Five Tips to Boost Employee Engagement in Virtual Meetings

Four gray boxes glared at me from the computer screen, names emblazoned across each one. The silence was becoming increasingly more awkward as the seconds ticked by. I tried everything I could to get someone—anyone—to speak up. As the chair of the meeting, I had no idea how to wrench this conversation from the sludge of disengagement it was lodged in.

I’m not the only one who has experienced the dreaded disengagement that has crept into the virtual workplace. As of August 2025, more than 30 million people in the United States work remotely. Though most employees prefer remote or hybrid work, this increasingly popular trend has created a new problem for organizations.

In the past, lively brainstorming sessions, team meetings, and casual break room chats at the office created an environment of camaraderie amongst colleagues. With remote teams, virtual meetings are the closest thing to connection we can manufacture. And after five years of incessant Zoom meetings, the remote workforce is manifesting serious video fatigue and a subsequent dip in employee performance.

So, especially as a new leader, how can you effectively boost engagement in a setting where team members would rather not sit in front of their laptop camera? More specifically, what do you do when your comments and questions are met with blank stares and silence?

In this article, we’ll discuss five ways leaders can stimulate more interaction and breathe a little more life into their team calls.

Make the objective clear.

To increase engagement, make sure your team understands what they’re engaging in. Sometimes, especially after a long-winded introduction and update, it’s easy to lose track of the meeting’s intentions. What exactly is the end goal?

At the start of the meeting, state the main objective. Keep it short and crystal clear; avoid including information that can be addressed later in the agenda.

A definite goal will provide guiding rails to keep everyone, including yourself, on track. To give your team the best advantage, send a Slack or email reminder before the meeting to lay out the objective so everyone has time to organize their ideas.

Embrace silence

Now, this may sound counterintuitive since this article is about how to avoid disengagement, but hear me out.

Silence is uncomfortable because it seems to communicate a lack of interest in the subject being discussed. To avoid this perception, the leader often overcompensates by filling the void with more of their own words. This may solve the silence factor, but excessive talking kills engagement. And it’s disengagement—not silence—that is enemy #1.

When you speak, your team’s energy is focused on listening to what you have to say, rather than formulating their response. If you’re constantly adding new information, they are constantly having to recalibrate to provide relevant feedback. Eventually, they may give up trying to think of ways to contribute because they aren’t given a clear opening to speak.

Allowing a few moments of reflection can give everyone an opportunity to gather their thoughts before responding. So, after you pitch a question or idea, let the question marinate and allow a few seconds for your team to think. This is especially helpful for quieter teammates who need more time to process the information.

If the provided reflection time starts to get awkwardly long, jump to the next tip, which is…

Invite specific team members to share their thoughts.

This one might be a little tricky, because you don’t want to put someone on the spot if they’re unprepared to answer. However, sometimes quiet or junior members lack confidence and just need a little nudge to share their expertise.

When addressing specific team members, ask about their experience or connections with the topic being discussed. For example, you can say: “Ben, you connected with a couple of suppliers at the networking event last week. What was your impression? Do you think they would be a good option?” You aren’t asking Ben for a declarative strategic plan for the next quarter. He’s just giving feedback based on his experience. This provides a low-risk way for members to add to the conversation.

As your team becomes more experienced, they are more likely to start contributing without needing too much of an invitation. One of my newer team members, a young recruit, started out shy and insecure. Asking for his input was like pulling teeth. However, I genuinely valued his feedback and frequently told him so during and after our meetings. After a while, he started to volunteer more information, and as his knowledge increased, so did his engagement.

Reward interaction

One reason team members are hesitant to speak up is that they don’t want to look incompetent for proposing an imperfect idea. That’s why it is vital to establish a healthy company culture where the leaders value team engagement over perfect performance.

When someone shares a thought, the simple act of thanking them and acknowledging the thought process that led them to that conclusion can do wonders in encouraging others to contribute. Oftentimes, an idea that misses the mark can become a stepping stone to finding the best solutions. When you positively acknowledge a comment, you show that you value their participation and willingness to present ideas that will move the meeting forward.

Maintain a welcoming demeanor and body language.

If you find yourself in a situation where that energy-sucking silence is creeping into the virtual space, it’s natural to feel agitated. You might be tempted to spit out, “Come on, guys. Doesn’t anyone have something to say?” But showing up in a way that is intimidating, anxious, or frustrated is the perfect way to kill motivation and ruin your chances of honest or respectful feedback.

Maintain a calm demeanor and put yourself in your team’s position. They may feel fatigued, overwhelmed, or completely disconnected from the meeting's objective. They might be trying to say as little as possible so the meeting ends faster. Or they may just be too shy to speak up.

Whatever the case may be, you can draw out more interaction by staying relaxed, smiling, and using an inviting tone to welcome feedback. It may even help to throw out a humorous poll during the meeting to gauge everyone’s engagement. You can pose a question like, “On a scale of 1-10, how ready are you to shut down your computer right now and book the next flight to Hawaii?” This may generate a few smiles and hopefully some honest answers. At its core, empathetically acknowledging disengagement will communicate to your team that you care about their well-being.

Conclusion

Ultimately, boosting team engagement starts by being team-centric. Instead of feeling like it’s a “me vs. them” struggle to produce a lively meeting, use your position of leadership to give your team the advantages they need to feel more included, and create a space for them to feel comfortable with whatever energy they're able to show up with for that day. The more committed you are to staying engaged with them, the more likely they’ll strive to stay engaged with you.

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