Most employees have developed a love-hate relationship with work from home during the covid-19 pandemic. While employees enjoy the benefits of remote work, they also feel that they are missing out on the professional environment and how it contributes to their professional growth.
But the biggest concern for most remote employees and their employers alike is the isolated work environment that one cannot escape during work from home. However, some effort from employers can help tackle this concern. If you’re an employer with multiple remote employees, here’s how you can keep them engaged in building a digital workplace culture:
Encourage Face-to-Face Meetings
Ditch emails and phone calls for face-to-face meetings over the internet. Video meetings allow remote employees to see their team members, making their work and their colleagues more real than they otherwise perceive. Video meetings also encourage remote employees to dress up and appear professional, making them take their job more seriously and increasing employee engagement.
Organize Office Events for In-Person Engagement
Office events allow the employees to engage with each other in person. They also help remote employees feel part of the organization they work for and provide them with a sense of regular work life. Moreover, in-person engagement can also help improve communication over video meetings. Office events are also a great way to promote work friendships among team members and enhance employee engagement at the macro level.
Offer Help for Setting Up Home Offices
Organizations and businesses can increase employee engagement for remote employees by helping them set up their home offices. Employers acknowledging that not all employees have the means to set up proper workstations at home shows employees that they care about them. Employees feel motivated to work for employees that don’t make them responsible for equipment to get work done for them, resulting in a positive impact on remote employees.
Schedule Regular Feedback
Even if your remote employees are performing their job perfectly, it is essential for employers or team managers to regularly check in and provide their feedback. Listening to feedback and talking about their work always helps motivate employees even if they work from home. Again, the feedback should take place over video meetings.
Offer Flexible Working Hours
The biggest benefit of work from home is the flexibility to work at one’s preferred timings. While all business industries cannot afford to provide complete flexibility to their remote employees in terms of timings, the option can always be utilized in emergencies or special occasions.
For example, a remote employee might find themselves dealing with a domestic situation that demands their complete attention during the afternoon hours. As an employer, you can allow the employee to delay their work and complete it in the evening. Such action will increase employee engagement for when the employee would be available to work from home while also motivating them.
Finally, don’t forget to encourage your remote employees to take lunch breaks and coffee breaks. As much as work from home allows the employees to eat and drink at their desks, employers should always encourage employees to take breaks. It can help create discipline in the life of remote employees while also keeping them engaged with their employers.
