• Branding & Design
  • Kickstart Your Business
  • Logo Design
  • More
    • Infographics
    • Social Interest
    • Free Goods
    • Using Designkiki
  • Design Your Logo
  • Branding & Design
  • Kickstart Your Business
  • Logo Design
  • More
    • Infographics
    • Social Interest
    • Free Goods
    • Using Designkiki
  • Design Your Logo
Kickstart Your BusinessSocial Interest

How to keep your remote team engaged while Working from Home

Niharika JamarNiharika JamarApril 28, 20201,987 Comments268.2k

In the weeks since COVID-19 began its rapid spread throughout the globe, more and more companies have decided to protect their employees with emergency work-from-home duties. While working from home was already relatively common in many industries, many Thankfully, most organizations are equipping and have equipped themselves to continue business-as-usual by suddenly shifting gears and adopting work-from-home practices.

“This is unprecedented. It may change the workplace forever. Everyone will need to embrace a different sort of workplace behavior.

– Ann Francke, head of Chartered Management Institute

 

Having the right tech tools in place for your now-remote team is essential, but you also need a plan for keeping everyone engaged and focused on their work. Most families are now quarantined in their homes together, so employees are now facing more distractions than there might typically be. On top of that, your team may be feeling anxious about their health and safety, so employers must be mindful of how those fears may impact productivity in the coming weeks and months.

Glitches during remote work-

Communication

“Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Communication is considered to be one of the biggest challenges for remote teams. Where mix-ups and errors can occur even with systematic face to face communication, yet cutting-edge technology doesn’t promise that something won’t be lost in translation.

Productivity

For some, remote work improves performance thanks to the lack of distractions like background noise, chatty colleagues, a strict schedule, and commuting. The others stand on the opposite foot – lack of office environment makes it harder to concentrate, lack of accountability disrupts daily working routines, there are even more distractions at home.

Lack of involvement

Remote employees can sometimes feel isolated and disconnected from the rest of the company. Not being able to connect personally with team members may cause remote employees to feel like they are not a part of the company’s culture and essential company moments.

Lack of Accountability

With remote work comes less control. It is not easy to manage and track everything that a remote employee does especially if their work is not highly measurable

Security Challenges

If your business deals with sensitive data, remote work can bring risks and challenges. When you put something online, especially when it goes public, it’s almost impossible to take it all back.

 

Why is it important to keep your team engaged while they are working remotely?

 

Employee engagement is an integral part of company principles and provides long-term benefits for the ones that have chosen to make an effort in it. Commitment is based on the indication of trust between the employees and the organization, where promises and obligations are understood and fulfilled from both sides. 

Being and feeling that you are a part of the team with clear goals, secure and authentic values, and a supportive environment helps employees know that they are valued and have a positive impact on business growth. The companies that understand that their employees are the most valuable asset to their business and make sure they support developing new skills recognize achievements, give and ask for regular feedback and empower their employees’ growth. And it is relatively more natural when you have employees by your side in the office.

Remote employees often feel left out because they are located outside of the company’s physical office and hence, find it hard to align with company culture. So, for remote team management, there’s an additional necessity to ensure that the remote colleagues are treated as equal members of the team and are involved in the company’s decisions.

Here’s what you can do

Create a virtual workplace

To keep the workflows moving, create a virtual office for employees. Invest in the best video conferencing and collaboration tools. Create a forum for employees to share personal as well as professional updates. Try to assign collaborative tasks weekly, encouraging team members to work together, and stay connected. Further, to keep up their morale and boost their moods, you can create virtual team activities like online multiplayer games, quizzes. Or you can even encourage them to learn new things and share them with their colleagues.

Keep your team updated

The key to success as a fully remote team is consistent, transparent communication. This is especially important as the coronavirus situation unfolds and changes. You’ll want to ensure that you have multiple ways to reach employees, including chat software and email, and err on the side of overcommunication. Prepare compelling presentations to keep them engaged and inspired and provide them with all possible updates through communication channels. 

Dodge Micromanagement

For companies that are used to a traditional office environment, it can be tempting for leaders to check in regularly to make sure employees are on task while they’re working from home. However, micromanaging your team will only make them feel like you don’t trust them; engaging your remote workers starts with a high-trust culture. Keep your communication channels open for them and let your team work autonomously. 

“When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.”

Stephen R. Covey

Lead by examples

If your organization isn’t used to working from home, they may still be adjusting to their new home office, whatever that might look like. As a leader, you can model what a good remote work setup looks like, especially during your video conferences. Avoid or remove any disorder in the background that can distract others in a meeting. 

Build a feedback mechanism

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”

Bill Gates

Your team is going to take some time to adjust to the change that the pandemic has rendered upon us. We recommend setting up an employee engagement survey, if you don’t have one in place already, to understand the general mood within your remote workforce. Ask them how the whole process of “work from home” can be improved for them, and what you as a manager can do to keep them on their toes. Upon receiving feedback, you can act accordingly. 

