Engaged employees positively impact organizational success, from greater customer satisfaction and higher productivity to increased profitability. However, remote work introduces additional and unique challenges to keeping employees engaged. Luckily, there are still ways to get remote employees engaged. Below are seven effective ways to cultivate engagement when your employee works remotely.
1. Schedule Regular Check-Ins
Good communication is vital for employee engagement. Schedule virtual check-ins with team members to address concerns and keep your employees engaged. Encourage them to use the available tools, including email, instant messaging, phone calls, and video conferencing. Video conferencing is a great way to improve communication and engagement because understanding or conveying a message is easier when you can see the speaker's facial movements and gestures.
2. Provide Socialization Opportunities
Socialization is an integral part of employee engagement, and the traditional workplace offers many opportunities for employees to socialize. However, employees can feel isolated from their peers since a remote workplace doesn't allow socialization before and after work or during lunch and breaks.
All virtual meetings your organization schedules don't have to focus on business. You can improve employee engagement by providing socialization opportunities encouraging remote employees to build relationships with colleagues. For instance, organize virtual social events and virtual communities. Try setting aside time for non-business socialization, such as virtual coffee breaks or online game time.
3. Encourage Open Communication
Encouraging open communication is an excellent way to help keep your remote employees engaged. Employees should be allowed to voice opinions and concerns and encouraged to provide feedback about anything. Your remote employees should feel free to bring up any topic without fear of repercussion, and by making an effort to act on their feedback, you demonstrate that you are listening and care about the feedback they provide.
Fostering a culture of open communication and getting positive or negative feedback can provide valuable insight to help your organization succeed. Your remote employees have opinions and views of your organization's current management and company culture. Whether it's improving an existing process or concerns about a project and ideas on how the team can improve upon it, your employees can provide valuable feedback.
4. Offer Professional Development Opportunities
Remote work can take a toll on an employee's mental health. Watching and finishing company training is an excellent way to keep employees focused and productive. In addition to your organization's training material, consider providing access to other relevant training that will enable your employees to advance in their careers and reach their personal goals.
Career advancement opportunities can have a significant impact on keeping remote employees engaged. Providing opportunities for remote employees to attend training sessions, workshops, and conferences to develop skills and advance their career acknowledges their value to their organization. It also lets employees know career advancement opportunities, whether working in the office or remotely, are available.
5. Recognize and Reward Good Work
It's easy to praise an employee when they are working in-house, but celebrating and recognizing remote employees for their hard work and achievements is equally important. Unfortunately, many remote workers feel inadequate, which can affect an employee's performance. One of the best ways to keep them engaged and prevent them from feeling imposter syndrome is to offer positive feedback.
Recognizing and rewarding good work makes your employees feel valued and reminds them they are a part of something larger. Praising and acknowledging employees for their hard work and achievements, whether in the office or remotely, is an engagement strategy that fosters loyalty and trust among your remote workforce.
6. Encourage a Healthy Work-Life Balance
One of the biggest obstacles for many remote workers is establishing and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. However, when employees work from home, their workspace is also where they relax after work. As a result, remote workers are more productive but work an average of 48.5 minutes longer than employees who come to the office. Unfortunately, the boundaries between work and personal life can become blurred for remote workers, upsetting a healthy work-life balance.
Finding and maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be challenging for remote workers. However, you can help them find this balance by encouraging them to take breaks, establish clear boundaries between work and personal life, and prioritize self-care.
7. Foster a Sense of Purpose
Help remote employees understand your company's vision and mission and how their work contributes to it. Employees are more likely to buy into and feel a sense of ownership when they understand their significant role in achieving organizational goals. Fostering a sense of purpose evokes a sense of ownership and a stake in the business's success.
The Keys to Keeping Employees Engaged
Raising employee morale and keeping employees engaged is more important than ever. While employee engagement can be challenging for any workforce, keeping remote employees engaged can be even more difficult.
While it may take some time and effort to implement steps to keep remote employees engaged, the payoff is worth the exertion. Engaged employees can positively impact any organization, and taking steps to ensure the engagement of remote workers can help your organization reach its goals.
