-office workers get informal feedback constantly, but remote workers miss all of that. Simulation training and AI-powered coaching tools help close that gap, delivering tailored development recommendations in real time so growth doesn’t depend on physical proximity to a manager. - Jeff Tropeano, COPC, Inc.
Create An AI-Driven Internal Talent Marketplace
Tech leaders can adopt AI-driven internal talent marketplaces. These platforms move beyond static job boards by using AI to map an employee’s skills to gigs, mentorships or new roles within the company. In hybrid environments, it signals that career growth doesn’t require job-hopping, noticeably increasing retention by making internal mobility transparent and accessible. - Ambika Saklani Bhardwaj, Walmart Inc.
Align Work With Employees’ Energy Patterns
To improve retention, tech leaders should map individual energy patterns to identify when employees do their best creative versus administrative work. Protect peak hours for deep work, and compress meetings into collaboration windows. This respects biological rhythms across time zones. Engagement improves when people control their optimal work timing, not just what they’re measured on. - Samuel Olamide, Edgetrace
Equip Managers To Better Support Employees
Strengthen your frontline managers. In hybrid environments, engagement is shaped by the quality and consistency of one-on-ones, feedback and career conversations. Give managers clear playbooks, coaching training and simple engagement signals so they can intervene early. Retention improves when support is predictable and personal. - Vibhor Kapoor, AdRoll
Hold Daily Meetings For Updates And To Surface Needs
Build a true collaboration and management system that gives visibility into outcomes. At the start of each day, we hold a meeting in which each team member provides an update on what they’re working on and what decisions and assistance they need. It’s amazing to see how well the team supports one another and shows no desire to skip the daily meetings. - Richard Ricks, Silver Tree Consulting and Services
Celebrate Commitment And Peak Performance
Engagement relies on deep trust and leaders who can shine a light on the often invisible work of incremental innovators. At TIAG, we celebrate those who proactively take risks or mentor peers, making sure that peak performance and commitment aren’t mistaken for a thankless baseline. By intentionally valuing these steady contributions, we ensure all our teams feel seen, valued and energized. - Neil Lampton, TIAG
Hire For Cognitive And Cultural Diversity
Stop hiring for “culture fit” and start hiring for cognitive diversity across geographies. Remote work isn’t a retention perk—it’s how you access engineers in Texas, historians in Vermont and mathematicians in Mumbai who each see problems differently. Groupthink kills innovation faster than turnover ever will. Diverse perspectives beat Zoom fatigue every time. - Joseph Byrum, Consilience AI
