6 Ways to Promote Employee Engagement and Productivity

The worldwide pandemic has hastened the rise of remote labor heavily. Today, 67% (two-thirds) of employees work remotely. If not adequately managed, employees working remotely may face many obstacles.

Engaging remote working employees ensures that the team is as effective and accurate as possible. Remote work is difficult for many since they have to face several distractions at home, such as housework, housemates, social networks, etc.

The need is to get away with such deviations and motivate your employees to concentrate on work. Perhaps, asking your workers about their job and their enthusiasm levels is the most straightforward approach to measure their levels of engagement. You may also keep track of activities on projects and address any issues regarding their efficiency.

Employee engagement strongly influences good business culture where employees feel fulfilled, and the management acknowledges their accomplishments. Nevertheless, working from home might make it tough to interact with colleagues and even more challenging when onboarding new remote employees for the first instance. Here are the top 6 ways to promote employee engagement when working from home to make things easier.

Enhancing Employee Engagement in a Remote Setting

For a long time, the corporate world has been associating the term ‘employee engagement’ with loyalty, dedication, and emotional attachment to one’s employment. The more interested an individual is, the more likely they are to enhance their productivity. Even with remote working, things have remained more or less the same. The difference, however, lies in the methods to acquire employee engagement. The digital adoption platform has contributed heavily to this matter.

Organizations must do their best to provide their teams with whatever is required. They must be increasingly purposeful than ever to foster engagement and ensure productivity. Here are the five best ways to promote employee engagement and productivity in a remote work setting.

1. Organize Virtual Meetings and Hangouts

Many distant teams communicate daily using video calls, email, instant messaging, and video conferencing tools. A conference call can be a practical approach to encouraging group cooperation while the entire team is working. Tools for coordination and interaction, such as Google Hangouts, Zoom Meetings, etc., are also available.

It is also crucial to schedule online get-togethers to identify problems faced by your employees and provide prompt resolutions. Several team-building activities like informal video chats could also help engage the employees. The happier and more relaxed employees are, the more chances to improve productivity are.

2. Encourage Explicit Verbal Communication

One of the most important ways to promote employee engagement and productivity in a remote workplace is to encourage verbal communication. Individuals find it hard to comprehend each other in distant settings because they lack the usual slew of social signals that arise effortlessly in the same environment.

Without additional knowledge, people have to work considerably harder, which can cause exhaustion, headaches, and indifference about “showing up” on screen. So, be as vocally specific as appropriate, rather than depending on nonverbal indicators such as body language. As per statistics, higher levels of employee engagement outperform in terms of profitability by 21%. Productive verbal communication is hence essential.

3. Promote Health and Wellbeing

The wellness of your employees must always be on the top of your company’s priority list. If any of your team members get ill during work, they will be unable to perform at their best. Incentivize your employees to go outside and exercise or build a healthy routine.

It will benefit your employees’ health and help them come together. Adopt methods to promote positive habits more accessible, such as offering a longer midday interval for exercises or enabling them to leave early on a lovely day.

4. Take Time to Acknowledge Employee Achievements

Staff appreciation has a positive impact on employee engagement. Remote employees are especially vulnerable to going unrecognized for their efforts and successes. While many organizations might have mechanisms of offering acknowledgment in person, the recently vibrant work-from-home environment has interrupted these systems.

Employees may strengthen their connections with their colleagues by offering and receiving pleasant and individualized praise. Furthermore, features such as nominations can help recreate previously existing procedures where individuals may vote for colleagues for specific badges that correlate to certain rewards.

5. Create Innovative New Goals

Employees operating from a remote workplace are prone to face disconnection from the company’s environment. This makes it extremely difficult to inspire them to achieve something big. Hence, spending time creating and attaining clear objectives is among the most effective ways to promote employee engagement and productivity.

While the uncertainties persist, establishing short-term goals and objectives could be the perfect way to start. This gives people a sense of purpose in their job. These feasible objectives can have an encouraging result and a possible incentive. Goals can directly influence an employee’s engagement and the company’s growth.

6. Use a Digital Adoption Platform

Instead of depending on monotonous manuals to instruct employees about the working of a business process, you can make it interactive with the help of a Digital Adoption Platform. Apty is one of the best tools for this as it helps employees know about the processes in detail. The DAP tool helps increase employee engagement, whether employee onboarding training or introducing a new business process.

Conclusion

A 2021 research found that 73% of employees would contemplate quitting their employment given the appropriate opportunity. Focusing on employee engagement is hence critical in avoiding such a scenario. It is essential to adopt various methods on a needs basis to promote employee engagement and productivity in the long run.