Company leaders everywhere are struggling to bring workers back into the office as the COVID-19 Pandemic drags into its third year. With more and more companies switching to permanent work-from-home arrangements or hybrid models, employee expectations have shifted. In order to retain and attract talent, businesses are being forced to come to terms with the idea that remote work is here to stay in one form or another.
If your organization is still grappling with the idea of adopting a permanent work-from-home offering, you may be trying to wrap your head around the long-term impact. Sure, maybe you made it through the first year of the pandemic, but how will a remote work environment impact employee engagement long term? Will it set you back in terms of results?
You’re not alone – thousands of company leaders are working through the same concerns. In fact, this is a common question business consultants hear daily across the corporate landscape.
While a permanent work from home arrangement may help retain and attract employees, changes to management strategy are a must in order to prevent a decline in engagement, motivation, and production.
Understanding Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is easy to observe in a physical setting. You can easily see who arrives on time, observe employee focus, and have quick check-ins with your team when needed. Monitoring engagement in a remote setting is an entirely different story.
Your number one indicator of engagement in a remote environment is going to be results. However, these metrics can take some time to understand. Leaders often wait to see a long-term impact on production and engagement before taking corrective action or adjusting their approach.
The good news is there are actions you can take today that will help increase and sustain employee engagement in a remote work environment. Here are some tips:
Be Clear On Goals and Expectations
Working from home gives employees more hours in the day, but it also requires them to practice more discipline in order to stay engaged. To drive that discipline, managers need to be clear on expectations and goals (both short- and long-term).
Keep in mind that working remotely is an adjustment for many employees, and some will lack the initial discipline to structure their own work. This doesn’t mean they’re poor performers; it just means a more active management approach may be required in the short term until your team adapts. Here are some strategies to help reshape your management approach without micromanaging:
- Establish The Big Picture First
Helping employees understand how their work contributes to your organization’s larger mission can help drive motivation. Sparking motivation is key to driving engagement remotely. Talk with your team about the organization’s goals and help them connect their daily work to the bigger picture. - Break Down Your Vision Into SMART goals
Once your team is clear on the big picture, set SMART goals for your team. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. - Use A Task Management Tool To Delegate
Task management tools such as Trello or Smartsheet make it easy for you to delegate and to hold teams accountable. These platforms also make progress transparent. Task management tools are a great way to keep everyone on the same page in a remote environment.
Increase Communication
Maintaining regular communication is absolutely critical for sustaining engagement and motivation. Establishing goals and monitoring progress requires frequent check-ins, but communication is more than just managing business outcomes. It’s also about building and sustaining personal connections too. Make sure your calls aren’t just about business – check in on your team’s well-being as well. Here are some tips to sustain communication:
- Schedule weekly check-ins or even 15 minute daily syncs each morning.
- Leverage video chat platforms; face-to-face interaction is even more important in a remote environment.
- Make yourself available for quick calls or check-ins as needed.
- Plan casual hangout meetings and non-work-related conversations.
If your team is in the same area, you may even consider an occasional “office day” where you bring the group into the office or a common workspace. Whiteboarding, brainstorming, and innovation tend to suffer in a remote environment, by bringing the team together on occasion, you can improve collaboration and develop new ideas.
Set The Example
As a leader, you need to make sure you’re engaged and present while working remotely. Your team will model your own behavior, so be the example you want to see across your organization. Make sure you’re online during working hours and respond promptly to emails. Be available to your team through chat or video. If you’re absent or not available, your team is more likely to become less engaged.
Encourage Employees To Create A Routine
When working remotely, the line between work and home life can easily blur. There are also many distractions at home, which can create scenarios where employees are “working”, but aren’t 100% tuned-in. To combat this, establish strict start times and try to encourage your employees to maintain regular routines. For example, getting dressed in the morning can help you establish the right mental mindset to begin the workday. Encourage teams to take lunch and breaks at the same time each day.
Remote work is here to stay in some form or fashion. The good news is, most firms can adapt to a remote model without sacrificing results. The key is to sustain employee motivation, which may require some minor adjustments to your in-office management style.
Business consultants can help companies develop a remote work strategy that fits their business model. If you’re looking for an experienced business consultant to help drive remote work engagement at your company, contact us at Lilly Consulting today.
