Three important ways you need to engage your workforce when they’re remote
Did you know that only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work? So no surprise then that employee disengagement is a major issue for many organisations, costing billions in lost productivity each year.
Engaging your workforce can be challenging, but even more so if you’re a business manager working remotely. So what can managers who are not office-based do to boost engagement levels in their teams?
In this blog post, StaffConnect an employee engagement app transforming the employee experience by enabling employers to reach, connect and engage their entire workforce, regardless of role or location shares three important ways you can boost the engagement level of your employees, even if you manage them remotely.
1) Communicate effectively
Poor communication is proven to be at the centre of many companies roadblocks, with 86% of respondents to Fierce Inc.’s recent survey believing that poor communication and ineffective collaboration contributed to workplace failure.
For employees to feel engaged, they need to feel ‘in the loop’. Whether you’re managing a team in-office or from a remote location, ensuring no one is left in the dark about your company vision, targets and updates is key to keeping engagement levels up.
If you’re working from home or from a location away from the rest of your team, keeping up to date through effective communication will ensure that everyone’s clear on what they’re meant to be doing, how to do it and have the motivation to get there.
2) Motivate your workforce
Your employees are people, not numbers. If you want to get the most out of your team and ignite a shared passion for your company, you need to communicate with them on an individual basis.
This is easier said than done for managers who work outside of the office environment, but this doesn’t lessen its importance. For those wanting to boost team engagement and productivity from a remote location, you need to take the extra time to ensure each member of the team feels valued and listened to.
Whether you use a social media platform, internal communication platform, email or phone, ensuring you take the time to motivate your team and on an individual basis is an investment that will pay off.
3) Keep track of your team
One of the main purposes of a team manager is to keep track of workloads and help to facilitate productive working. For those taking the lead remotely, this is especially important to get right.
Employees left twiddling their thumbs due to lack of clarity on tasks or working less effectively than usual due low engagement is money down the drain for your business. Your role is to keep workforce momentum going, ensure your team are clear on their individual requirements and help them to feel as engaged as possible.
Whether you use a task management platform which allows employees to let you know the status of work or an internal communication platform that allows the team to check in and let you know if they’re unsure what to do next, getting your team onboard with communication in order to keep track is vital to optimum productivity.
The proof is in the pudding when it comes to employee engagement. Teams with high engagement levels are proven to have better productivity and performance than those that don’t. If you want to re-spark your teams productivity while working remotely, implement these tips now to get results.
StaffConnect is an employee engagement app that transforms the employee experience by enabling enterprises to connect, communicate and engage their distributed workforce, especially remote, deskless employees.
Photo by timJ
