You want to improve employee engagement, especially with your remote team — but how? The virtual office has become a lonely and quiet place recently, as more businesses are now transitioning to remote or hybrid offices. In addition, with the advent of tech-heavy software and the need for more collaborative platforms, companies are now stifled with new concepts and business models that can help keep their employees engaged and motivated.
Calendar – Calendar Now Everybody Wants to be on a Remote Team
The latest FlexJobs’ 10th Annual Survey of 2021 revealed that around 58% of respondents cited they want to be full-time remote employees in the post-pandemic economy. More so, approximately 39% currently want a hybrid work environment. This has amassed over 97% of current employees who wish to work remotely.
With the masses of employees now looking to work from home or anywhere they desire, companies are sitting with a problem that will help keep staff engaged in their work with their colleagues and managers.
What’s the Deal With Employees Quitting Jobs to Work Remote?
Even as more and more employees are quitting their jobs in search of better opportunities or to start their own businesses – employers are creating attractive job roles and employee benefits that will help retain the best talent in the wake of severe labor shortages.
Yet, while working from home might have its perks, there comes a time and place when employee engagement is starting to fizzle out. In addition, working with remote teams scattered across different regions would need an exodus of software innovation and planning.
Tech-Savvy Business Software
Luckily, with the high demand for tech-savvy business software, you can easily engage your teams and collaborate on new projects and ideas.
Here’s a quick look at seven simple ways business owners and HR managers can improve employee engagement for remote teams.
Improve Employee Engagement — Establish a Strategy
Before you, as an employer or business leader, can start creating a plan to help improve employee engagement, you will need to establish a strategy to help you identify pitfalls and any shortcomings within the current business model.
From the start, consider how your employees are currently working, and what are the things you’ve done in the last few months to make their transition from in-office to online remote work more comfortable.
Consider the Satisfied Employee in Your Strategy
Employees who are satisfied with their jobs will usually go out of their way to do more. For you as a business owner to accomplish all you want and need to do — you want satisfied employees. First, see what systems currently don’t work correctly to improve employee productivity and contribution. Next, ask, “How can I use technology, and a bit of leadership skills to get my employees to feel motivated?”
Communication 101 — The Simplest Strategy for Remote Teams
An older study conducted by Hay Group, now known as Forn Kerry, found that employees who are engaged and make use of effective communication models can generate more revenue than their non-commutative counterparts.
While the study reveals the importance of effective communication, business owners and team managers should encourage remote employees to communicate more effectively with one another and vice versa.
Creating channels that allow for more transparency can help improve productivity, creativity, improve growth, and business owners can clearly indicate business goals.
Beef Up Your Remote Employee’s Onboarding and New System Training
Remote employees who receive a minimal introduction to new systems, or any onboarding team members will feel desolated. Improving communication is just one of the many ways to help them see where the company is heading and how it can accomplish it.
But although this might help teams get closer to one another or communicate more effectively, it’s also considered necessary for business owners to encourage employees to be more transparent about their work and find ways to help the business grow.
Communication remains one of the core aspects of many teams. However, when remote working is becoming more prevalent among small and large businesses, communication practices should be improved or implemented to help employees become more engaged.
Collaboration Software to Connect Remote Employees
Nowadays, remote employees can share anything via the internet. Moreover, with the advancement of collaboration software throughout the pandemic, it’s become easier and a lot more affordable to implement tech-savvy tools that can boost productivity and spark new ideas.
As platforms become more advanced, team managers can now have all their remote members working from one platform, whereby they can communicate with one another and share insight.
Make Your Software Easy to Use
Collaboration software can house various features, and it’s up to the business owner or team manager to decide which of these would work best for their employees. Of course, it’s a good idea to consider your business’s needs, but also, what will be the easiest for employees to use, and how will it impact their work.
There’s a long list of questions you should first be able to answer before making a final decision. But when most employees work from home or on a hybrid basis, adding structure to a somewhat lopsided situation will help employees create solution-based ideas between one another and help improve job interest.
