How to keep remote employees motivated and engaged
A recent report by Cisco found that 90 percent of employees in the UAE want to work in either a hybrid or fully remote working model in the future. let that sink
It’s really no surprise. We’ve heard countless testimonials about the benefits of hiring globally, whether it’s from executives who have found remote working helps increase employee productivity or employees who have found a much better work-life balance with these new ways of working .
This should encourage organizations to take a long-term, remote-first approach. However, given the lack of face-to-face communication and the benefits of being engaged in the office, building a great distributed workforce culture is not easy. But it’s more than possible.
Whether the organization is fully distributed or hybrid, the distributed team deserves an investment in a remote work culture.
According to a FlexJobs study, a toxic workplace culture was the leading cause of employees quitting their jobs, especially during the Great Resignation. At the same time, companies that foster a culture of learning and improvement have been able to retain their employees for almost twice as long as the average retention period of 2.9 years.
It highlighted that employees are approximately 400 percent more likely to feel engaged in their role when leaders nurture interpersonal connections, foster belonging, and celebrate success in the workplace.
Engagement correlates with increased employee satisfaction and retention, which can even have a positive impact on company profitability.
In addition, the use of technology can strengthen a company culture.
Encourage employee resource groups
Employee Resource Groups are employee-led groups where employees gather in a safe space to discuss and support common goals and experiences. These groups encourage employees to build trust with their colleagues, make friends, and bring their full selves to work every day.
The groups can help distributed workers bond because they don’t have a physical office space to spend time together like office workers.
When implemented correctly at an enterprise-wide level, they can help identify problems before they escalate and reduce the possibility of the environment becoming toxic.
Groups dedicated to mental health are particularly helpful in organizations that adopt global settings, as the time difference can hamper communication and the lack of water coolers can lead to personal chats isolating in a distant environment.
Talk to employees about career development
Encourage employees, once they are more permanent in their role, to be transparent with their manager on areas of growth and see if they can use their experience to make a bigger contribution.
This could be organizing team meetings to work together, creating a training session where they excel, or meeting a team member weekly one-on-one to review and act as a leader.
Have a common goal to encourage collaboration
Shared visions and shared goals create a bond between leaders and employees that enables them to celebrate successes and overcome failures as a team.
Although we are unique individuals with different ambitions, once employees join a team within a particular organization, it is not all about professional growth; it is also about the growth of the company.
For this reason, leaders should focus on creating a common goal and encouraging employees to work together to achieve it.
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Sharing the results also shows here – when the team knows what a difference they are making, they feel motivated to do more.
Intentionally create and encourage connections and mentoring
Managers should make themselves available to develop personal relationships with employees at all levels and encourage other managers to do the same for less experienced colleagues.
Leaders can provide more up-and-coming talent with a unique insight into company priorities and share stories and tips from their own career development. Providing employees with a pre-call meeting template or guidelines can help them be prepared to make the most of their time.
Mentoring relationships can strengthen the bond between employees. More than 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies implement mentoring programs, and many have found positive impacts on various aspects of corporate culture, such as diversity and better employee experiences.
In closing, whether employees are working from the office or choosing to work remotely, leaders need to establish a team culture to keep everything and everyone together.
As a business leader, you should remember that hiring a world-class workforce depends on the values the company promotes.
Tarek Salam is the Head of Mena Expansion at Deel
Updated October 11, 2022 at 4:00 am