How to Drive Remote Work Engagement
Workforce engagement is crucial for every business type and is especially important for companies that offer work-from-home options. According to Gartner, 88 percent of organizations moved employees over to work-from-home after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. With this sudden transition to telework, successful companies are changing the way they keep their team motivated.
In order to drive the engagement of your remote team, you first must understand what challenges they face. These problems below can affect their level of engagement:
- They feel isolated out of the office.
- They have difficulty connecting with their co-workers.
- They lack managerial support or direction.
With the right technology tools, you can address each of these issues and increase the motivation and satisfaction of your remote team. Let’s discuss how.
1) Personalize Meetings with Face-to-Face Interactions
According to Buffer’s 2020 State of Remote Work Report, 19 percent of remote workers admit that they are lonely working from home. When workers feel removed from their work environment, this will negatively affect their ability to focus on work, their motivation and their output. The good news is that there are a few easy ways employers can help their employees who feel isolated and increase remote workforce engagement.
In April 2020, Zoom saw a 60 percent increase in consumer spending. The reason? Video conferencing software is an easy way to increase engagement through face-to-face interactions and personalized meeting spaces. Live meetings allow your team to connect instantly on projects or invite an unlimited number of participants for streaming. Whether you have daily team meetings, one-on-ones, lunch-and-learns or social events, video conferencing tools increase remote engagement and collaboration.
2) Stay Connected with Team Communication Tools
Another big challenge for remote workforce engagement is communication. With remote teams working from anywhere at any time, it’s easy for there to be communication breakdowns. Fortunately, you can connect your team with cloud-based technology and give them access to the best technology tools.
With team communication tools like Microsoft Teams or Slack, employees can stay in touch with each other from anywhere. Communication tools provide your team with live video chat through an instant messaging platform. Your team can have organized group chats and integrated file-sharing options, too. With cloud-based technology, your team can connect in real time. They can work on documents together. They can communicate instantly. This keeps them connected regardless of where they are located.
3) Help Them Avoid Burnout
Many business owners believe their remote workers want to be left alone to do their work. The truth is that they wish they had more support from management. Whether it’s receiving adequate direction on a project, gaining insight into which deadline to prioritize or being acknowledged for a job well done, most remote workers feel that their leadership is often lacking when they work from home.
Fortunately, when you are using the right technologies, you can provide the managerial support your remote team’s needs while also helping them avoid burnout.
Use Project Management Tools: With project management tools like Jira, Trello, Basecamp or Wrike, your remote team will have the assistance they need to prioritize tasks. Project management tools provide a clear visual presentation of task workflows. They have advanced project tracking features and can track your workforce’s productivity, project statuses and other metrics. Project management tools keep everyone in the know and provide the guidance your team needs to stay engaged.
Reward Them with Virtual Gifts: When your team is working remotely, businesses need to go the extra mile to show appreciation. Reward your team by sending them virtual gift cards on birthdays or work anniversaries. Provide company-wide visibility on an HR platform like Bamboo HR. Take rewards to the next level with a rewards program like Bonusly. When your team feels appreciated, this strengthens your company culture and motivates remote employees to do their best work.
How an MSP Can Motivate Your Team
With the right people, processes and technology, your team can stay engaged and collaborate at their best. A managed services provider can provide your business with the ongoing support it needs to thrive. We can also set you up with the technology tools that enable your team to do their best work. Whether it’s boosting engagement, improving collaboration or working in a secure remote environment, we can help you get your team up and running and continue to deliver the innovative solutions your business needs to thrive.
Download our Ultimate Guide to Empowering Your Remote Workforce and get started today!