Remote and hybrid working is now a permanent part of how Australian organisations operate. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 36% of employed Australians usually worked from home as of August 2025. That's more than 5 million people. And with 97% of Australian organisations now offering some form of flexible working, the question facing business leaders is no longer whether to support remote work. It's how to do it well.
Remote employees are more engaged, more likely to stay with their employer, and report a better work-life balance when they have the flexibility to work from home. But they can also find collaboration, communication and motivation difficult. Those working from decentralised locations face similar challenges to any team that's geographically spread across sites and time zones.
These seven strategies cover the essentials for building a better-supported and better-connected remote workforce. Each one is practical, achievable, and grounded in what actually works for Australian teams.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 36% of employed Australians usually worked from home in August 2025, down from a pandemic peak of 40% in 2021. Roy Morgan data (July 2024-June 2025) shows that 70% of Sydney CBD workers work from home at least some of the time. Source: ABS Working Arrangements; Roy Morgan Research.
1. What Communication and Collaboration Tools Do Remote Teams Actually Need?
Remote teams need a centralised digital workplace where people can communicate, collaborate on projects, and access information without switching between multiple tools. An intranet with built-in collaboration workspaces is the foundation for a connected remote workforce.
A DocuSign survey of 2,008 office workers around Australia found that just 32% feel more connected to their colleagues when working from home compared to the office. That's a significant gap, and it points to one root cause: most teams haven't got the right digital infrastructure in place.
The right intranet solution replicates real-world collaboration environments for remote workers through project and topic-based workspaces. When everyone can see the same information, contribute to shared spaces, and find what they need quickly, distance stops being a barrier.
In a hybrid workforce era, being able to easily collaborate and communicate benefits everyone. Whether staff are fully remote, in the office full-time, or splitting their week between both, the underlying digital infrastructure needs to work equally well for all of them. Patchy communication tools create an us-versus-them dynamic between office and remote workers. A single platform prevents that.
What to look for in a remote communication platform
- A single sign-on so staff don't manage multiple logins across tools.
- Project and topic-based workspaces so teams can collaborate in context.
- Mobile access that works without a corporate email address, for frontline and field staff.
- Microsoft 365 or SharePoint integration to connect with existing tools.
- Personalised dashboards showing each person only what's relevant to their role.
2. How Should You Measure Performance for Remote Employees?
Performance metrics for remote teams should focus on outputs and outcomes, not hours logged. Clear, role-specific KPIs set expectations and help staff understand exactly what success looks like when they're working independently.
Key Performance Indicators are highly effective for measuring individual and organisational performance, but KPIs designed for office work don't always translate to remote settings. A remote employee working from home can't be observed in the same way. Metrics based on presence or activity, rather than output, often miss the point entirely.
Refreshed metrics better reflect how successfully people are working at home and set clear expectations so employees know what's expected of them. KPIs should be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable and time-based. Beyond role-specific outputs, it's worth setting some broader KPIs around communication responsiveness and self-directed work habits, especially for staff new to working remotely.
Practical examples of remote performance metrics:
Example 1: Productivity-Based Metrics
These metrics track the overall output of remote employees based on their role and responsibilities.
- Output per hour (Oph): Measures the amount of work completed per hour worked. For example, this could apply to tasks such as writing blog posts, completing coding sprints, or processing customer support tickets.
Example Metric: "Complete 5 support tickets per hour, with an 85% satisfaction rating from customers."
Why it’s effective: It focuses on measurable outcomes rather than input-based hours worked.
- Task completion rate: Tracks how many tasks are completed on time versus how many are overdue.
Example Metric: "Complete 95% of assigned tasks within the set deadlines."
Why it’s effective: Keeps teams on track without micromanaging.
Example 2: Quality-Based Metrics
These metrics focus on the quality of the work being produced and the value delivered.
- Customer satisfaction score (CSAT): Measures how satisfied customers are with the product or service provided, often through post-interaction surveys or feedback.
Example Metric: "Achieve a minimum CSAT score of 4.5 out of 5 on customer service interactions."
Why it’s effective: Keeps remote workers focused on delivering high-quality work that meets or exceeds customer expectations.
- Error rate: Measures the number of mistakes or revisions that need to be made to a task or project after submission.
Example Metric: "Keep the error rate under 2% for all project deliverables."
Why it’s effective: Encourages attention to detail while promoting accountability.
Example 3: Collaboration and Communication Metrics
Since remote work relies heavily on digital communication, these metrics evaluate how well employees are collaborating and communicating across teams.
- Response time to emails/chats: Tracks the average time taken to respond to internal communication.
Example Metric: "Respond to 95% of internal emails and messages within 24 hours."
Why it’s effective: Sets expectations for communication speed, ensuring teams stay responsive and connected.
- Cross-department collaboration: Measures the number of collaborations with other teams, such as attending interdepartmental meetings or contributing to cross-functional projects.