Create a Work-from-Home Policy

Clarity is crucial for remote workers to be productive. Therefore, if you do have remote employees, you should also have a work-from-home policy. Even if you support flexibility, some rules should be applied, as this helps employees feel like they are a part of your organizational culture. This will show your team how serious you are about keeping things going. 

Delegate responsibilities

Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Showing trust to the employees by delegating them some of the duties that affirm their position in the company is an efficient way to show them what role they play in the team. By considering their ideas, giving them the lead in the meeting, and by including them in activities that are outside of their scope of responsibilities, you remind them that they are part of the whole team just as much as their other colleagues are.

 

Conclusion 

 

In the past few months, normalcy has been taken away from our lives by the Coronavirus pandemic. As we are trying to accept the forced work from home culture, it is becoming more and more thorny for teams to perform to their fullest and deliver to their superiors. At the same time, managers are finding it inconvenient to keep their teams on their toes while they are working from home. These problems will keep on existing as long as we let them; the best we can do is take the situation for its face value and get a grip on things we can. Most importantly, always think in terms of solutions because focusing on the problems gives us more of them. 

 

The previous editions of this selection were quite a hit, so feel free to check them out, as well :

SURVIVING CORONA VIRUS: HOW SMALL BUSINESS CAN GET THROUGH THE GLOBAL CRISES

WAYS TO MANAGE FREELANCE STRESS AND INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY

🦠Always Wanted To Take Your Business Online? 😷 This Is The Right Time

GET THE BEST 😇 OUT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: THE RIGHT TIME TO GET INTO 😇 FREELANCING

Don’t Let These COVID-19 😌 Myths Cloud Your Judgment.

  • corona lockdown
  • corona virus
  • COVID 19
  • designkiki
  • designkiki logo service
  • dream logo
  • logo service
  • onlinelogomaker
  • stay home stay safe
  • work from home

Niharika Jamar
Niharika Jamar

Niharika Jamar is a young design aspirant with an unquenched thirst for knowledge and an ever-growing curiosity. Always on the hunt of books and fads, she has a distinctive flair for art. She gets a kick out of filling her work with tiny little details that can sometimes be hard to spot. Fond of typography, you can often place her lapped up, scribbling random words with spiraling curves. Her inability to sit idle makes her a part of Team DesignKiki, and she holds the position of a writer and publishes articles and blogs for the better of the design community.




Related Articles

What is a Personal Website and Why Do You Need One+Tips
Kickstart Your Business

What is a Personal Website and Why Do You Need One+Tips

nalini jamarnalini jamarMarch 18, 2021
7 tips to amp up your professional website
Kickstart Your Business

7 tips to amp up your professional website

nalini jamarnalini jamarFebruary 9, 2021
Kickstart Your Business

Working with a freelancer. A boon or a bane?

Niharika JamarNiharika JamarNovember 12, 2020
Kickstart Your Business

12 Recession-Proof Business Ideas That Can Never Go Wrong

Niharika JamarNiharika JamarOctober 22, 2020
5 Comments
  1. Avatar오리엔탈 카지노 April 7, 2021 at 4:19 am Reply

    First of all I want to say wonderful blog! I had a quick question in which I’d
    like to ask if you don’t mind. I was interested to
    know how you center yourself and clear your mind before writing.
    I’ve had a tough time clearing my thoughts in getting
    my ideas out there. I truly do enjoy writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15
    minutes are lost simply just trying to figure out how to begin. Any recommendations or hints?
    Thanks!

  2. Avatar카지노 사이트 April 7, 2021 at 3:44 am Reply

    Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering
    if you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates.
    I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was hoping
    maybe you would have some experience with something like this.

    Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog
    and I look forward to your new updates.

  3. Avatar룰렛 게임 April 7, 2021 at 3:35 am Reply

    Your style is very unique compared to other people I’ve read stuff from.

    I appreciate you for posting when you’ve got the opportunity, Guess I will just bookmark this page.

  4. Avatar예스 카지노 April 7, 2021 at 2:30 am Reply

    I am sure this piece of writing has touched all the
    internet viewers, its really really fastidious paragraph on building
    up new weblog.

  5. Avatar인터넷바카라 April 7, 2021 at 2:05 am Reply

    A person necessarily lend a hand to make severely posts
    I might state. This is the first time I frequented your web page and up
    to now? I surprised with the research you made to
    make this particular post amazing. Excellent activity!

« Older Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

FREE BUSINESS CARD TEMPLATES

SEE MORE

FREE LOGO DESIGN TEMPLATES

SEE MORE
  • Blog
  • Branding & Design
  • Free Goods
  • Infographics
  • Kickstart Your Business
  • Logo Design
  • Social Interest
  • Using Designkiki
  • Design Your Logo
  • Company Information
  • Start Your Logo
  • About Us
  • Contact

Follow Us

@ 2020 Design Kiki