Why workforce engagement? A motivated remote workforce means increased productivity, better work quality and enhanced collaboration. When workers are motivated, they are happier. When they are happier, they produce their best work. Employee engagement is also directly linked to your company culture and your employee retention rate. This article will discuss how you can increase employee engagement even when your team is working from home. For more insight into remote work engagement, download the Ultimate Guide.
Start with the Basics
Organizational success begins with people, processes and technology. To address work-from-home motivation, first, you need to focus on the fundamentals.
People: What challenges do your workers face while working remotely? Most feel isolated. They think that they don’t get recognition for their hard work. It can also be a struggle for them to stay in touch with their co-workers. Make sure that your remote workforce feels valued. Be sure to keep regular contact with them. Reward them when they do a great job and provide them with the resources they need to succeed. When you focus on your people, you will build a great company culture and keep your team happy and motivated.
Processes: Working from home offers more flexibility to employees, which is the single best perk to this work arrangement. With that said, there still needs to be a framework in place for how your business operates. Establishing remote work company policies ensures everyone is on the same page. Start with a working document in the cloud and update it when needed. Setting guidelines for remote work establishes order and helps your team avoid burnout.
Technology: If you want to increase team engagement, it begins with communication. With the right collaboration tools, your team can be in constant contact. This will help them collaborate on projects instantly, improve their workflows and access everything they need to work from anywhere. If you want to motivate your team, you need to provide them with the best resources to achieve company objectives.
Once you have done these three things, here are five additional ways you can increase employee engagement.
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1) Give Them the Best Tools
As we mentioned above, the technologies your team uses will directly impact their level of engagement. With a complete collaboration solution like Microsoft 365, your team will work smarter and faster in a shared workspace. Companies can communicate instantly in Microsoft Teams. They can synchronously edit in Word documents. They can access and share files through the cloud and work towards deadlines thanks to a project management tool. With the latest technology, the way remote teams work together is changing, so give your team the best tools to do their best work.
Related: Bolster Communication with the Right Tools
2) Pay Attention to Every Employee
Most employers believe that their remote team doesn’t want to be bothered by management. The truth is that most remote workers feel disconnected from their team and their supervisors. There are several ways you can show your team that you are invested in them even when they are out of the office. Set up one-on-one meetings through a video conferencing application. Send them prerecorded personalized messages thanking them for a job well done. Give them rewards through your HR platform or a rewards program like Bonusly. Company culture has never been more critical than it is today.
3) Host Social Events
Even when your entire workforce is working from home, you can still have a fun office environment. Communication tools can increase productivity, but they can also offer several fun and unique ways to engage in team-building exercises together. With video conferencing tools, you can host lunch-and-learns, office happy hours, holiday parties or coffee breaks. Take these virtual social events to the next level by sending everyone a gift card to use for the event. There are endless options to increase engagement outside of the typical workday. Let your team choose an activity and then put their plan into action.
4) Help Them Grow
Successful companies create a culture that fosters continuous development. With the right coaching and training initiatives, your workforce will build the skills they need to do their best work. Furthermore, your organization will benefit because your employees know that you believe in their potential. Fortunately, with the right technologies, you don’t need a huge budget to develop meaningful training programs for your team that increase engagement. Create training courses and offer e-learning programs in your cloud platform. Encourage your employees to create cross-training videos. Promote professional development courses and reward your team for obtaining credentials.
How an MSP Can Help
Technology will continue to play a crucial role in employee engagement for years to come. Whether your team is in the office, working remote part-time or all the time, the smartest companies will continue to find ways they increase productivity, improve work quality and deliver the best client satisfaction they can. A driving force to accomplishing all of these things is workforce motivation. Download the Ultimate Guide to Empowering Your Remote Team and learn how to increase employee engagement today.