Example Metric: "Participate in at least two cross-departmental meetings or collaborative projects per quarter."
Why it’s effective: Fosters team synergy and ensures alignment across functions, even in a remote environment.
Example 4: Engagement Metrics
Measuring employee engagement is critical, especially when teams are remote and may feel disconnected from the company culture.
- Employee engagement score: This score is typically measured via surveys assessing factors like motivation, satisfaction, and sense of belonging.
Example Metric: "Achieve an employee engagement score of at least 80% on quarterly surveys."
Why it’s effective: Reflects how well employees are connecting with their work and the company, which can directly impact retention and productivity.
- Participation in company-wide events: Tracks how often employees engage in virtual events like team-building activities, wellness programs, or webinars.
Example Metric: "Encourage 80% of the team to attend at least one company-wide virtual event per month."
Why it’s effective: Boosts morale and fosters a sense of community among remote workers.
Example 5: Time Management and Availability Metrics
Remote work can blur the lines between personal time and work time. These metrics can help ensure employees are managing their time effectively.
- Time to complete high-priority tasks: Measures how quickly remote employees are able to tackle urgent or high-priority tasks.
Example Metric: "Complete high-priority tasks within 4 hours of being assigned, with a 95% success rate."
Why it’s effective: Tracks responsiveness to urgent tasks, ensuring remote employees remain productive when deadlines are tight.
- Availability during core hours: Ensures that remote employees are available and present during agreed-upon core working hours for team collaboration.
Example Metric: "Be available for 90% of scheduled meetings or collaboration sessions during core hours (e.g., 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM)." Why it’s effective: Encourages real-time collaboration and ensures teams don’t miss important discussions despite working remotely.
Example 6: Learning and Development Metrics
Remote workers may miss out on informal learning opportunities, so tracking their growth is important.
- Training completion rate: Tracks the completion rate of assigned training modules or courses.
Example Metric: "Complete 100% of mandatory product knowledge and compliance training within 30 days of being hired."
Why it’s effective: Ensures employees stay up-to-date with necessary skills, especially when working remotely and relying on digital learning tools.
- Skill improvement tracking: Measures the improvement in specific skills over time, such as communication, technical abilities, or sales techniques.
Example Metric: "Achieve a 10% improvement in sales conversion rate over 3 months through ongoing product training and coaching."
Why it’s effective: Keeps remote employees focused on growing professionally and staying competitive in their roles.
3. Why Does Flexibility Matter So Much for Remote Workers?
Flexibility is one of the strongest drivers of remote employee retention in Australia. Organisations that build genuine flexibility into their remote work policies are more competitive when attracting and retaining talent.
Remote work has delivered real benefits for employees. In a Salesforce survey, 66% of remote workers said it had brought them closer to their families. Employees report better work-life balance, but that balance often requires a more open-minded approach to when and where people work.
If the job's getting done and done well, it may not matter whether an employee splits their workday into morning and evening sessions. McCrindle research shows that 76% of Australians are willing to stay longer with an employer that offers flexible working conditions, and over half are willing to take a pay cut for a more flexible schedule. Organisations that resist this shift risk losing good people to competitors who've adapted.
76% of Australians are willing to stay longer with an employer that offers flexible working conditions. Source: McCrindle Research.
Actionable tip: Offer options like flexible start and finish times and periodically review policies to ensure they reflect both employee preferences and business objectives. The return-to-office push is real in 2026, with some large Australian employers mandating in-office days. The organisations that navigate this best are those that make flexibility a genuine two-way conversation, not a compliance exercise.
There’s been somewhat of a shift occurring in the employment landscape where 76% of Australians are willing to stay longer with their employer if they offer flexible working conditions, and over half are willing to take a pay cut for an more flexible working schedule. Organisations that fail to keep up with this shift could really find themselves on the back foot when it comes to hiring, so keep this in mind when developing support for remote workers.
Actionable tip: Offer options such as flexible start and finish times, and periodically review policies to ensure they align with employee preferences and business objectives.
4. How Do You Build Trust with Remote Teams?
Trust is the foundation of effective remote work. Leaders who focus on clear expectations, shared workspaces, and regular check-ins get better results than those who rely on monitoring software.
An effective digital workplace requires a healthy sense of trust, from leadership down and across remote teams. The instinct to put employee monitoring software and keyboard tracking in place is understandable, but it often creates the opposite of what you want. Staff who feel surveilled disengage. Staff who feel trusted perform.
Focus instead on developing those performance metrics from Strategy 2 and building genuine engagement through the digital workplace. Gallup research consistently links high employee trust to significant gains in productivity and loyalty.
Five ways to build trust in remote teams
- Set clear daily objectives on each employee's personalised dashboard, both individual and organisational.
- Build virtual workspaces around projects and topics so collaboration happens in a shared, visible setting.
- Keep leadership visible through video messages and comments on the intranet, celebrating wins and maintaining motivation.
- Mark special days and team milestones on the intranet noticeboard or via video catch-ups.
