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Did you find yourself as one of the numerous remote workers lately? A lot of organizations that needed to be up and running switched to remote working in 2020. Did your organization switch to remote working? Then you should be familiar with some issues that come up from this new working system. Results seem to have reduced in speed and efficiency. 

Consider these employee engagement best practices to keep your team motivated, productive, and inspired while working from home.

The transition to remote working has brought new challenges for employees. Boundary-setting difficulties, reduced motivation, social isolation, and communication barriers being major ones.

ESTABLISH GUIDELINES FOR REMOTE WORK

2020 made it clear  that remote work is here to stay. 2021 is buttressing the point. When the pandemic forced all manner of social places to be shut down, Cr8tify developed a flexible guideline for remote work. Establish guidelines for remote work that instill an empowering corporate culture. Aim to build your employees’ confidence by demonstrating the organization’s trust in them. Empowering employees will likely boost productivity

DEVELOP A MINDFUL COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

To give employees time and space to complete their tasks, use email to communicate nonurgent matters. Since transitioning to remote work due to COVID-19, 67% of workers in Nigeria and the world use email and Zoom to communicate with colleagues. 

Consider employees’ communication preferences. Then make it easier for them to collaborate with different tools: email, video, instant messaging, or voice calls. Put guidelines in place to explain which method of communication is appropriate, depending on the content. Keep your workers informed about company developments.

GET EMPLOYEES FEEDBACK

For a company to keep its team members invested, employee input is critical. Use employee feedback to measure employee engagement, set a benchmark, and find areas for improvement.

Employee feedback is especially important for understanding how your remote workers are doing. Without the opportunity to meet face-to-face or gauge nonverbal cues, surveys are an ideal way to measure employee engagement when working remotely.

RECOGNIZE AND APPRECIATE EMPLOYEE WINS

When remote, employees’ hard work might be overlooked  because out of sight, out of mind. It’s more challenging, but not impossible, to identify high-performing employees when your team is remote.

Find opportunities to appreciate your remote workers at a time when they need it most. After all, recognition is a driving force behind employee high performance. To motivate your team while everyone is working from home, consider sending out email roundups to recognize outstanding work and highlight wins. Send these celebratory messages regularly as a part of your internal communication strategy.

Encourage employees to express appreciation by nominating a team member. 

SCHEDULE FACETIME ONCE IN A WHILE

Effective communication depends on nonverbal cues, such as facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice. In remote settings, virtual meetings can help clarify messages and avoid misunderstandings.

But with Zoom fatigue on the rise, one of the most critical employee engagement best practices for remote workers is to avoid unnecessary meetings.

This article has highlighted a few simple ways of ensuring high engagement and high performance from every remote worker. Cr8tify used these strategies in 2020 and is still making use of them.