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Work flexibility is here to stay, which means you are almost guaranteed to have remote team members – either now or at your next gig. Yet the ability to engage remote employees remains a skill that most leaders haven’t figured out yet.
Without employee engagement, your business suffers. A career becomes a job, employees suffer from burnout, and the mundane becomes ubiquitous. It’s this lack of vibrancy and drive that can leave managers and leaders with little sense of which direction to take.
So how do you engage remote employees?
Maybe half the battle is knowing what not to do. So use these poor engagement ideas to push out the bad vibes and that spark back to the remote office.
1. Mandate social activities
The virtual happy hour has been dubbed one of the best virtual team-building activities, as it replicates the traditional after-hours setting of the office. Yet when you mandate this activity, it loses its appeal.
Employees don’t want to feel pigeon-holed into doing a social activity, just the same as if they were in the office. Maybe they have another pressing issue at home, or maybe they want to spend the time with family. Or perhaps they don’t want to feel the urge of knocking back spritzers in front of subordinates or superiors.
Instead of mandating virtual social gatherings, simply offer them. People starved for interaction will attend, and those that don’t have time will catch the next one.
2. Ignore feedback
Feedback isn’t always something people like to hear, especially if it contains criticism. You may have inadvertently gotten feedback that you didn’t like. Perhaps your casserole fell short of your family’s expectations. Or maybe your stellar defense didn’t make up for your low on-base percentage on your beer league softball team and the captain let you know about it.
In the virtual world, feedback is everything. Don’t ignore it. The tidbits of information you receive can play a pivotal role in how you shape group activities or how you onboard new employees. While you may not want to hear what some people have to say, take their suggestions to heart. You never know when one idea might just be the one to propel employee engagement throughout the entire company.
3. Withhold recognition
The recipients of childhood participation trophies are now filling the ranks of remote companies. So maybe you find this generation a bit “soft” or you subscribe to the philosophy of tough love. But just like dramatic movies about a hardened character softened by a mix of a youthful sidekick or by circumstance, you need to remove your hardened exterior to get down to the softie inside of yourself.
Recognition isn’t unsung praise you’re handing out just for the heck of it. It’s perhaps the most effective route on how to engage remote employees. According to a 2020 report, 86% of highly engaged employees were the recipients of praise in the last year. That’s a staggering statistic that highlights the importance of recognition.
However, a simple “good job” doesn’t necessarily suffice. Instead, you should:
- Publicly praise the person on public digital channels
- Describe the scenario
- Discuss how the employee went above and beyond
- Explain the impact of that behavior on the rest of the department, team, and the company as a whole
Do it as a video for a little extra punch!
4. Get to know nothing about your staff
You’re all business all the time, right? Or do you like to hit the links or crochet in your spare time? Whether you’re Tiger Woods or Betsy Ross is really irrelevant. The more important thought is that these are activities important to you that help maintain happiness and sanity.
Treating your employees like automated robots has a similar effect to a loss of sanity and engagement. So ask yourself this: how much do you really know about your staff?
If you don’t have a satisfactory answer, this could be another reason why engaging your remote employees is faltering.
Take time to get to know a little bit about your employees. This could be as active as scheduling a one-on-one meeting or using check in questions to start your meetings.
The overarching goal is simply to show your workers that you care. That’s the most direct route toward engaging remote employees.
5. Keep people where they are
If you have a proverbial “golden goose” in your virtual workplace, you’re hesitant to move them around. Secondment isn’t an option, and neither is adding job training or workplace advancement. They’re your superstar. And superstars shine brightest when they’re right in front of you.
Alright, but seriously. It’s great to have that one stellar employee that you don’t have to supervise or worry about. It’s another thing to keep them down by refusing to offer any sort of opportunity or career advancement. Perhaps you’re doing it subconsciously, or maybe you’ve become conveniently absent-minded. Either way, you can’t afford to keep Lebron on the bench for too long.
To engage remote employees, you have to offer some semblance of a successful future. Fortunately, you have several ways to do it, even in a remote atmosphere:
- Educational stipends
- Online training modules
- Career conversations during one-on-ones or virtual lunches
When employees have the opportunity to advance and grow professionally, their engagement follows with them. Provide every chance for this type of growth, and you’ll be rewarded with more engaged and happier employees.
The constant battleground of employee engagement
Modern problems require modern solutions. You’ve probably heard it thousands of times. In the world of employee engagement, it’s more relevant than ever. Now that you know what not to do and how to amend the problems, you can turn to the final phase of engagement: tweaking what works and eliminating what doesn’t.
Through this dynamic process, employee engagement isn’t a chore; it’s an encapsulation of the mission and vision of your company. That should provide the little spark that lets employees know they’re appreciated and turns your staff into the remote workhorse that rivals the likes of Seabiscuit.
