Are you operating or managing a remote project or business? Perhaps you want to boost your employees’ morale to better their performance and productivity. Or maybe you want to make them feel valued, appreciated and develop a sense of belonging.
If so, it’s vital to keep your remote employees engaged at all times.
Higher employee engagement enhances satisfaction, reduces turnover, and creates a happier workforce. Also, this improves employee loyalty and customer care services while reducing absenteeism at work. However, to enjoy all these benefits, you’ll need to find ways to keep your remote staff engaged.
But how do you improve remote employees’ engagement? Whether you’re planning a transition to a remote business or you manage one, here are the best ways to engage your remote workers.
Use Effective Communication Strategies
Communication is an ideal tool for creating and maintaining engagement with all employees, not just remote ones. With ineffective communication, keeping in touch with off-site employees can be a real challenge. However, the right technology creates seamless communication between the office and employees.
You can schedule more calls and video meetings for continuous engagement. While digital chats are good for engaging employees, video calls make them feel more present in the office environment. Also, video meetings make virtual employees feel they are a part of a team and change how in-house workers view them.
Whether on the phone or via video, calls are ideal for catching up and reviewing projects with remote workers. Also, they’re ideal for getting feedback in real time. It’s thus important to make supporting virtual communications through technology a policy initiative.
For instance, you can use Microsoft Office 365 to engage remote employees. This tool allows you to hold conference meetings and calls with your employees regardless of time or distance. Also, it offers cloud storage to allow your workers to access files from anywhere.
Foster Social Interaction
On top of constant and effective communication, it’s vital to ensure your remote workers interact with other employees. This way, they’ll learn and share ideas to develop personally and professionally. Interactions also reduce boredom and loneliness among your off-site workers.
One way to promote employees’ interactions is by making remote onboarding activities memorable. Let your new hires gather at a centralized location for training and orientation purposes. If possible, assign mentors to new hires to ensure they’ve got people to ask questions and look up to.
Organize company outings and retreats to strengthen employees’ connections. Your new employees will get a chance to meet and interact with co-workers in real life. Here, positive relationships extending beyond departments are likely to develop.
Also, you can foster employee interaction through the creation of communal workspaces. These spaces give off-site employees a chance to meet, connect, collaborate, and develop a sense of belonging. Even better, they help them get away from home distractions to improve productivity and performance.
Additionally, you can set up extracurricular activities for out-of-office employees. Some of the activities that can help to engage remote workers include;
• fantasy football league
• online gaming tournament
• an internal social network for people to share experiences
Such activities promote social connections among your employees regardless of their location.
Recognize and Appreciate Employees
Recognition and appreciation are the top drivers for employee engagement. They make employees feel happy, connected, and valued. Also, they’re direct ways of showing concern and care for workers.
Use get-to-know-you surveys to collect employees’ data and tastes like T-shirt size and favorite candy. This way, you’ll be able to personalize gifts when appreciating them for their excellent work. Individualized gifts may take little effort but impact the workers’ performance.
Also, set aside some money for spiffing up the remote workplace to enhance employees’ comfort. This improves the effectiveness and productivity of the remote team.
Treating remote workers like VIPs in the workplace can also be a sign of recognition. It’s a big deal for remote staff to go to the office, so showing you feel the same can be an assured win. If possible, go out with them when they trek to the head office to show appreciation.
More so, you can create time to chat with your remote workers to show you care. You can chat with them about:
• their workload to help them avoid burnout
• stress, mental and emotional health
• their families and hobbies
While such chats might feel insignificant, they go a long way to make an employee feel cared for and valued.
Keep Your Employees in the Know
It’s crucial to update employees working remotely about the company’s projects, goals, and news. This makes employees develop a sense of belonging and realize they’re company assets. It motivates them to achieve their goals and act as positive role models.
Most companies circulate information through chats across desks, leaving out remote workers. Use employee-friendly systems to allow every employee access to company news and progress updates. Make sure remote workers check in regularly to touch base and keep their fingers on the firm’s pulse.
Give Employees the Tools to Succeed
Giving remote employees appropriate tools of work makes them feel confident and empowers them to perform. Make sure your employees have the necessary training and remote work toolkit to get the job done. The remote workplace should have all the resources and amenities needed.
If a remote site doesn’t offer a conducive working environment, offer stipends for communal workspaces.
Also, cover their costs if they are attending business conferences or career development courses.
These Are Ways for Engaging Your Remote Employees
In the current corporate world, working remotely is becoming inevitable. However, to guarantee remote working success, it’s necessary to come up with the right strategies. One of the key aspects is increasing engagement and managing remote teams.
Are you looking for a remote work solution? At Remote Work Made Simple, we are here to help. We guide businesses in implementing solutions that get remote workers fully productive.
Contact us today to learn more about our services.
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