Career Development Affects Employee Engagement
While it may not seem as if minimal career development will affect employee engagement, you might want to reconsider that around 66% of employees resign their jobs if they don’t feel appreciated or their work is valued.
Being valued, appreciated, and noticed by managers and owners helps employees find new ways in which they can advance their careers, creating new opportunities for growth and development.
There’s a high chance that employees will be more engaged with one another, or perhaps their superiors if there’s space to grow and improve career development. This is one of few ways to establish a plan or business model that keeps employee growth in sight, making it easier for both parties to bounce ideas back and forth.
The great thing is that depending on the business and the team size, career development opportunities can come in different ways. So this is where you should look for ways to keep current members interested and their needs as an employer or team manager.
Through these methods, one will also establish a sense of care, having employees feel that they are being valued and their contributions appreciated.
Create Space for More Involvement to Improve Employee Engagement
Allowing employees to be more involved in different aspects of the business helps give them the power of authority and communicate suggestions.
A good definition of employee involvement can be “When employees participate directly to help an organization fulfill its mission and meet its objectives by applying their ideas, expertise, and efforts towards problem-solving and decision making.”
How Will You Keep Your In-Office and Remote Teams Involved With Each Other?
There are different ways one can go about creating a space for more employee involvement; the most common is creating a suggestion box or, in the digital world, sending out employee suggestion forms.
Engaging with employees from an executive or managerial standpoint will give way to better business development, allowing them to succeed in their respective job roles. Just as employee involvement can help improve engagement, the same should also count for business owners.
Clearly stating job specifications, what one will expect from them, and communicating relevant information as a whole amplifies the importance of employee engagement, and relevant problem-solving abilities.
Be a Leader, not just a boss
Another way to improve employee engagement is to ensure that you, as a business owner, or perhaps manager, lead team efforts instead of overseeing them like a boss or dominant figure.
Boss Magazine describes the importance of being a leader as someone who shares insight, and company morale inspires employees through motivation and commitment. In a time where we may all feel disconnected, even with the advent of social and professional collaboration platforms, leaders should help guide their employees instead of throwing them into the deep end.
Being more invested in your employees, even if they sit halfway around the world, can help establish a sense of interest and thought process. Through this, employers can now realize the value of their staff members and how they can help contribute to the company’s goals.
Each employee can make a significant impact on your business. If you lead with example and transparency, employees can share in the collective understanding of the business and how their ideas can help move the business forward.
Business Identity to Engage Remote Teams
It might not sound as if it would make a difference, but creating a business identity, even in a virtual work environment, helps shape the business’s collective intelligence. As an employer, you have a specific idea of what your business should be and a plan of how you will get there.
With the use of business identity, you will now be able to have employees engaged in ways that can reflect your core values, from how they work with clients, customers, or suppliers, to how they manage stressful projects and generate more leads.
There are different ways one can approach the concept of business identity, but it ultimately boils down to how you as an employer value and trust your team to build on top of the foundation you’ve already laid down.
Employees who can associate themselves with the business identity will not only be willing to work longer for the company, but it also puts them in a space where they can feel motivated and contribute to the growing needs of the business.
The Takeaway
Remote work has changed the business landscape for good, and employees are now more than ever looking for job roles that will allow them the opportunity to work from home or perhaps in a hybrid environment.
While the remote work movement has created new challenges for business owners and team managers, it’s also highlighted the importance of employee engagement and how business owners can create channels to see their employees be more motivated and engaged.
We’ve Been Disconnected — We Need Engagement for Remote Teams
Although technology has improved our lives in various ways, it’s become apparent that it’s also disconnected us from one another. In the fast-paced world of online business and remote work, keeping employees working from their homes interested or encouraged shouldn’t hinder the business’s success.
Business owners should have a clear-cut strategy for how they can improve their employee engagement. More involved employees will likely stay longer in their current job position. It all depends on how much you value the encouragement of remote employees.
Image Credit: Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash; Thank you!
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