- Check in regularly with teams, weekly or fortnightly, adjusting the frequency based on how experienced your team is with remote work.
Elcom built a new intranet for leading intellectual property firm FB Rice that compiles useful team information such as staff codes, photos, and availability status. Features like this, combined with the ability to share and celebrate organisational wins, have helped connect staff working across different offices and from home.
"I'm really pleased with our intranet and am happy we implemented the Elcom solution. The consensus is the intranet is a real positive for people, helping to support our practices and the firm." — Judy Ryan, Project Manager, FB Rice.
I’m really pleased with our intranet and am happy we implemented the Elcom solution. The consensus is the intranet is a real positive for people, helping to support our practices and the firm. It has given us what we needed, and I can’t see how you can improve on that.
Judy Ryan
Project Manager
FB Rice
Read the case study
5. How Do You Hire Effectively for a Remote or Hybrid Team?
Hiring for a remote or hybrid team opens your talent pool well beyond local geography. But it requires the right onboarding and communication infrastructure to make sure new hires actually get up to speed quickly and feel connected from day one.
One of the genuine advantages of a remote or hybrid workforce is that your recruitment pool expands dramatically. There's a world of expertise and skillsets available, and plenty of organisations are building more diverse talent pools because of it. That's a real competitive advantage, but only if you can onboard and integrate remote hires well.
Three things matter most when hiring for remote roles. First, the right intranet communication software so new hires have somewhere to land and connect from their first day. Second, virtual hiring capabilities so the process is smooth and professional regardless of where the candidate is based. Third, a Learning Management System that can train new hires and get them up to speed efficiently, without relying on in-person shadowing.
GJK Facility Services, which manages more than 2,500 field-based staff across Australia, used Elcom to build their first intranet. Staff now have a single source of truth and can self-serve on mobile without needing a corporate email address, which is critical for a frontline workforce spread across multiple locations.
6. How Can You Support Remote Employee Training and Development?
Remote employees can feel like their career development is on hold. A structured digital learning strategy, built into your intranet, gives them a clear path for growth whether they're onboarding, upskilling, or working toward a promotion.
An effective LMS benefits your whole team, not just new hires. An intranet with a built-in LMS provides a training hub for everything from onboarding to ongoing professional development. Remote employees can work through courses at their own pace, find related resources easily, and access relevant staff details for questions about what they're learning.
Micro-learning has become a key approach in 2026. Short, focused learning modules that employees can complete in 10-15 minutes are far more accessible for busy remote workers than hour-long training sessions. This works particularly well when learning content is embedded directly into the intranet, so staff encounter it in the same place they access their daily work information.
Consider supplementing digital modules with access to webinars, online courses, and peer mentoring. The Archdiocese of Sydney used Elcom's platform to significantly reduce internal email volume by centralising communications and resources, which freed up time and mental bandwidth that teams could redirect toward actual work and learning.
Actionable tip: Implement micro-learning modules for key skills and compliance training, and supplement with webinars and mentoring programs. Track completion rates via your intranet analytics to identify where people are disengaging.
7. What Feedback Channels Work Best for Remote Teams?
Regular feedback from remote employees is essential because small problems can grow into big ones quickly when people are working in isolation. Digital feedback tools built into your intranet make it easy to collect honest input and act on it.
Gathering regular feedback from employees is critical when they're working from home or from decentralised locations. Even small frustrations can quietly compound if they go unaddressed. The physical proximity that makes it easy to spot someone struggling in an office setting just isn't there for remote teams.
Ask your remote workers directly what could make their workday easier and more productive. Some practical examples worth exploring: Would mid-morning meetings suit parents who need to do school drop-offs? Would some teams prefer to block out several hours of deep work time each day? Could certain HR processes be automated through online forms and workflow tools to save time and reduce errors?
Intranet surveys and a digital suggestion box are simple, low-effort ways to surface this kind of insight. When staff see their feedback actually changing something, engagement goes up. When they feel like their input disappears into a void, it drops.
Northcott, a large not-for-profit operating across 160 locations in NSW and ACT, used Elcom to make critical information findable fast across a dispersed workforce. Feedback channels built into their intranet helped the organisation respond to staff needs during a period of significant growth.
Putting It Together: What Does a Well-Supported Remote Workforce Look Like?
A well-supported remote workforce has one thing in common: a single digital platform that connects communication, collaboration, training, feedback, and information access. That's what removes the friction that makes remote work hard and replaces it with the kind of consistency that helps people do their best work regardless of where they are.
The seven strategies above work best when they're part of a coherent digital workplace, not a collection of separate tools. If you're looking to improve or build your intranet communication software, Elcom offers a proven Australian platform and a dedicated team to help you get there. Schedule a free consultation today to see what's possible for your organisation.
For further tips on supporting your remote workers, watch our webinar on this subject. It covers the key areas you can't afford to overlook when setting up your digital workplace.