"Studies show that employees in general want to feel like they are contributing to more than just a company's bottom line. Finding out what is important to your employees, whether through casual conversations or a more formal survey, is a good way of engaging them in the process of creating a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) program. However, involving them in the actual development and execution of the program is far more empowering. Ambassadors can help plan and coordinate community involvement activities and gather feedback about the program from their colleagues and peers."
Source: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/book-blog/pages/how-community-involvement-can-boost-employee-engagement.aspx
"Incentives are a powerful force: it is why we collect airline miles, work for bonuses, collect trophies in video games, etc. They are also a great means of moving people forward from Casual participants to being Regulars and then onto Core. Providing a series of incentives throughout the community journey is a great way to keep people engaged.
I think of them in two forms: Stated and Submarine. A stated incentive is some that you state upfront. For example, badges on StackOverflow, trophies in video games, hackathons, competitions - each of these has a stated prize and criteria for winning it, and people participate as such. They are a great way of giving people things to do and them getting the gratification of accomplishing the reward.
Submarine incentives are different. We use these to detect positive behavior and then we have a human being reach out to them. For example, detecting a first contribution to a platform, detecting pull requests, detecting people increasing in Trust Levels in Discourse. We then use this data to provide a very human way of thanking them, and potentially offering a reward.
Importantly, rewards should initially focus primarily on intrinsic value (e.g. thanks, recognition, respect) and then also include extrinsic (e.g. swag). Don't over-index on swag, at some point it loses value the more people get it.."
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/dz40uw/i_am_jono_bacon_and_i_build_communities_both/
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/sustainingemployeeengagement.aspx Developing and Sustaining Employee Engagement
https://www.timedoctor.com/blog/engaging-remote-employees/ Best Practices to Keep Your Remote Employees Engaged
https://www.reddit.com/r/Marketing_Design/comments/fuqoaa/5_ideas_for_remote_employee_engagement/ Comments have extra ideas
https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/work-flexibility/2020/ways-you-can-make-remote-workers-feel-included 4 Ways You Can Give Your Remote Workforce a Sense of Togetherness