Remote work is the new normal. There are now more hybrid and fully remote workers than ever.
Working from home offers several benefits, including better work-life balance, savings on travel costs, and freedom to work from anywhere. For employers, it provides access to the best talent in the global pool.
But it also has its fair share of disadvantages.
Workers no longer have water cooler chats with their fellow employees, organic conversations during lunch, or team events like birthday celebrations and lunches. This lack of engagement may make employees lose their sense of belonging and leave them feeling lonely and unappreciated. Not to mention the numerous distractions like roommates, social media, and chores that face remote working.
Companies that prioritize employee engagement have workplaces full of happy, productive people. With an employee engagement program, you’ll keep workers engaged and productive.
Here’s how you can keep your remote employees engaged.
1. Gamify your teamwork
Gamification helps motivate and engage employees by applying game-playing elements to everyday tasks. It encourages competition and rewards a job done well, making it an effective engagement strategy.
Employees need to feel a sense of belonging. They need to feel included in activities as part of the team. Creating a gamification culture allows you to set goals for your teams. Launch contests to keep them engaged and focused on the goals and improve overall productivity. Happy employees are 13% more productive.
Come up with gamelike goals and team-based competitions that allow employees to earn rewards when accomplished. These can help foster relationships between teammates and build collaboration.
There are several ways you can use gamification to engage remote employees, such as:
- Implementing contests
- Rewarding achievements
- Offering bonuses and points reward systems
- Implementing interactive leaderboards
- Goal-tracking progress bars
Remote workers are more prone to loneliness and lack of motivation, resulting in disengagement. By incorporating gamification, employees will be more motivated to achieve the set goals.
2. Encourage and promote work-life balance
As much as remote working offers flexibility and freedom to work from convenient locations, it can blur the work-life balance for remote employees. Since the office can be anywhere, work may eat up time meant for spending with family or doing other non-work-related tasks.
This may result in employee burnout, lack of motivation, and loss of focus on the goals. Employers should encourage and promote a healthy work-life balance in remote employees to avoid burnout.
Encourage your workers to work during regular hours and create boundaries between work and personal life. Full Contact, a software firm, offers their workers a “paid paid” vacation to go anywhere they like. Employees must actually go on holiday and not engage with anything work-related, including answering calls and emails.
You may not offer the same thing, but you could offer a few days off, shorter workdays, or suggest people go on an occasional long weekend.
3. Prioritize personal development and employee wellness
The health of your workers is vital and should be one of your priorities. When they are sick, they can’t perform at their best. Their health affects not only your company’s bottom line but also your relationship with them.
When employees feel they matter and their well-being is important, they’re more likely to stay with you longer and feel valued. Also, encourage personal development in their career and personal growth.
You can develop wellness programs such as:
- Creating fitness challenges such as running groups
- Encouraging employees to join programs like Charity Miles, where they can turn their jogging or running into a fundraiser for a charity of their choice
- Prioritizing mindful breaks
- Offering or rewarding workers with courses for their personal growth
- Offering comprehensive health benefits that include mental health and therapy
Involve your employees when creating wellness programs – ask them what would help promote their physical and emotional well-being. Your budget may not allow for every program, so be creative!
4. Recognize and reward employee contributions
When you recognize an employee’s contribution, either individually or in a team, you foster feelings of appreciation and recognition. Remote workers may feel unappreciated when their hard work goes unrecognized.
Rewarding employees after hitting a goal is an effective form of positive reinforcement. They are likely to replicate the behavior in the future. Companies can implement a rewards and recognition program to show how much they value their workers for the great work they accomplish every day.
Whether you want to reinforce good behavior or boost engagement, there are various approaches you can take, including:
- Gifts and bonuses
- Peer-to-peer recognition
- Points systems
- Gamification and contests
- Badges
- Public recognition
Rewarding your employees makes you a better employer and encourages friendly competition.
5. Host informal meetings and casual hangouts
Since remote workers are physically disconnected, provide these opportunities intentionally. Host virtual social events where workers can connect outside of work-related conversations. These could be anything from virtual concerts to game nights and cocktail-making classes. Workers can engage without discussing stressful work issues and feel like they’re part of the team.
Ensure the events are structured so that everyone can take part. A social event where talkers keep talking and the silent ones stay quiet is not a successful engagement.
Implement an employee engagement program with Crewhu
Through digital transformation, companies can leverage the efficiency and effectiveness of remote working. However, workers are more prone to disengagement due to a lack of physical connection with their peers.
Crewhu is an employee recognition platform that helps companies implement an engagement program so employees remain motivated and productive. With our program, you can seamlessly gamify your metrics, recognize your workers, and award them for a job well done.
The results? A highly engaged and productive team.
Let us help you improve employee engagement. Book a Crewhu demo today.
