If we go back in time to about 5 years from now, nobody would have ever imagined that almost all organizations would go remote but here we are, today, accepting remote working culture as the new normal.
Did you know statistics from Findstack stated that 16 per cent of companies have gone completely remote with their operations?
Moreover, the same statistics also assert that 77 per cent of the workers claimed that working remotely makes them more productive. However, in order to get the most out of your remote workers, it is essential that you support them.
A quote from Richard Branson fits accurately here stating,” Take care of your employees and they will take care of your business”.
Hence, it is essential that in order to keep your remote team engaged, motivated, and retained in the workplace, it is imperative that you should support your remote employees in every possible sense. Because it is simple math that applies here, the greater the support you extend to your employees the more they will be dedicated to taking care of your business.
Methods Employers Can Extend Support to Remote Workers
That being the case, this blog will effectively highlight the top five methods employers can apply to support remote employees. So let us dive right into the blog without further ado.
1. Frequent Feedback Sessions
With respect to time, the demands of employees are also transforming, and feedback is becoming one of the top priorities of employees, especially when working remotely. The main reason behind the same is when employees are working remotely, employers or managers often neglect the need of providing feedback.
This reflects that you as an employer do not value your employees working from home. To validate, as per statistics, employees who are ignored by their manager feel twice more disengaged than employees who do not.
Hence, in order to offer support to your remote team, you should foster a culture of feedback. These feedback sessions will assist in keeping them more informed about their performance and key areas that require improvement. This will contribute to the enhancement of their efficiency which will ultimately add to organizational productivity.
Along with this, when you will offer support to your employees by providing them constant feedback on their performance it engages them and keeps them motivated to perform better.
This will also contribute to retaining them and can also lower the turnover rates. To substantiate, companies that provide regular employee feedback have 14.9 per cent lower turnover rates than organizations that do not invest in feedback.
2. Organize virtual wellness programs
With the people working on-site, it is easier to offer them support by organizing various engagement activities and wellness programs. However, when it comes to remote employees, employers often find it difficult to engage them and include them in wellness programs like onsite employees.
If that is the case, in your workplace too, then you can try engaging them through virtual wellness programs through online mediums such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Skype, and so on.
Some of the effective ideas that you can use to engage your remote employees are mentioned below:
- Host virtual happy hours.
- Organize virtual fitness activities.
- Circulate health maintenance tutorials.
- Organize healthy brainstorming sessions
These wellness programs will assist in maintaining their mental and physical health even by working remotely and this way you can support your remote workers and enhance their engagement in the workplace.
3. Support their work-life balance
It is often perceived by many onsite working professionals that remote workers enjoy the flexibility of pursuing their work from home. However, this fact is often neglected that while working from home they often forget to draw the line between their work and personal life.
Hence, as an employer, it is your responsibility to offer support to your remote employees and make sure that their work-life balance is not disrupted because of this.
Employees often work beyond their working hours when they feel pressured or overburdened by their assigned roles and responsibilities.
Hence, you should make sure your employees are assigned work according to their reasonable capabilities. Along with this, you can also organize various stress management and time management sessions for your employees to make sure that they do not feel pressured because of their work.
You can recommend they follow the Pareto Principle as an effective method of managing their tasks and time.
Furthermore, you can also offer the flexibility of time to them in order to reduce their stress and make them more productive. To validate, as per statistics, 78 per cent of those employees shared that flexible work arrangements have made them feel more productive.
4. Recognize their efforts
Did you know as per statistics, recognition enhances employee engagement, productivity, and performance by 14 per cent? Recognizing on-site is comparatively easy because when workers are working in front of your eyes, it is easy to keep a record.
On the other hand, keeping records of remote workers is difficult and for that, you can effectively use various productivity and time trackers on your remote workers’ devices. This will assist in keeping records and based on that, you can reward your employees. Rewarding them will assist you in enhancing their productivity and engagement.
Moreover, personalizing rewards based on the preferences and needs of remote employees will assist in engaging them more efficiently. For example, for people who like binge-watching, you can offer them a Netflix subscription as a token of appreciation.
This will benefit the overall profitability and growth of the company. Along with this, when you recognize their efforts, it boosts their confidence and morale which will support them in encouraging them to perform more efficiently.
To substantiate, as per statistics, a well-designed recognition program can help drive an 11.1 per cent increase in average employee performance.
5. Avoid favouritism
Favouritism is one of the most common ethical issues that are prevalent in the contemporary world.
Moreover, managers tend to be more inclined toward the employees working on-site than remotely. This can be perceived as a clear indication of favouritism. In fact, many pieces of research have proven that we are more inclined towards people whom we see or meet more often.
Hence, in order to support your remote employees, it is essential for you to avoid favouritism in the workplace.
The major reason is that biases of any sort between your on-site and remote employees will demotivate your employees working remotely which can contribute to their disengagement.
How HR can support remote employees
Here are some practical ways HR can support remote employees today:
- Frequent feedback sessions.
- Organize virtual wellness programs.
- Support their work-life balance.
- Recognize their efforts.
- Avoid favouritism.
To encapsulate, it is an undeniable fact that employees are the biggest asset of any company. Hence, it is really crucial for you to take care of and support your employees to make them more productive and efficient.
Moreover, with the remote working culture getting normalized, it is essential to implement the above-given ways and extend support to your remote workers as well.
Being an educational writer at ‘The Speaking Polymath’ Jessica Robinson puts her dedicated efforts to bring into notice every subject which affects the lives of her readers. She is so enthusiastic about it that she spends days into research before penning her thoughts down. Further, her extraordinary work itself speaks volumes about her love for writing.
