How Can Companies Keep Remote Employees Engaged?

With many companies choosing to continue working remotely, it is important to rethink traditional strategies to maximize engagement levels and create a trust-based culture, so employees feel valued. According to research by Deloitte, the feeling of belonging strengthens when employees feel committed to their team and are able to contribute to organizational goals. But how can leaders help modern-day teams feel passionate about their jobs?

In this article, we’ll dive into what employee engagement means, as well as effective strategies to foster connection, and how to apply these practices to remote workforces.

Why is employee engagement important?

Employee engagement is the degree to which employees feel motivated and happy about working at your company. With engagement assessments, we can learn aspects that contribute to job satisfaction, secure long-term retention, and even gain insights about areas of improvement.

According to estimations by Gallup, only 20 percent of employees worldwide are engaged at work. This, combined with the unprecedented number of people quitting their jobs, has turned employee engagement into a top priority for HR teams. However, this is especially tricky for remote companies, as you need to instill the camaraderie and emotional connection that may otherwise happen organically in an office setting.

The most common method to calculate employee engagement is through surveys. These should contain questions that focus on the following aspects:

• Communication between departments
• Trust among team members
• Sense of belonging
• Compliance with protocols and guidelines
• Recognition of your employees

If you’re ready to gauge your company’s employee engagement levels, the first thing we recommend is to create a survey where your employees respond based on a scale.

We suggest this type of survey because answers are straightforward and, at the end, you’ll obtain numerical data. With this insight, you can make graphs, calculate averages by team or category, and pinpoint which areas need improvement.

Some examples of the questions you can use in this type of survey are:

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest), how recognized do you feel at your workplace?
2. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest), how would you rate the communication with your manager?
3. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest), how much do you feel like an integral part of the company?

You can also use software to get further insights. For instance, by using cloud based HR systems or HRIS software, your Human Resources staff can quickly get valuable insights to help them manage employees better - and better management creates a higher level of employee engagement.

How does employee engagement impact your company?

The impact of employee engagement is palpable on both a small and large scale.

Effective employee engagement strategies translate into proactive teams. Keep in mind that if your employees feel happy, acknowledged, and motivated at their job, they will be personally invested in your company’s success.

According to Gallup, 74 percent of employees who are disengaged at work are actively looking for another job. For this reason, having high levels of employee engagement not only improves your company's work environment but also prevents your best talent from leaving or jumping ship to competitors.

On a large scale, companies with highly engaged employees often report increased productivity levels, which results in accelerated revenue growth. A well-structured engagement strategy motivates employees to seek career opportunities within your company, thus reducing turnover rates.

Poor employee engagement levels can affect your company in different ways. Here are some of the consequences you may experience:

• Weak employee relations
• Stress at work
• Difficulty in following managers’ instructions
• Communication problems between departments
• Customer dissatisfaction
• An imbalance between work and personal life

How can companies improve employee engagement?

A few simple ways to improve employee engagement that work in a remote setting are:

Organize after-hours activities

Create moments where employees can talk about what they are passionate about. For example, yoga groups, book clubs, short trips for team building or photography workshops. That way, employees not only get to know each other, but they also enjoy an atmosphere of trust and teamwork in a different environment. These outlets foster connection and can even help minimize burnout.

In the case of remote teams, bringing employees together can be more challenging. Therefore, blocking out one day a month in your employees’ schedules for team-building activities can help develop connections in a more relaxed setting.

Offer wellness programs

These programs let your employees know that you not only care about the money they make for your company but that you are invested in their health and happiness.

A successful wellness program reduces healthcare costs, provides emotional support to your employees, and boosts your team’s morale.

A few examples of wellness programs for remote teams are:

• Walking club
• Nutritional courses
• Mindfulness classes and resources
• Mental health support

These are extra perks you can give your employees, which at the end of the day can be the differentiators that make them want to stay with your company for the long term. Taking care of your employees and nurturing their wellbeing shows a more human side of your company, creating a sense of belonging. In countries like Canada, there are already separate online safety training programs for Workplace Mental Health Awareness, further emphasizing the importance of employee well-being.

Provide professional development opportunities

Did you know that in the summer of 2021 it was reported that 48 percent of U.S. employees were actively job searching or watching for job opportunities? Providing professional development opportunities is a great way to show employees you’re invested in their career goals and gives them more reason to build a long-term career with your company.

A Gallup study tells us that only 36 percent of employees in the United States are engaged. Therefore, there is a lot of room for innovation in employee engagement techniques while providing professional development opportunities for your employees.

