Ways to enhance incentive and efficiency post COVID-19 when retaining focus is difficult for a remote team.
The movement toward working from home has taken off. Many strategies were implemented to keep workers engaged, like facilitating the wellness trend and showing appreciation. When leaders take an interest in their employees with feedback and encouragement, the workers feel more a part of the whole.
Virtual work has become the norm as significant numbers of companies allow their employees to work remotely. This assisted the most at-risk workers and at the same time helped to lessen COVID-19 cases, but what are the consequences for businesses now and in the future?
The advantages of working from home are well understood. Life seems more balanced between work and home as time is saved and commute is eliminated.
That said, there are also disadvantages. Workers tend to feel isolated from the dynamics of the office and therefore sometimes less involved and even detached. This appearance can affect overall performance and efficiency.
Workers seem to have a need to feel connected to their company and its people. Socializing in person at the office while at lunch or around the coffee machine is a part of working life that is fading away.
Now workers have to make a much more conscious effort to connect with others. If this is neglected, workers start to feel alone and disconnected, which in turn can lead to lethargy and apathy. Workers may feel less appreciated and dissatisfaction sets in.
Company leaders need to promote teamwork and interconnectedness regardless of location, in order to uplift the organization as a whole. Companies thrive when employees are happy and valued. They need to feel engaged.
What is employee engagement?
To make sure your virtual employees are committed and thriving, they need to feel connected and engaged. This is a difficult aspect to measure.
Remote work can be challenging when distractions like family, errands, shared accommodation, TV, cooking, etc., are demanding their attention.
In order to measure workers’ engagement, employers simply need to take an interest and ask. Talk about their situation and tackle any obstacles together as a team. Employers need to involve themselves with the remote lives of their employees.
Keeping virtual workers involved
6 ways to ensure your remote workers feel included and a part of the team.
1. Health and Wellness
The health of your workers should be most important to you. Their performance depends greatly on their health. No one can perform well, if at all, when ill.
For this reason it would be wise to encourage your workers to enjoy a healthy lifestyle by giving incentives in this direction. Formulating a wellness program where a certain time each day is devoted to physical fitness for example (a walk, run or yoga, depending on abilities). Encouraging healthy eating is also beneficial to all.
This will promote togetherness and also make the worker feel more valuable and cared about. Try to find ways to grab opportunities on a sunny day and encourage your workers to take time to get out into the fresh air for 30 minutes during the day.
Allowing them time for healthy habits is beneficial to the team as a whole. Breaks can be extended to allow for some healthy activities.
2. Meetings and hangouts
Encourage regular correspondence with live video, email, conferencing, messaging and calls. Collaboration is at its best when it’s all inclusive and everyone can get involved. Trello, Zoom and Google Meet are excellent communication tools.
Try to have virtual gatherings even on subjects outside of the work arena. This will encourage relaxed conversation and avoid the stress and anxiety of solely work related calls. Organize work excursions so that employees can start to feel more relaxed around each other as well as being part of something bigger.
3. Listening and appreciating
As you are no longer in the office environment, you will need to make a special effort to show appreciation and thanks. Now that there is distance between you and you cannot offer your worker a lunch celebration or birthday cake, you need to find other ways to give positive attention.
Simple gestures go a long way. A virtual gift card or simply messaging or calling to offer a word of appreciation for extra effort made at work will help your employee feel appreciated and valued.
Try to make the communication clear. Misunderstandings and misinterpretations are common in virtual communication, so you would need to take the time to clarify any uncertainties by being more available for queries and requests. Make sure you listen carefully and are proactive in finding solutions for your employees. Make it comfortable for your employee to confide in you.
Being available and reachable to your worker goes a long way. They need to feel able to confide in you when problems arise. Being unreachable leads to feelings of being left on the outside.
4. Connecting on a personal level
Being professional is important, but we have to remember that everyone has good and bad times. Everyone has strong and weak points. We are all human. Employers need to encourage their workers’ strengths while acknowledging their weaknesses. This way they can nurture a better relationship.
Being aware of what your workers feel passionate about can help you to assign work accordingly and award their successes.
Workers are more dedicated to their companies when they are shown concern and care as human beings, not just employees.
Attention to the lives of employees on a personal level and appreciation shown with bonuses or special awards can go a long way for a positive work environment, especially for remote workers.
Limiting communication to one standard template undermines the personal situation of an individual. It is more beneficial to all when communication is adapted to each personality and life situation. This way, the worker will pay closer attention to what is being communicated.
Most importantly, being honest and transparent is vital in order to nurture employee engagement and participation both at the office and in a remote setting.
Being precise, concise, sincere and personal is key for quality communication
5. Open communication
When remote workers live in different time zones from the main office, they can feel alone when no one else is around at the same time. The whole team can feel this vacuum as they work alone.
Digital communication can be an asset when even though workers are busy at different times, they can still send and receive messages outside of their working hours. This can help to feel more together as a team. They will feel more connected just knowing that the channels of communication are always open.
Social media, chats and online communities are there to keep the conversation going, even when it’s less important chatter. Casual discussions on everyday subjects can help the remote workers to feel more at ease.
When every member of the team is aware of each other’s time zones, they can be considerate to one another and acknowledge when they don’t expect an answer immediately as it is outside of their work timetable.
When there is understanding and respect for each other’s work schedules and time zones, the relationship can develop into fellowship, trust and connectedness.
6. Gamification
Gamification is a strategy to encourage participation and engagement using elements of game-playing, like point scoring and competition, within the work environment. This is a fun way to foster allegiance and togetherness and promotes inclusiveness. Competition promotes enthusiasm and engagement and promotes mutual respect.
Workers seem to have a need to feel part of a team. This method encourages workers to collaborate and support each other. When goals are team-based and the members of the team are striving for a common goal, this develops a sense of purpose and camaraderie.
For the remote workers who may feel left out and concerned they may be missing out on potential promotion opportunities, the gaming strategy is very helpful.
Gaming systems can help to measure and evaluate performance, which is especially valuable to those remote workers who may be feeling left out. They may be afraid of being excluded from something important. The gaming strategy helps to ensure that the remote worker is very much a part of the mechanics of the company even when they are geographically distanced.
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