As businesses embrace the work from anywhere model, priorities must shift in terms of how you manage your remote staff. In traditional offices, amenities such as large common areas and relaxed office policies were paramount in keeping employees happy.
As employees become comfortable in working from home, organizations must rethink their engagement strategies to ensure employees aren’t left feeling isolated and unheard. Think Growth Consulting provides advice that can help management teams rethink the way they work with staff during the Coronavirus pandemic. This process can be more difficult than it seems. Let’s explore a few tactics you can use to help provide support for your remote team.
Increasing Engagement Using a Focused Approach
Think about the overall objective of your organization and develop a plan to convey a unified message to all of your employees. The purpose of this strategy is to ensure that all of your employees remain on the same page.
Humans want to feel valued and feel like they have a voice. These principles become especially important during work-from-home sessions where your associates can sometimes feel like they are on an island.
Have regular group meetings that reinforce your organization’s objectives and take a proactive approach that ensures your team gets a singular focused message about your mission. Allocate the first five to ten minutes of your meeting to engaging with your associates on a personal level then take that energy and roll it into the goals your team needs to accomplish.
Your employees will appreciate the lighthearted approach to kicking off the meetings because it’s predictable, positive, and upbeat.
Delegate Authority to Associates Using Information
One of the most frustrating experiences is being given the run around by associates who seem to have no authority to perform essential functions of their jobs.
As you disseminate information via technical means, ensure that you give specific direction to your teammates to provide them the authority to make decisions. As a leader, you must create a framework of acceptable principles that govern the employee’s decision-making experiences.
As you provide your employees with increased amounts of responsibility, their morale and sense of duty will also continue to rise.
Work-At-Home Flexibility
Flexibility is the key to creating a successful work-from-anywhere atmosphere. Let’s face it, if your employees aren’t on camera, they might be working in their pajamas. Regardless of these built-in privileges, you should strive to provide a flexible environment for your employees who are working outside of the office.
Working remotely shouldn’t mean that your associates are chained to their work from home desk. In fact, research suggests that organizations that embrace the results-oriented work environment (ROWE) have happier employees who feel more engaged with the organization’s objectives.
Embrace the ROWE mentality as long as communication remains clear and concise from your associates. When you have happy remote employees, your team will remain productive, focused, and ready to take on any unforeseen challenge that may arise.
To find out how Think Growth Consulting can help supplement the efforts of your company and your team, explore our website.