Some examples of professional development opportunities are:

• Peer coaching: Assign senior employees to help new hires get familiarized with your company in a way that is not intimidating. This not only makes learning more enjoyable, but it also helps mentors polish their soft skills, such as communication, leadership, teamwork, etc.
• Virtual learning and online webinars: Webinars are an inexpensive and great learning tool, especially if they touch on topics your employees are passionate about and allow them to apply that knowledge to their daily tasks. For example, LinkedIn Learning is a great way to access courses and webinars in different fields, such as finance or Core HR.
• Professional certifications: Covering the costs of professional certifications gives you the benefit of having a highly trained team and deepening your employees’ expertise will optimize your company's day-to-day operations.

Review your company values constantly

Multimedia content can be a useful resource to remind employees about the company values they should respect and follow. By having clear guidelines, employees will know how to actively embody company values in any given situation.

In remote teams, being clear about what the company believes in often streamlines communication between teams of different nationalities.

When you have dispersed teams and language differences, promoting an inclusive company culture is key to maintaining engagement levels. Incorporating DEI initiatives into the workplace will also give employees a heightened sense of importance and belonging, irrespective of their diverse cultural backgrounds.

Remember that if you make any significant changes in your guidelines, protocols, or values, it is necessary to notify all your employees. This will avoid communication silos and give employees the opportunity to reassess and adapt accordingly.

Schedule one-on-one meetings with your employees

Allocate 15 or 20 minutes of your week to listen to each member of your team—it may not sound like much, but this will make a big difference! These meetings will help you discover what other ideas teams bring to the table, the goals they have, and how you can help achieve them.

In fact, giving feedback to your employees can accomplish more than just engagement, it can save you time and money! According to Atlassian, dealing with unnecessary emails can cost your company up to $1,800 annually, per employee. In addition, poorly written communications have an approximate annual cost that starts at $2,100 and can go as high as $4,100.

As an extra tip, it can also be beneficial to have calls where you bring together one or more teams. This provides a space to discuss collective challenges and exchange ideas to solve them.

It's also a way for your employees to get to know each other and apply their skills to different departments and projects. Although this may seem like a small action, cross-functional collaboration can be the difference between several areas achieving their goals or getting stuck.

Organize diversity-focused virtual events

What is one of the fundamental aspects of remote work? Being able to work with and learn from people who may not be on your side of the world. Therefore, having a company where diversity is a core value will help your employees appreciate the cultural richness that makes up your workforce.

In recent years, companies that have embraced diversity in terms of language, culture, age, and gender have seen distinct benefits. For example, a study by McKinsey indicated that companies that are in the top quartile of executive gender diversity are 25 percent more likely to have higher profits than those in the bottom quartile.

To make a diversity-focused event that makes your employees feel more engaged, you need to:

• Create a safe space for your teams to share their experiences.
• Invite speakers that align with your company's values and set a good example.
• Use inclusive language during the event.
• Check that the images or videos displayed do not offend any member of your team.
• Try to incorporate elements from the cultures that coexist in your company.

Improve communication between your teams

Being in front of a computer for several hours does not necessarily mean you are being productive or doing tasks that benefit your team's objectives. To enhance your teams’ productivity levels, you need to pay special attention to how they are communicating with each other.

Quality communication doesn’t mean spending endless hours in virtual meetings. In fact, it is estimated that unnecessary meetings cost U.S.-based companies around 37 billion.

Therefore, knowing what you want to communicate and how to communicate it will help you save time and assure that your employees have clear expectations. When team members are aligned with the company’s overall objectives, they are more likely to achieve their personal goals and be successful in the workplace.

A few strategies you can use to improve communication in your remote teams are:

• Create content, such as blogs, to inform employees about changes, achievements, and new customers your company acquires.
• Send out newsletters to inform teams about the most important news and updates.
• Encourage social networks that have an informal tone.
• Consider using animated videos to make important announcements dynamic and fun.

How can employee engagement improve the customer experience?

When employees are happy at their jobs and feel recognized for their achievements, they will naturally transmit this good energy to customers. Apart from receiving high-quality products or services, the customer experience will improve if they feel cared for, and their needs are met.

Teams with high employee engagement will go above and beyond to offer a human, empathetic, and productive service—the interaction between employee and customer transcends documentation and invoices and becomes a relationship of trust. Engaged employees will go the extra mile for a company that treats them right, motivates them, and gives them more benefits than other employers.

As you can see, the main recurring theme in many employee engagement strategies is communication, and in a remote work setting, technology can be your best ally. 8x8 is a global cloud communications platform that allows you to securely connect different applications for video calls and team chats.

With 8x8, you not only unify your teams through AI-powered workflows, but the insights and analytics feature enables real-time organization-wide reporting to make informed decisions. Learn more here.

About the guest author:

Vanessa Priego is a Content Writer for Globalization Partners, the number one Global Employment Platform™ in the market. Born and raised in Mexico, Vanessa writes about remote work, employee engagement, employee retention, and more, all related to the always-changing workforce worldwide.