Employee engagement is an essential part of any company culture. However, when employees work remotely, managers must be cautious about creating a positive remote employee experience.
This can be accomplished by regularly communicating with virtual employees, promoting team socialization, and providing remote employees with opportunities for recognition. Here are some ways to do just that:
Communicate Regularly
While a team can work from anywhere, it’s crucial to have consistent and frequent communication. Keeping employees in the loop with project status, team progress, and company news will ensure they feel part of the organization’s culture and community. This also allows employees to ask questions if they’re confused or don’t understand something.
During virtual meetings, make sure to stay on-topic. Bringing up personal matters with teammates is tempting, but staying focused will help keep everyone productive. One of the best ways to encourage personal interaction is by implementing fun and interactive team-building activities. One of the most popular is a “personal facts” guessing game that tests teammates’ observational skills while building rapport.
Asking for feedback is another key to creating a positive remote employee experience. Employees will feel engaged when their opinions are heard and acted on. This can be done through surveys or one-on-one conversations with managers. Taking action on feedback will show your remote employees that their opinions matter and will encourage them to continue giving their input.
Reward Performance
Rewarding your employees for their performance through an employee experience management program shows them you care about their work and are invested in their success. This is especially important for remote workers, who may struggle with isolation and disconnectedness from the company.
You can do this by incorporating virtual team-building activities that help employees build relationships with each other. For example, you might host a virtual happy hour or virtual office hours to give employees a chance to connect with their colleagues. You can also use an intranet that quickly communicates with your team and keeps everyone updated.
By setting clear expectations, providing the right tools and resources, encouraging communication, promoting a healthy work-life balance, and rewarding performances, you can create a positive remote employee experience for your hybrid and remote teams. This will improve productivity and overall team morale, as well as foster a strong culture that is conducive to working remotely. Finally, monitoring attrition rates and surveying employee satisfaction can help you adjust your remote work culture and ensure long-term business success.
Encourage Peer-to-Peer Feedback
Employees who feel like their opinions matter are more likely to be engaged. Encourage remote team members to voice their opinions in virtual meetings and allow them to attend training courses that can help them advance within the organization.
When giving feedback to a coworker, be constructive and specific. It’s also essential to avoid personal comments or attacking someone. Remember that people can be receptive to negative feedback when focused on the issue or their work, not the individual.
Encourage teammates to socialize with each other during work hours by using a video conferencing platform for a virtual happy hour or book club. This will give teammates a chance to get to know each other outside of the context of their professional relationship and build camaraderie that can overcome the lack of in-person interaction that is common with remote teams.
Create a Positive Work Environment
The benefits of creating a positive work environment go far beyond employee satisfaction. Engaged employees are likelier to exceed expectations, provide innovative ideas and solutions, and make more informed decisions. They also tend to be more loyal to their employers, which helps lower the cost of turnover and onboarding.
Creating a positive work environment starts with building trust through a realistic company culture, including the values and mission that guide each team member’s decision-making. Having these clearly defined and understood allows open communication between team members.
It’s also essential to inform remote employees about projects, company updates, etc. Using an intranet to communicate with remote employees in real-time rather than relying on water, more relaxed talk, and in-office meetings to circulate information.
Encourage camaraderie through various methods, such as virtual coffee breaks and online book clubs. This is an effective way to foster engagement, build relationships, and help your remote team feel like a part of the company. Additionally, using a digital intranet to communicate with your remote workforce allows you to update policies and documents in seconds rather than waiting for everyone to read them individually.
Involve Your Team
Today’s employees seek to feel connected and have a sense of purpose through their work. Providing an excellent culture helps them to achieve those goals. Encourage teamwork and collaboration through a variety of remote employee engagement activities.
Ensure that remote employees are kept in the loop by regularly communicating updates about projects, team progress, and company news. Since much of this information gets shared through water, more relaxed talk, or chats around desks, remote workers can only notice if it is updated frequently.
Be an empathetic leader by understanding your team members’ day-to-day struggles and celebrations. Remember that they are not just workers but people with family, friends, and hobbies outside of work. When you show that you care about your virtual workers as people, they reciprocate with a stronger connection to the company. They will be more willing to go above and beyond for the organization. They will also be more likely to refer their friends for positions at the company and to stay longer. This will ultimately help you achieve your business goals. Invest time in building an engaged and loyal team of remote workers.
