{"id":6986,"date":"2020-08-10T17:17:27","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T13:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krisp.ai\/blog\/?p=6986"},"modified":"2024-07-04T12:52:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T08:52:43","slug":"engaging-remote-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krisp.ai\/blog\/engaging-remote-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Strategies for Engaging Remote Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Job flexibility has long been seen as the first step to engaging remote employees. As many as <\/span>54% of office workers<\/span> claim they\u2019d leave their current jobs for one that offered more flexible work options.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In fact, this same Gallup study found out that employee engagement rises as people get to work on their own terms. But not on a full-time basis. Top employee engagement rates are noted when <\/span>20-40% of work time<\/span> is spent at the office, together with the rest of the team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Most reports which correlate schedule flexibility with remote work have noted that face-to-face interaction and meetings are accountable for keeping teams engaged. So here\u2019s where most problems occur: distributed teams rarely get this type of collaboration opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Employee engagement has long been seen not only in the work process but also with regard to how employees view their employer and how they bond with the rest of the team. Employee loyalty is <\/span>decreasing each year<\/span> and keeping your workers engaged and happy at work seems to be the only way of ensuring employee retention.<\/span><\/p>\n

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But the engagement challenges that remote work brings in are entirely different from the ones you\u2019d encounter in a typical office setting.<\/span><\/p>\n

What makes remote employees less engaged?<\/span><\/h3>\n

Don\u2019t assume this is a recent issue that\u2019s a result of everyone having to work from home. Even before the worldwide \u201cremote work experiment\u201d, <\/span>two-thirds of remote employees<\/span> were disengaged.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The number is not shocking once you consider all the issues of day-to-day remote collaboration. You\u2019ve got team members scattered throughout the world, everyone is experiencing their own separate problems with <\/span>working from home<\/span><\/a>, and your usual communication is now constantly disturbed by external distractions and lagging Internet connections.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The strategies you can use to increase employee engagement are in many ways similar though. They’re just placed in a different environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Let\u2019s take a look at some ideas for engaging remote employees you can apply at any time.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Establish clear goals and prioritize tasks<\/span><\/h2>\n

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A chaotic workflow or worse, no work methods in place will raise employees\u2019 stress levels and have them looking for the next work opportunity as soon as possible. Aim to offer a clear roadmap of what an employee needs to take care of within a given timeline and keep teams accountable for their work even with minimal supervision.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Then, you\u2019ve got your larger goals. Those steps that every person strives to achieve during their career. Wanting to advance professionally, go into a management position, or just grow their own personal brand are some of the key milestones anyone is looking to get from their future workplace. If you can\u2019t offer these opportunities, your employees will be less motivated to put their best foot forward. Getting the chance to do something for their own development while performing work for their employer can keep them productive and, above all, creative.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Happy employees are the ones who are able to come up with ingenious ideas and help your business in return. All because you care about their own goals, not just your business objectives. If you don\u2019t know where to start, establish SMART goals. In a previous article, we talked about setting <\/span>SMART goals<\/span><\/a> as a time management hack. Their value though expands beyond this being the perfect way of setting realistic expectations.<\/span><\/p>\n

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This is exactly why you need to communicate with your team as often as possible to find out the best possible ways of achieving their goals and keep your <\/span>employee engagement efforts running<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Improve your internal communication policies<\/span><\/h2>\n

In particular, make sure to guarantee that face-to-face interactions are a daily occurrence. Yes, daily. As mentioned in the introduction, this is the single most important thing that keeps employees engaged in the long-run.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Simply put, continuous communication keeps every single member of your team aware of what\u2019s going on within the company. Beyond business matters, this has them stay consciously connected with their colleagues.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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20% of people who are currently working remotely<\/span><\/a> consider that difficulties with collaboration are their #1 issue. But the reality is that these problems need to be solved by the employer. It\u2019s the company\u2019s responsibility to provide all the tools and policies needed for work within a distributed team to be no different than office work.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Where most companies go wrong here is doing remote communication without a plan. To prevent potentially unproductive situations like employees not bothering to check their messages as often as they should or people losing track of their tasks, cover the next steps:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n