In this modern remote work environment, workers can feel much more distant from their firms. Companies can deepen employee involvement in several ways, from requesting comprehensive reviews and conducting check-in meetings to emphasizing smart goal-setting and organizing online social events.
Did you hear the saying that “absence makes the heart grow?” While this can extend to personal relationships, it may not generally apply to workers learning to manage a remote work environment. One mid-June Gallup poll found lower employee engagement among surveyed workers compared to just one month earlier.
I have interviewed and worked with several entrepreneurs, company executives, and other freelancers as a long-time freelance journalist, who have expressed their opinions on working remotely. Through our own experiences and all these discussions, I have learned that some methods, like the five techniques mentioned below, are more successful at increasing employee engagement.
1. Seek Feedback from Employees
One of the most frequent feedback from remote employees is that they would like their thoughts and suggestions to be asked by their bosses or managers. The participation of remote employees in business management and project planning makes them feel like they are part of something greater and help them achieve company goals.
Asking for their input via a structured process, such as an online survey, is one way to start including workers. Not only is this an effective way to gather feedback around the company, but it also provides workers with a necessary forum to express their thoughts.
You can create short, quick surveys that include various question forms, such as multiple-choice, open-ended, or a combination, using a survey creator tool. This customization enables you to prioritize particular tasks for the survey and learn what else you can do to enhance your work environment.
2. Consistent Check-in Meetings Schedule
Keep daily meetings at check-in to provide workers with an outlet. These sessions also provide a forum for distributing the latest data that workers need to complete their project work.
Daily huddles require only a couple of minutes to last. For remote staff, these meet-ups provide direction, structure, and guidance.
These meet-ups, though, are also an excellent chance to let workers express themselves. You may use these check-ins to allow workers to open up and express their thoughts, depending on the size of the team and the current situation, on topics ranging from the complexities of working remotely (including juggling home and work lives) to handling the constant uncertainty and anxiety of the last few months. The check-ins create a platform to explore these issues and address mental health. Schedule various forms of meetings for check-in. To become more involved, often all an employee wants is some attention and a listening ear. You can do one-on-one, small team meetings, such as broad “all-hands” meetings with the entire company.
When it comes to sharing, interacting close, and opening up, each employee can have a different comfort level; meetings of different sizes may accommodate those preferences.
These discussions can help convey to your workers that you care about them and their contributions to the company. Higher levels of satisfaction are registered by employees who feel cared about by their employers, with 60 percent choosing to remain with their organizations for three or more years and 95 percent feeling engaged in their organization. More than 9 out of 10 employees who feel cared for by their employers will recommend a friend to their organization. Any added effort on your part can have a significant effect when it comes to helping your workers.
As long as you have remote staff on board, keep the conversations going. Many workers may continue to work remotely even after the current pandemic passes and need this outlet.
3. Don’tDon’t Forget About Recognition
It can be possible for businesses to lose contact with their human side in a virtual workplace. An attitude of ”out-of-sight, out-of-mind” can hurt employee engagement.
Even if you do not see them, workers still work hard, so appreciation continues to be necessary. A 2018 SHRM/Globoforce study found that engagement, retention, and even recruitment are improved by human-centered tactics such as recognition programs, especially when those are values-based.
Emphasize appreciation on a broader scale by commending workers for their job and efforts and sharing the praise with the whole team. Consider implementing a new award program that honors specifically the unique contributions that are involved in remotely operating.
By moving the recognition process further down in the sector, peer recognition systems may benefit larger businesses. Team leaders and heads of the department can champion a relevant appreciation program only for their participants.
4. Set Creative New Goals
When working in a remote work environment, the detachment workers frequently encounter, combined with the confusion caused by recent events, can make it challenging to feel motivated to do something. Everyone will feel greater control and certainty to set and accomplish realistic goals by investing time.
The best way to begin as the ambiguity persists might be to set short-term objectives. It makes staff see a reason for their jobs. Such short-term, realistic targets for the result would also have an outcome and a potential incentive. You will want to move towards incorporating longer-term objectives when you achieve these objectives.
Goals can directly influence the worker, including, for example, his personal and professional development—no matter what kind of aim, you can increase the chances of achieving the goal. You can need to have more tools and preparation for work and project objectives. Also, provide access to online skills development courses or suggest authorizing some sabbatical to focus on those objectives.
5. Do Not Skimp On Social Time
Offer online networking activities to promote team members members’ connections and collaboration. These colonial periods realize that the need to connect with workers over anything outside work is essential for employee well-being. Social get-togethers help quench feelings of alienation and depression that can build up over a long remote work period.
Microsoft announced that virtual social meetings were on the rise by as much as 10 percent from one month to the next in a recent survey of its workers. Virtual events included events such as group lunches, happy hour socials, and themed workdays (including “meet my pet” and “pajama” days) in these social meetings.
You do not want to do the same stuff as Microsoft does. Tell the team and ask volunteers to spearhead the virtual social effort with their interests. Suggest web gaming, video games, virtual rooms for escape, and other enjoyable activities for team-bonding.
Follow these steps and intensify your engagement.
Employees have struggled to stay involved with no frequent in-person interaction in an area. Implement these five strategies in the weeks ahead to ensure that they remain connected and motivated.
Engagement with employees is not about income. These strategies would not substantially push up operating costs. Employee involvement, instead, comes through interaction, participation, appreciation, and ongoing growth.
A more significant expenditure of time, working with and listening to your remote employees would be your “cost.” Considering the physical separation between you and your talent, your return would better understand employee morale and a greater degree of employee engagement.