Today, remote work is a lot different than what we experienced a decade back. In fact, in reality, the remote work of today is a lot different than last year because of the pandemic conditions. Naturally, the dynamics and verticals of managing remote employees have also changed.

Now, we need to keep remote employees engaged to help them deliver the productivity we are looking forward to. If we fail to create an engaging and encouraging environment for employees, we may also fail to retain them and mitigate the risks posed by the disruptions of remote work. 

To help you maintain employee engagement, we have shared a few tips below. Read on. 

How To Engage Your Remote Employees?

If you are looking forward to ways to improve employee engagement and connection in the organization, check out the below tips.

 
1.    Small Talk

When you are at the water cooler making small talk with employees, you are making an effort to get to know them. Further, this small talk happens when employees take a break and chat with each other to detox and destress. 

In remote work, this is not present. However, tools like Slack can help you get all your employees together in the chatroom for small talk. You don’t have to only talk about work-focused topics. You can send funny GIFs and talk about things other than work.

2.    Face-To-Face Communication

Virtual work is not that easy. It is not necessary for employees to jump at the first chance of working remotely. They may not because communication in remote work needs a lot of management. It doesn’t happen naturally.

Multiple organizations with more remote employees offer face-to-face meetings and get-togethers. They either organize sessions to allow remote employees to visit and get to know each other or conduct online video sessions that help employees coordinate and communicate seamlessly. 

Once this comfort is developed, then communication and collaboration come naturally in remote work.

3.    Clear Expectations

If you fail to clear your expectations, your remote employees may feel lost. This is because who would they turn to for queries and how can they have queries with no information in the first place?

Here’s what you can do:

•    Create a contact person to allow remote employees to reach out to this manager and clarify their doubts and questions.
•    Clarify when you are expecting the project or work to be delivered. If the remote employee thinks otherwise, then talk and find a middle ground. 
•    Always deliver the goals that you are trying to achieve with a particular task. This enables the remote team to work accordingly. 

4.    Recognition and Reward

One of the best methods to motivate and encourage both in-house and remote employees is recognizing and rewarding employees. 

You can simply drop a message appreciating employees for the hard work they have done. Generally, that is enough to engage your employees. Once in the year, you can reward your employees for the work they have done and the projects they have completed. 

5.    Achievable Goals

It is not unlikely for employers to set unachievable goals for remote employees. For instance, assuming that they would work on the weekend, so giving work on Friday evening and expecting it by Monday morning.

You need to set goals that are easily achievable for your remote employees. Having unnecessary expectations would only encourage your remote employees to leave rather than assume these responsibilities. Hence, give goal-setting much thought before announcing your expectations. It is best to talk to the remote employee first before making the decision and committing anything to the client. 

Conclusion

There’s no doubt in the fact that 2020 has enabled us to abruptly shift to remote work. However, it has also given us a chance to improve our structure and engagement. Hence, follow the above tips and enhance the engagement of your remote employees and lead towards high productivity and better outcomes.