Late last week, around 50 PepsiCo employees gathered for a Conn3ct networking event in Plano, TX. Sure, conversation was flowing, but people also were consulting a giant foam board and furiously typing away on their phones. What were they doing? Helping the Conn3ct SxSW attendees plan their schedules – voting for the most interesting panels for us to attend and report on.

So, you asked for it and you got it – Tips for Remote Employees it is. PepsiCo execs – take note – your young professionals want to know more about making showering optional!

The panel was really more of a discussion which included most of the attendees (the majority of whom were remote employees). What were the most important tips? The general consensus was that overcommunication was key to successfully remoting to work – show your work, make sure your boss knows exactly what you are working on, and make sure that you have regular check-ins with the rest of your team.

Many people felt like sometimes they were forgotten or left out of the loop because they worked remotely – volunteering for new projects, being made like they are part of a larger team through recognition, and continuing to over-communicate were agreed on as possible remedies for this situation. One surprising consensus was that it was far better to have an entire team be remote as opposed to just one member – this way no one was ever excluded from conference calls or team meetings.

Tools such as video-conferencing, IM and Basecamp were mentioned as the top tools to make working with a remote team much more efficient.

As one might expect, many of SxSWi attendees are involved in the technology sector – the remote employees in the room were mostly programmers and coders. What do you guys think – could working remotely be instituted in a company such as PepsiCo where so many people are not in IT?