Inclusivity promotes efficiency in the business. There are several ways by which your employees can feel more inclusive in the organization. One such example is ‘Employee Engagement.’ Whether your organization works from the office or remotely, conducting employee engagement boosts your team’s morale. It reflects the idea that the company believes in a positive work culture that provides the best customer experience and equally cares for the employee’s well-being.

Now post-pandemic, we have seen a tremendous shift in the working culture of businesses. According to a January 2024 study, 17% of companies have switched to 100% work-from-home mode, up from 70% in 2022. The study covered over 500 companies with over one million employees. With such an increasing rate, organizations are navigating ways to keep engaging with employees remotely.

However, at times it can be comparatively challenging to drive the same level of enthusiasm from a remote-based engagement as an office-premise activity. There are factors such as the comfort of home, being alone rather than working around employees, and the feeling of being disconnected and isolated can affect the employees.

To bridge this gap, today we have brought 15 exciting ideas for you that cover diverse ways organizations can accelerate remote employee engagement. Before delving into numerous ways of employee engagement, let us first clarify the basics about why employee engagement is important.

The Role of Employee Engagement:

Employee Engagement, as the term explains, is about an employee’s emotional involvement in the organization towards the well-being and growth of the business.

It reflects how much an employee is mentally engaged in the company. Now you may wonder why employee engagement is a crucial factor to discuss. The answer to it in simple words is – an employee’s involvement is directly equivalent to the overall productivity of the business.

If an employee feels motivated, appreciated, and enjoys their work, they will surely be more dedicated to achieving their goals. Being motivated and getting recognized helps firms and increases employee retention rate, and growth exponentially.

Employee Engagement in Remote Setting:

Did you know that proximity has a significant impact on an employee’s performance and visibility in an organization? When the work is set in a remote basis, employee interaction is only limited to being virtual. It reflects limitations in many areas, for example in terms of peer interaction, participation in various activities, or highlighting caliber in research or tasks other than allotted arenas.

By far now, it is agreeable that employee engagement can be a challenge in remote settings. So, are there any ways by which if not eliminate at least tremendously minimize the challenges and improve employee engagement?

The answer is YES. It is possible to improve employee engagement even in remote settings.

To navigate how let us discuss in detail the below ideas and learn to adopt these ideas:

15 Best Ideas to Improve Remote Employee Engagement

1. Co-Worker Recognition

Getting appreciated by peers and colleagues gives a boost to employees. When challenging work is recognized and appreciated among the team it helps to boost confidence and strengthens relationships.

For remote employees, teams can plan out ways like sharing positive feedback, discussing brainstorming strategies, or just sharing an email regarding planning or conducting meetings.

The key is if employees cannot work in the same environment, then they can interact through a common medium together so that the sense of unity and teamwork remains intact.

Not only does it promote co-worker relationships but also it is a great team-building exercise.

2. Amplify Customer Testimonials

Customer feedback boosts employee morale for sure! Every firm, be it service-based or product-based, believes in constantly improving their services based on the feedback received by the users.

This feedback is a terrific way to improve employee engagement. Organizations can adopt this approach and practice it in a common platform that is used by the whole company.

Or a community can be built to share these testimonials, to make it more interesting and employee-engaging, you can highlight the appreciation received by customers either for any work done or else giving applause to a particular employee.

3. Monthly, Quarterly, or Annual Recognition

Awards are the best way of recognizing and appreciating work. Facilitating employees based on work done gives a boost and motivation to thrive to do better. And this gets even more precious for firms when awards are for remote employees.

Receiving recognition at home when the award reaches your place increases the dopamine level of an employee. Professional success accelerates your personal development too.

4. Delivering Consistent Timely Appreciation

Timely recognition increases the productivity of an employee. While working from home, a sense of comfort sometimes takes over the competitiveness that is quite common among peers in the office.

The level of healthy competitiveness among peers accelerates efficiency. Rewarding the top/best performers helps in keeping the employee motivated.

When there are frequent accomplishments weekly or daily, it reflects a culture of support and team recognition to the employees.

Just a mail or message to highlight the extra mile achieved by an employee can make a difference to overall performance.

5. Celebrate and Appraise Employee’s Achievements

Celebrating the personal victories of employees is a part of employee recognition. Personal accomplishments can include by a new house to getting married!

It is like when the firm acknowledges our accomplishments too, it builds trust and makes the employees’ bond with the company even stronger!

Many organizations highlight this news in monthly or weekly meetings with the team. As for remote employees, sharing the news on emails, group chats, or meetings is a wonderful way.

6. Acknowledge the Successes of your Virtual Team Members

Acknowledgment is one of the best ways to create a bond with your employees. Even though interactions are limited when it comes to remote employees due to virtual restrictions.

