Remote work has been on the rise for years now, and it will only continue to grow further. To begin with, the number of people who work remotely has increased by 140% since 2005, with 4.3 million people in the U.S. working from home at least half the time these days.
And as organizations and workers settle into this new remote standard, many finally perceive the benefits of remote work. Remote employees tend to be more engaged, productive, and happier. In addition, organizations that offer flexible and remote work options are way more attractive to top talent, helping businesses land and retain a highly-skilled workforce.
However, if you’re a company owner or executive that embraces remote working scenarios, you know that managing a virtual workforce isn’t the most straightforward job in the world. So, how do you ensure that you keep your employees engaged no matter where they’re working from for them to be successful at what they do?
There are numerous ways to keep remote team members engaged and content. This brief article will go through the top four strategies backed by research that you might want to use to engage your virtual team.
Table of Contents
Regularly Host Virtual Meetings and Casual Hangouts
The most successful remote teams should maintain regular communication through instant messaging, video calls, email, or web conferencing platforms. When the whole team is working remotely, having regular virtual meetings in the form of a video or voice conferencing call can do a lot to encourage team collaboration. To host the best virtual meetings, you can utilize one of the most famous remote collaboration tools like Slack, Trello, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and so on.
Besides job-related virtual meetings, it’s also essential to plan out virtual casual get-togethers for non-work-related chats. Because, while at work, there’s constantly something stressful to discuss, and you don’t want every conversation to feel dreaded and tense.
If you don’t know where to start when organizing a casual get-together, check out these twelve professional virtual event ideas by Hoppier for inspiration on how to organize something that will keep your workers engaged and excited to be part of the team.
Recognize Employee Contributions
Remote employees usually put in more hours than their in-office colleagues, but they don’t feel like they’re a big part of the team in many instances. One solution to this issue is to make remote employee recognition a top priority within your company culture.
To do that, you might want to leverage an online recognition solution to give each employee the ability to view, comment on, and provide recognition in real-time because employee recognition is a key driver of employee engagement. The bottom line is that employee recognition from owners, managers, and peers helps employees feel appreciated, connected, and more valued.
Always Keep Your Workers in the Know
Besides making time for virtual hangouts and recognizing employee contributions, you must keep them updated on company goals, projects, team progress, and news to keep your remote workers engaged in your virtual team. Since much of the company information gets circulated through chats across desks or water cooler chit-chats, remote workers can easily get left out of the loop and feel disconnected.
To address this, you can utilize an employee-friendly tracking and goal-setting system to provide everyone at your company with access to company updates, goals, new projects, and more.
Moreover, do regular check-ups with your workers for both one-on-one and team meetings so that everyone has a chance to keep their finger on the pulse of the company. When remote employees are part of the company dialogue, they will be empowered in their work and feel more engaged and connected.
Strongly Encourage Health and Wellness
Last but not least, your employees’ health and wellness should always be your priority because if they get sick or unwell, they won’t be able to perform at their top level or at all. So perhaps you can develop an incentive for your unit to get outdoors, cook a healthy meal, exercise, or create healthy habits. Or you could begin a wellness program for them, like paying for a shared yoga instructor.
This health and wellness strategy will not only support your employees’ health and wellbeing but will also bring them closer collectively and demonstrate to them that you care about their life quality. You can also look for ways to make healthy habits easier to practice, like by allowing a more extended midday break for workouts or letting them off early on lovely days to catch the sunlight.
Final Thoughts
Remote work will only continue to expand in the future, which means understanding how to engage your remote employees is now more critical than ever. Luckily, there are numerous ways to engage remote workers, so use the tips from above to take advantage of having a remote workforce by keeping them happy, healthy, and productive.
