Working remotely is typically good for productivity, giving your employees a more flexible environment that they can optimize to support better working habits. But if your employees aren’t engaged, they’re not going to do their best work.
With remote employee engagement dropping consistently, what steps can you take to improve engagement in your remote teams?
The Engagement Problem
Engagement is inextricably linked to productivity; when employees aren’t engaged, they’re not going to do their best work. In many cases, low engagement can also lead to higher employee turnover, creating even more increased costs for your organization.
No matter how you look at it, low engagement is a high priority problem. Fortunately, you can boost employee engagement by providing more motivation, inspiration, leadership, and support. When employees have better resources, more confidence in your organization, and a more grounded connection to their work, they’re naturally more productive and in tune with what they’re doing.
Motivation and Inspiration
On the motivation and inspiration side, you can use a combination of different communication methods to convey messages to your workforce and help them feel better about what they’re doing. With digital signage software, you can use digital screens throughout your physical workplace to display words, photos, videos, and even interactive charts so you can shape your employee environment as you see fit. Then, you can use the same software to align this messaging with your remote teams on your website or across your other digital channels.
These are some of the best things to focus on:
· Real-time stats and KPIs. Help employees understand the impact of what they’re doing by providing them with real time stats and key performance indicators (KPIs). For example, when salespeople see how many sales they’ve closed and how close they are to their quarterly goals, they’ll likely feel much more engaged with their work.
· Congratulations and kudos. You can also give congratulations and kudos to employees or teams who have performed exceptionally in the recent past. Did someone break a new company record? Did they land a major new client? This is your chance to reward them and motivate other team members to follow in their footsteps.
· Motivational/inspirational messages. Sometimes, simple motivational or inspirational messages can play a massive role in how employees feel. Rotate in some of your favorite quotes or messages from your leaders.
· Employee spotlights. Take a moment to call out individual employees. Most people like the extra attention and benefit from getting to know the other people in the organization; this is especially valuable for remote employees who don’t have as much time to see or get to know each other.
Leadership and Support
You can reinforce better remote employee engagement with better leadership and support.
· Promote strong, engaged leaders. Whether consciously or unconsciously, most employees follow what their leaders do. If you have confident, engaged leaders in place, you’ll be much more likely to have confident, engaged employees. Be wary of who you hire and promote, so your leaders are capable of creating the best possible work environment.
· Provide support and empathy to employees. Working for your organization isn’t always easy, so be ready to provide support and empathy to your employees. When they have a problem they can’t solve on their own, help fix it. When they’re upset, listen to them patiently. These efforts may seem small or trivial, but they make a big difference.
· Create a positive work-life balance. Help your employees find an ideal work-life balance, giving them plenty of breaks and rest so they can enjoy their family and personal life while still remaining productive at work. Being generous with breaks and vacations can ultimately help people feel better about their jobs and more connected to them, so don’t demand long hours or tough conditions every week.
· Offer the right tools for the job. With better tools and resources, employees will feel more empowered in tackling their daily responsibilities.
· Talk about engagement. Be open about employee engagement. Help employees understand what engagement is, how to improve it, and the factors that can make engagement a problem.
· Get feedback and act on it. Finally, be open to receiving feedback from your employees through interviews and surveys. If employees have complaints or suggestions, listen to them and take action when appropriate.
Ongoing Efforts
If your employee engagement has been dropping, or if you just want to push engagement levels higher, you should know you can’t turn the tide overnight. Increasing employee engagement is a strategy that takes months, if not longer, to unfold. You’ll need to consistently apply these new strategies and principles, exercising patience as you construct a new environment for your workforce, In time, you’ll see the results you want.
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