It’s said that the remote work trend will continue to grow. Most companies are embracing remote work as the new normal after discovering its benefits. Remote workers are believed to be more productive, engaged, and satisfied. Again, the businesses embracing remote work and flexible work choices have the upper hand in winning top talent. This enables them to win and retain a competent workforce to work alongside them to meet their objectives.
However, managing and keeping a remote team engaged is believed to be not easy despite the convenience remote work brings to the table. Still, your team can’t be efficient and productive when it isn’t engaged properly. Team engagement is important for the employees and the company to retain its success.
Read this article to discover amazing and simple ways on how to make your team engaged while they do remote work.
1. Connect With Your Team Through Technology
One of the effective ways of engaging your remote team is said to be via the use of technology. Technology may help you communicate effectively. There are technological tools that keep your employees on the same page and help you manage projects. For efficiency, encourage the team members to use them to reach each other with ease.
There are many construction employee time-tracking apps available these days, which can be a great help in keeping your remote team engaged. With the help of these apps, you can track the time your employees spend on construction projects and make sure that they are using their time effectively. You can also use these apps to monitor employee productivity and performance, and identify any areas where there may be room for improvement. In addition, the time tracking app can also help you to communicate with your team members and keep them updated on construction progress, schedules, and deadlines.
Likewise, video conferencing is a superb way to keep in touch with remote workers. Digital chats and emails are also efficient but can’t outsmart video conferencing. This is because the latter makes your employees feel like they’re in the office environment. It’ll be a novel idea for you to plan staff meetings and integrate video calls that have screen sharing regularly. In turn, your workers will have a sense of belonging as a team that’s united while performing tasks remotely.
2. Let Your Employees Know That You Care
Another way to keep your team engaged is by showing them that you care. One of these is giving them gifts like embroidered workwear. It’ll make them feel part of the company. If you haven’t designed one for your remote team, embroidered workwear online offers different services to help you with curating official company workwear.
In addition, plan schedules that don’t inconvenience your workers. Let all of them be comfortable with the time and date set for some tasks like video conferencing. It’s also an added advantage to chat with them about their workloads and the challenges they’re facing. Eventually, this is going to improve their emotional health, keep them engaged, and boost their productivity.
3. Enhance Social Interaction
Remote working can make a worker feel lonely. If you’re a business owner, you’ll need to be careful about this. This is to ensure that the possible loneliness your workers may feel doesn’t hinder their productivity. One of the things you can do is to enhance team connections. Precisely stated, create some time for virtual team-building endeavours, video chats, and social hours.
Similarly, make sure the newly hired workers have a mentor whom they can direct their concerns to. It’ll be the mentor’s duty to orient them and make them feel part of a productive team. Whenever possible, schedule outings or company retreats to strengthen your worker’s connections.
4. Appreciate Each Team Member’s Contributions
Remote workers today are believed to spend more time working for your company as compared to their office counterparts. Therefore, consider motivating them by appreciating their efforts. Once in a while, you can set a date for online recognition. This will give all employees a chance to view and comment on various issues about the company. In return, all employees, apart from getting engaged, will feel recognized, appreciated, and valued.
5. Keep Remote Workers Updated
It’s critical to keep the remote team in the know about team progress, company goals, and projects, amongst others. As a company owner, goal setting should be friendly, that is, should involve all employees. When you organize conferences, make sure they’re updated on the company and the status in meeting the overall objective. This will make all workers, especially those in remote teams, feel important and engaged to the organization.
6. Equip Employees With The Tools They Need to Succeed
Another way to keep the remote team engaged is by giving them the required tools for their job. This should be done to all employees: veterans and new hires alike. If need be, you can train them on how to use different toolsets. It’s best to keep in mind that they aren’t limited to smartphones and laptops. They too should have a comfortable place to work at home.
It’s also important to inspect whether the remote workers have access to development opportunities. You can go the extra mile by offering stipends to employees looking for improving their working spaces. Some remote workers may not be in a position to get money to attend business conferences. Make it your initiative, as a business owner, to fund remote workers to attend these conferences.
7. Provide A Mix Of Working Environments
Remote work can heighten team member engagement if they don’t spend all their time working from home. This means they’ll require a mix of working at home and in the office too. A company can agree with the remote workers to spend three days at home and two days in the office. This will give them time to collaborate with the office workers and also bond with the team members. In the long run, they won’t feel separated from their co-workers. Rather, they can be less stressed, happier, and productive.
8. Support Newly Hired Personnel
If you hire employees to join your remote workers, coach them to ensure they don’t feel less equipped and ill-prepared. As a business manager, offer them some training on the operations of the company. Further, help them access resources, tools, and equipment they need to work.
The new hires, if not well oriented, may fail to be productive from their earliest stages. This is attributed to failing to access essential tools like login credentials. However, when supported from the get-go, they feel engaged and become more productive.
Takeaway
Overall, employee engagement is a critical tool for every company’s success. Companies with remote workers may have lower productivity and success rates or leave to work for other companies if your online team isn’t engaged. To prevent this, work on engaging with them well. This will not only motivate them but also enhance their loyalty to the company.
Experts predict growth in remote working in the future. Hence, it’s critical to invest in it. To do this, you need to understand how to make your remote team engaged and productive. There are numerous ways to do this. The tips mentioned above are simple ways of maintaining a happy, productive, and engaged web-based workforce. Implement them and let your business enjoy an array of benefits offered by having an engaged online team.