Still, meetings and team interactions over calls can help the team members increase their emotional connection with the organization.

For a start, organizing meetings in which new employees introduce themselves or team members share their inputs or observations of methods and strategies can help establish communication.

Then later continued by appreciating employees on small milestones and accomplishments.

7. Plan an Employee Appreciation Day!

Appreciation days are all about enjoying and feeling great to be part of a community. In an office setting, the appreciation goes differently compared to remote setting employees.

We will help you by guiding you on how you plan your employee’s appreciation day in a remote setting:

You can start by having a special segment in your virtual call about them. The leadership can also share a few lines about the employee.

Next could be ordering food for the employee, just like on appreciation day in the office food is prepared from a decent restaurant.

Though it would not be possible in a remote setting to conduct a common lunch or dinner for everyone, what could be feasible is ordering food at your employee’s residence.

And last post food, you can consider giving an off to your employees for the rest of the day.

8. Celebrating the Accomplishment of Remote Working

Since the pandemic, adapting a remote work style has never been a smooth transition. It took time for everyone to adopt a new framework to function in an unfamiliar environment.

Understanding these small wins, such as successfully conducting virtual webinars or virtual working or training programs deserves appreciation.

9. Integrate Recognition into your One-on-One Discussions with Employees

One-on-one meetings are all about discussing progress, growth plans, and performance analysis of the employee. However, one-on-one meetings can also be about rewarding your employees and discussing their successes.

Recognition of the employees can be in any professional development such as learning a new skill set or it can be converting a lead or completing a project that was long due or important.

The topics might vary for the discussion, but the intent remains the same – recognizing the efforts of the employee.

10. Commence on Newsletters or Employee Boards

For remote employees, addressing their achievements with the team can be done through newsletters too. A monthly newsletter or employee board shared over email in the organization can motivate the employees.

All it requires is working on a design and then making the newsletter and sharing it over email to all the remote employees highlighting their accomplishments.

11. Recognizing Employee Efforts by Sending Cards or Gifts

Remote employees often feel disconnected from their professional environment. During times when any project is completed, in the office, the team celebrates the accomplishments together.

However, this quite differs with remote employees, to eliminate this gap firms can send off cards, or some small tokens of appreciation to the home address of the employee to make them part of the small victory.

12. Treat your Employees with the Right Workstations

Working remotely although sounds comforting, working from the comfort of your home. This cannot always be the case. Rigorously working from anywhere, spare countertops beds, or desks may stifle productivity.

Allocating the right workspace like a sit-stand converter can help workers to be more productive. There are also numerous ways in which you can modify and make the remote setting for your employees even better.

13. Treats for Accomplishments

Treating employees does not always have to be expensive gifts or branded outlet delivery.

Appreciating remote employees can also be done through local food, gift cards, or other availability in the nearby areas of the employee.

14. Employee Subscription and Rewards as a Recognition Gift

In the digital era, when online consumption is at the max, rewarding employees with subscription plans could be an ideal call. Employees who outperform their goals or achieve satisfactory results can be rewarded with subscription cards.

They can also choose their plans according to their choice. This gives them a boost to look forward to completing the tasks on or before time.

15. Looking after your Employee’s Health Card

A happy and productive worker always has good health. Our level of physical or mental tiredness can occasionally seriously impair the caliber of our task.

It is critical to look out for your teammates’ health. Compared to a gym subscription, investing in digital well-being initiatives can empower your staff to take charge of their physical health.

It also demonstrates to them that you respect their general well-being more than just their physical health.

Conclusion

Employee engagement is a sincere undertaking that calls for thoughtful efforts, as the above reasons demonstrate. In return for reaping benefits in the years to come, organizations should support their employees’ development.

It is imperative to emphasize that employees are more than just workers; they are real assets of a company. And looking after the employees can overall hamper the productivity of your organization.

As a result, maintenance should be done to preserve the asset for an extended period.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q1. What are some practical strategies for improving remote employee engagement?

Appreciating your employees not just for big accomplishments, but also for small victories can motivate them to work towards a common unified goal.

Q2. How can remote managers effectively motivate their team members?

Conducting one-on-one sessions and acknowledging employee’s struggles can help remote managers understand remote employees better. This also includes being available to remote workers is also a crucial factor.

Q3. What role does technology play in enhancing remote employee engagement?

Remote employee engagement includes tracking employee performance through various technological platforms. Also, it includes conducting virtual engagements through meetings and events.

Q4. How can remote leaders ensure inclusivity and belonging among their distributed teams?

Building a culture of inclusivity, encouraging employees by appreciating small or big wins. Creating a network full of resources and opportunities for remote employees, by sharing remote leaders can become inclusive for their team leaders.