The pandemic brought about various changes, including in the workplace. As businesses shift to a remote work setting, keeping the workforce productive and motivated becomes one of the challenges.
Remote work is becoming a widespread practice in various industries. Amid the pandemic, companies are allowing employees to work from home. Although the remote work setting has its share of benefits, such as saving time and expenses on traveling and promoting better work-life balance, it still has its share of drawbacks.
A lack of employee engagement can lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness and a sense of being unappreciated and lacking passion for the company’s visions or goals. Plus employees who are not in the same office as their coworkers are often less engaged and connected, negatively influencing their overall productivity and performance.
Therefore, managing a business and keeping your remote workers engaged is crucial. Thankfully there are various ways to improve employee engagement, such as holding company virtual events, promoting healthy practices and maintaining clear lines of communication.
A Close Look At Employee Engagement
It’s crucial to make an effort to engage remote employees. Doing so will ensure your team stays efficient and productive as they would be in the office. However, defining and measuring what employee engagement entails can be difficult.
The abundance of distractions at home, such as chores, social media, and family members, to name a few, can make a remote working setup difficult for many people.
Directly asking your employees about their work and passion levels is one of the best ways to determine their level of engagement. You should also monitor their progress on tasks and confront any concerns you might have about their overall performance.
5 Ways To Maintain Employee Engagement In A Remote Working Setup
If you want to maintain a good level of engagement from employees in a remote working setup, here are several ways to keep your company culture and ensure everyone feels like part of the team.
1. Promote Wellness And Healthy Practices
The health of your workforce should always be the priority. Once your employees end up sick, they cannot perform at their best. A good approach is to develop an incentive for your team to start an exercise routine or any healthy habit. You can even implement a wellness program such as daily walks or yoga if you’re up for it.
Implementing these activities can support the overall health of your workforce while also bringing them close together. It also demonstrates your concern for their overall health. It would be preferable to look for other ways to make healthy practices convenient to stick with, such as giving them a long lunch break to work out.
2. Host Virtual Meetings And Casual Hangouts
Most remote teams use email, video calls, instant messaging, and web conferencing tools. A voice or video conference call may greatly aid in fostering group cooperation. These days, you may also combine several trustworthy collaboration technologies to guarantee flawless conversations.
To keep employees engaged, arrange virtual get-togethers or meetings for purposes other than business. Even if the chats at work are often serious, you don’t want most interactions to be tense or feared. To keep your workforce interested in working as a team, it’s important to schedule some time for informal online get-togethers.
Regular virtual team-building exercises or a relaxed conversation about everything are acceptable. These activities will assist your staff in de-stressing from the stress brought on by their regular job duties.
3. Make an effort to give your staff members a sense of voice and value.
Even in a remote work environment, employees should feel valued. Since you can’t visit them every day to express gratitude or host a gathering for a work anniversary, you should try to give your staff members as many occasions to feel appreciated as you can.
You may give a virtual gift card to an employee on their birthday. Arrange a team called to honor an employee’s efforts when they do well. Remember that even little gestures may demonstrate your concern for your staff.
You should also be accessible to your staff, even electronically. The last thing you want is for your workers to feel like they can’t contact you, ask questions, or voice issues since miscommunication is likely to occur in a remote location. If an employee confides in you, you should know that you’re accessible for one-on-one meetings and that you’ll listen carefully before acting.
Never fail to follow up with your staff after acting on their suggestions, so they know your appreciation for their input. Your staff will be happier and more engaged at work if they feel appreciated. Don’t be shy about offering sage advice as well.
4. Provide your staff with the tools they need to succeed.
Ensuring that your staff members feel empowered to execute to the best of their abilities in their responsibilities, even when they’re working remotely, is the key to increasing engagement and performance. Ensure that your staff has the right tools at their disposal so they can do their jobs.
Additionally, suppose an employee doesn’t have a home office. In that case, you must make sure they get co-working space stipends and that you pay for their travel to conferences or courses for professional development.
5. Keep The Lines Of Communication Open
Remote employees commonly mistakenly feel their colleagues are inaccessible, especially those who work irregular hours or in different time zones.
Even if it’s unreasonable to expect everyone to be accessible around-the-clock, remote employees will feel more connected if they know they can interact with their peers and keep in contact online.
Prioritize taking into account each employee’s time zone when scheduling meetings or sending communications. Workers’ work schedules are recognized and respected, fostering friendship and trust among them.
Final Reflections
Your workers may have various difficulties while working remotely for your firms, such as distractions that lower engagement and overall productivity. These helpful hints will act as your instructions if you want to maintain your remote workers motivated. Maintaining staff involvement will assure productivity and efficiency, particularly in distant environments.
Did you also know that staff members like to present during virtual meetings? Imagine that a large portion of your company is meetings. You’ll be happy to know that a Statista poll indicated that seven out of ten employees found it simpler to present during online meetings, making remote working more productive.
