Times are changing and so are the complex mechanics of our social interactions and enterprise. The upsides of remote work, which is the new normal, are just as many as the drawbacks. Among the disadvantages of isolation are lower employee engagement and morale.
When you’re promoting remote engagement, you’re encouraging your employees to get effectively involved with work even though they’re miles apart. As one report explained, “…engaged employees are the key to success in this tough time.”
So, while your workers are not within physical reach, you can still nudge them to implement collaborative strategies, complete daily objectives, accomplish their professional goals, and perform beyond expectations.
What Is Remote Engagement?
Remote employee engagement covers everything you do to retain the interest of your work-from-home team. The physical distance can be a challenge for employee engagement. Even so, keeping your workers involved is a practical objective that business managers must meet. According to a Brunswick report, employee engagement can keep morale high within the workplace, discourage loss of focus, boost collaboration, and increase productivity.
So, how do you achieve this? Here are some tips to boost employee engagement in remote teams:
Keep the Communication Lines Open
The biggest effect COVID-19 has on businesses around the globe is the breach in employer-employee communications. To salvage the situation and engage people who are working remotely, requires upending this dynamic. You need to keep the communication lines open.
Create an office hotline that your employees can easily reach for clarification on tasks. Call them for feedback on projects and demonstrate that you are also up and running. This is hitting two birds with one stone—you earn your workers’ respect from leading by example and stay connected with them.
Give Defined Goals
Keep your employees working by giving them defined goals to meet. You may think that employees without direct supervision are not diligent in their service. However, this is simply not true. Research suggests that remote employees effectively complete tasks assigned to them, more so than workplace employees.
The key to taking advantage of this fact is to assign well-defined tasks, with reachable goals, to your employees. This motivates them, as Kurukshetra University study found, and preserves their productive edge.
Host Virtual Meetings Regularly
Acknowledged leadership expert John C. Maxwell said, “Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.” This is as true for individuals as it is for teams. Hosting virtual meetings regularly will have the same effect and help your employees cultivate a workplace culture even though they are at home.
Organize virtual meetings with Zoom, GoToMeeting, and other helpful tools. Video conferencing is especially effective in this regard.
Encourage Collaboration
Working remotely tends to reduce any prospect of collaboration and teamwork among employees. This is a trend you must keep at bay. Encourage collaboration among your workers as often as you can. Also, make a habit of shuffling employees across different teams. This will get them more familiar with each other’s capabilities and improve amiability in the long run.
To achieve this, assign team tasks to your employees. Have them work in organic units for a specific time and task and then reshuffle. This will enhance their coordination and inspire easy adoption of modern workplace concepts like shared leadership.
Let the Fun in with Team Games and Get-to-Know Sessions
Following the suggestion to encourage collaboration, you can bolster your employees’ engagement harmony and coordination by introducing stress-relieving games. Some of these games can be played by teams. Moreover, they are fun and would give your employees that bit of time to relax their brains and bump virtual fists with their colleagues.
Aside from online games, you can boost employee engagement by conducting virtual interviews from time to time. The goal here is to know your people. A good place to start would be to ask them about their interests, career goals, and other details. Virtual webinars, trainings, study modules, and group meets are other ways to foster remote engagement.
Show Care
Emotional intelligence is an area that many employers overlook. In an article published on Forbes, leadership coach Heidi Lynne Kurter mentions that compliments rendered at just the right time are effective in promoting employee engagement. They have the same effect as frequent task allocation. So, appreciate your workers and show that you care.
Encourage your employees to be mindful of their health. Introduce them to corporate wellness programs, workouts, and the like. Moreover, demonstrate a healthy interest in their lives and you will win their gratitude and commitment.
Recognize and Reward Achievements
Don’t be stingy with awards. Go beyond compliments and the occasional ‘Good job!’ and give your employees prizes every so often. You don’t have to go big—just make it a monthly thing. These prizes could become incentives for increased engagement and productivity in the long run.
Also, award teamwork, not only individual service. This can fortify your employees against a laissez-faire attitude to work and team projects.
Leverage Technology
Use the most appropriate tools to manage your employees. Remote engagement would be an impossible task without programs for task allocation, project management, collaboration, etc.
Tailor your tools to the needs of your remote workforce. If your employees favor Apple, use a time tracker for Mac. If they prefer Microsoft, use one for Windows. Even better, find cross-platform tools that will cater to everyone.
Conclusion
Many business managers are looking for answers on how to engage remote employees during the coronavirus pandemic. They are apprehensive over the possibility of their workers slacking off and putting their companies at risk. As long as you follow the tips highlighted in this article, you will be able to boost your remote workers’ morale and productivity.