Five Ways to Keep Remote Employees Engaged

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But working from home, no matter how dreamy and ideal it may seem, it might not be so appreciated by other people. Mixing your personal life with the professional one, working, sleeping, and living in the same environment might come with negative effects too.

Moreover, always having Zoom meetings, even when those things could have been said through an email, makes many employees not have any desire to show up. Even though remote work sounds nice and dreamy, many remote employees say that they are experiencing burnout even in these more flexible working conditions. And employers strive to find ways to keep them engaged.

When returning to the traditional offices is not an option anymore, you need to find ways to keep remote employees happy and engaged. So, here are five ways you can do this.

One of the most important parts of keeping your remote employees engaged is to show that you appreciate their efforts. Working remotely is not as easy as it may seem. Yes, it comes with many advantages such as more time for yourself and less time spent commuting, flexibility, and comfort, and coziness.

But at the same time, they also need to face a lot of distractors and organize their working space accordingly. Time management is particularly difficult when working remotely, and you could help your employees get better at this. There are many techniques to help your employees with proper time management and focus on important work tasks, such as the Pomodoro method. Time tracking tools are continuously being developed, and offering your employees the opportunity to use them increases their perceived control over their job. And thus, their sense of satisfaction and engagement.

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Especially for working parents, now that online school has begun, it becomes increasingly challenging to accomplish their job tasks, but also support their children with online learning. So, as an essay writer from bestessays.com points out, it is important to recognize and appreciate the efforts of your employees. Maybe before it was easier to do this, as you could meet face-to-face.

But this does not mean that you cannot do this remotely. Reach out to employees and let them know how much you appreciate them for how they handled different work situations or came up with solutions to customers' issues. Let them know you feel lucky to have them on your team.

Many companies and employers do not want their employees to work on anything else other than their job-related tasks. They fear that employees will not accomplish their tasks because they spend time working on side-projects that do not do any good. But this is a wrong perception and approach many businesses choose.

Allowing your remote employees to take on side-projects that are related to the domain or industry of the company is something you need to do. This fosters innovations at the workplace and many big companies already have adopted this working style.

Google, LinkedIn, or Jooble are just a few of the companies that encourage their employees to work on side-projects during their working hours. Allowing the employees to take 10% of their time to work on something they love, something that is theirs will boost innovations. This is how Gmail has been invented, so why not give your employees this a chance? Employees' engagement will surely go up.

Because the current health situation is not so rosy anymore, companies are reluctant regarding returning to a traditional office. This means that parties with employees or board games evenings cannot be organized anymore. They were a nice way to keep employees engaged, but also create a space for them to meet each other and catch up.

Well, because this is not possible anymore, many companies choose to send their employees fun surprises that arrive at their doorsteps. You can choose from many package styles, such as the storytelling package, the campfire package, and so on.

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Remote employees will receive a package with some related objects and use them in fun activities. For example, a company can organize a virtual cocktail with all the employees. And each of them can prepare their own cocktail with the ingredients and tools they got in their fun surprise package.

Keeping remote employees engaged may be more challenging nowadays, given the fact that many of them say that burnout is something they feel. It is important to offer them the opportunity to relax and unwind, and more importantly, to take their mind off things and job tasks. Therefore, you can host and organize virtual classes and shows and encourage them to be part of them.

For example, you can host yoga classes, trivia games, and watch parties, or stand-up shows. Having fun together and chatting is something that will help them relax, but will keep them engaged too. Even though they cannot see their colleagues face-to-face, being part of virtual activities helps them get the social support they need.

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Well, another way to keep remote employees engaged is to create a safe environment where they feel they can talk about something else than job-related things. Because all meetings are now done online, talking about the holiday or how your day went is not so normal anymore. People log in, go online, talk about their tasks, and then exit the meeting to continue their work.

That culture of connectedness is dwindling, so you need to prevent this from happening. So, encourage managers and team leaders to save some time for chit-chat before or after the meeting. Employees need to feel safe talking about their weekend or holiday plans. But this also helps them connect and can foster interesting discussions.

Keeping your remote employees engaged is certainly more difficult than in a traditional setting. However, the fact that they are working remotely should not prevent you from doing this. There are a few ways that can help you establish a company culture where people connect to each other, where their efforts are appreciated, and where they can take a percentage of their working time to invest it in side-projects.

You can always surprise them by sending fun packages or hosting virtual classes and informal meetings. These tiny details will surely make the difference.