It’s 2022 and remote work has been going for almost the past two years due to the pandemic and looks like this trend is going to stay for a while. Keeping your workforce connected in these unprecedented times is very important as one can easily get demotivated and distracted. You have to build a strong team culture where no employees should feel left out.
Once you start remote working, your company might already have a remote work policy in place but the mere procedures and policies don’t serve the purpose. The ones who were hired remotely and are working remotely need more assistance than the other employee who already knew each other. You need to organize an online meeting to introduce all the newbies and get the connection with other employees in the team. Apart from this, you need a robust action plan where you put consistent efforts to keep your team connected. To know more, keep reading the article.
1) Use tools that keep you connected all the time:
The usual chats in the office after lunch or during any break give such instant relief. We underestimate the importance of it and realize it now because of remote working. Though these in-person talks are not possible now, you can keep your employees connected through many tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts, etc. These tools also offer plenty of other features such as sharing files, documents, and other professional information. If you’re conducting employee training, you can make use of learning management systems like Bridge Software which provides interactive features to keep the learners connected.
You can try setting up meetings like “Lunchtime Chat”, “Snacks Break” or any other event you want. But, ensure these meetings are short because they shouldn’t kill much of your time.
2) Use visual collaboration software:
When you just speak in a formal meeting with just audio, it doesn’t register in your learner’s mind. However, when you combine it with visual representation, it engages more people and keeps them connected with whatever you are saying. Your employees can also share their thoughts and ideas through a visual medium which would be easy for them as well.
3) Understand your team’s needs:
It can be difficult to put yourself in everybody’s shoes and find out what they need but there are many ways to find out what is important to your team. Talk to your employees one-on-one and find out what they need to improve online collaboration and also what they don’t like as well. You can even take a behavioral assessment and find out what they truly need.
4) Keep it informal sometimes:
During virtual meetings often the main agenda is conveyed and there would be no informal conversations, if it’s offline, there can be a chance to extend the conversation as everyone’s available in-person. But in online meetings, you should consciously try to add a little humor and make “non-business” conversations. You can also ask your teammates about their weekend plan or anything they would want to share etc. These informal conversations help you and your teammates to get to know each other better.
5) Embrace flexibility:
If you embrace flexibility by offering flexible working hours, you are in a way offering a great work experience to your employees. Allowing your employees whenever they feel like working is a proven success formula for remote working. In remote working, your employees most likely won’t have an office setup and work environment. There might be a lot of distractions at the place they live. For these very reasons, offer them flexibility in their work. Measure their productivity by what they complete by the end of the day instead of tracking for every hour.
Conclusion
To wrap up, the importance of communication has become more important than ever because of remote working. You can try out the points we mentioned but try to figure out your approach as well. Each organization operates differently so are their employees, so experiment more and find out what works for you.
