Maintaining engagement within a remote team is important in ensuring everyone remains connected to the company, managers and fellow team members during periods of remote working. Ensuring people continue to feel part of a team that values their contribution will keep them engaged and motivated.
Recent studies during the pandemic have shown that working remotely can have its benefits, such as improving morale and productivity. However, there are also drawbacks and corporate culture is said to be negatively impacted when away from the workplace for extended periods of time. There are steps you can take as a manager to ensure your team remains engaged and connected with their colleagues and the business.
Make It Part Of The Process From Day One
Prevention is better than cure and encouraging open communication from the outset will set the scene for the period of remote working. When moving from office work to remote work, people will lose and gain various benefits and they will have unique and individual reactions to the situation. Some may thrive without a long commute and the comfort and convenience of working from home. Others may miss the human connection that comes from working in an office, others may struggle to work in their home environment for any number of reasons.
Providing an opportunity for employees to voice their concerns, vent, and bounce thoughts and ideas back and forth will give them an opportunity to share their experiences.
Have Constant One-to-One Meetings With The Team
Organise consistent and reliable one-to-one meetings with your staff to promote engagement and provide a platform for open communication. Regular one-to-ones will assist motivation and ensure feedback is given and received in a timely manner to ensure any issues are managed early.
Roadblocks and distractions are prone to happen at any time but especially when adapting to a new work environment. Offer opportunities for employees to reach out to you but also schedule your one-to-one meetings regularly and consistently to promote structure and reliability.
Teach The Team About Structured Feedback
Developing and maintaining a high standard of open communication can mean the difference between failure and success. Praise is a valuable tool for rewarding and encouraging people’s efforts at any time. During remote work, it can provide validation to the work people are doing despite what is most likely trying and extenuating circumstances.
Obviously, not all feedback may be of a positive nature. Educating your staff on “when”, “how” and “why” to provide feedback and also how to receive it can be very powerful. Incorporating this as early as possible into your team’s training will ensure that positive habits are formed from the beginning. A critical part of the feedback process is ensuring that there is an open, safe, non-punitive environment where feedback can be received.
If Needed, Refine Your Company’s Values
Simon Sinek defines corporate culture as values plus actions. All companies have positive, well-intentioned values. But values are meaningless if the actions of management and staff do not line up, thus creating a toxic cultural environment. Lofty and unrealistic values may be doing more harm than good if the company is not equipped to live up to them through action.
Similarly, you may find one or more of your values is not actually in line with the culture of your workplace, this isn’t necessarily a negative thing. Developing or redefining values that are grounded and achievable across all aspects of the business will demonstrate to both your employees and your customers/clients that you are capable of setting realistic expectations and are able to follow through with them. Achieving these and praising and rewarding people for doing so will boost morale through recognition and motivate people to further goal completions.
Need Help To Refine Your Processes? Contact Thornley Group Today!
Lean Six Sigma is designed to improve productivity through process improvement while assisting to reduce waste. Thornley Group offers multiple levels of Lean Six Sigma training that will help you take your HR processes to the next level. We help all businesses that struggle with staff retention and communication as well as all industries based in project management and manufacturing. Contact us for more information and start improving your corporate culture today.