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash
Work flexibility is here to stay, which means you are almost guaranteed to have remote team members – either now or at your next gig. Yet the ability to engage remote employees remains a skill that most leaders haven’t figured out yet.
Without employee engagement, your business suffers. A career becomes a job, employees suffer from burnout, and the mundane becomes ubiquitous. It’s this lack of vibrancy and drive that can leave managers and leaders with little sense of which direction to take.
So how do you engage remote employees?
Maybe half the battle is knowing what not to do. So use these poor engagement ideas to push out the bad vibes and that spark back to the remote office.
1. Mandate social activities
The virtual happy hour has been dubbed one of the best virtual team-building activities, as it replicates the traditional after-hours setting of the office. Yet when you mandate this activity, it loses its appeal.
Employees don’t want to feel pigeon-holed into doing a social activity, just the same as if they were in the office. Maybe they have another pressing issue at home, or maybe they want to spend the time with family. Or perhaps they don’t want to feel the urge of knocking back spritzers in front of subordinates or superiors.
Instead of mandating virtual social gatherings, simply offer them. People starved for interaction will attend, and those that don’t have time will catch the next one.
2. Ignore feedback
Feedback isn’t always something people like to hear, especially if it contains criticism. You may have inadvertently gotten feedback that you didn’t like. Perhaps your casserole fell short of your family’s expectations. Or maybe your stellar defense didn’t make up for your low on-base percentage on your beer league softball team and the captain let you know about it.
In the virtual world, feedback is everything. Don’t ignore it. The tidbits of information you receive can play a pivotal role in how you shape group activities or how you onboard new employees. While you may not want to hear what some people have to say, take their suggestions to heart. You never know when one idea might just be the one to propel employee engagement throughout the entire company.
3. Withhold recognition
The recipients of childhood participation trophies are now filling the ranks of remote companies. So maybe you find this generation a bit “soft” or you subscribe to the philosophy of tough love. But just like dramatic movies about a hardened character softened by a mix of a youthful sidekick or by circumstance, you need to remove your hardened exterior to get down to the softie inside of yourself.
Recognition isn’t unsung praise you’re handing out just for the heck of it. It’s perhaps the most effective route on how to engage remote employees. According to a 2020 report, 86% of highly engaged employees were the recipients of praise in the last year. That’s a staggering statistic that highlights the importance of recognition.
However, a simple “good job” doesn’t necessarily suffice. Instead, you should:
- Publicly praise the person on public digital channels
- Describe the scenario
- Discuss how the employee went above and beyond
- Explain the impact of that behavior on the rest of the department, team, and the company as a whole
Do it as a video for a little extra punch!
4. Get to know nothing about your staff
You’re all business all the time, right? Or do you like to hit the links or crochet in your spare time? Whether you’re Tiger Woods or Betsy Ross is really irrelevant. The more important thought is that these are activities important to you that help maintain happiness and sanity.
Treating your employees like automated robots has a similar effect to a loss of sanity and engagement. So ask yourself this: how much do you really know about your staff?
If you don’t have a satisfactory answer, this could be another reason why engaging your remote employees is faltering.
Take time to get to know a little bit about your employees. This could be as active as scheduling a one-on-one meeting or using check in questions to start your meetings.
The overarching goal is simply to show your workers that you care. That’s the most direct route toward engaging remote employees.
5. Keep people where they are
If you have a proverbial “golden goose” in your virtual workplace, you’re hesitant to move them around. Secondment isn’t an option, and neither is adding job training or workplace advancement. They’re your superstar. And superstars shine brightest when they’re right in front of you.
Alright, but seriously. It’s great to have that one stellar employee that you don’t have to supervise or worry about. It’s another thing to keep them down by refusing to offer any sort of opportunity or career advancement. Perhaps you’re doing it subconsciously, or maybe you’ve become conveniently absent-minded. Either way, you can’t afford to keep Lebron on the bench for too long.
To engage remote employees, you have to offer some semblance of a successful future. Fortunately, you have several ways to do it, even in a remote atmosphere:
- Educational stipends
- Online training modules
- Career conversations during one-on-ones or virtual lunches
When employees have the opportunity to advance and grow professionally, their engagement follows with them. Provide every chance for this type of growth, and you’ll be rewarded with more engaged and happier employees.
The constant battleground of employee engagement
Modern problems require modern solutions. You’ve probably heard it thousands of times. In the world of employee engagement, it’s more relevant than ever. Now that you know what not to do and how to amend the problems, you can turn to the final phase of engagement: tweaking what works and eliminating what doesn’t.
Through this dynamic process, employee engagement isn’t a chore; it’s an encapsulation of the mission and vision of your company. That should provide the little spark that lets employees know they’re appreciated and turns your staff into the remote workhorse that rivals the likes of Seabiscuit.
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash
