Do this often enough and even the most hardened remote employee will start coming in when meetings are scheduled.

An embellishment: Exclude off-site employees from impromptu whiteboard problem-solving sessions. It's easy. It's not on their calendar, by the time you've set up a the spontaneity is lost, and anyway, no software solution is as quick and natural as a real whiteboard.

You can always tell the off-site employees what the answer is later on.

8. Remember that remote employees are always available

Remote employees are used to being at work when they're at home, and your only contact with them is by telephone. And everyone knows two of the benefits of telecommuting are working in a bathrobe and on a flexible schedule.