As the world shifts to a more virtual landscape, remote teams are becoming the norm. But how do you ensure that your remote team remains connected and engaged? In this article, we will explore seven strategies for staying connected and engaged as a remote team. We will discuss the importance of regular check-ins, creating a culture of collaboration, and establishing clear communication guidelines. With these strategies for remote teams, you can remain connected and engaged, even when working separately.
In addition to this, various tech companies are looking at working from home as a permanent option. Twitter led the charge last year, when the pandemic took the entire world in its grasp.
Twitter grabbed eyeballs with an announcement in 2020 in which it allowed its staff to work from home ‘forever’, if the employees are in a role and situation that enables them to do so.
While remote working has its advantages, it has certain challenges as well. One of these challenges is to keep the employees engaged and connected to the company as they work from distant locations.
Read on, if you are trying to figure out ways to keep your employees invested in the company while they work remotely.
Here are some strategies for remote teams:
Make Employees Feel Connected To Team Members
A big part of people’s work life is their connection with fellow team members. During remote work, managers should encourage team members to interact virtually and talk about things apart from work. Weekly informal meetings can be organized by the team leaders or managers so that employees feel connected with their fellow team members. Many people are working in absolute isolation as they live alone. Informal interactions will make them feel like a part of the team and also be good for their mental health.
Alternatively, you can try organizing various virtual team-building exercises for your employees. Think of innovative ideas to involve all team members in fun activities and virtual games. For example, you can try out a virtual board game or jigsaw puzzles, organize a game of online Pictionary, etc. These activities can bring your team closer, even remotely!
Improve Internal Communication
One thing that is majorly affected by remote working is communication. And in a tech company, internal communication holds immense value. Developers need to coordinate with the marketing team, different coders need to communicate amongst each other, and so on.
However, you can easily overcome this hurdle by ensuring that there is ample time set aside for weekly, if not daily, meetings or reviews. Regular meetings with the employees help everyone stay in sync and allow them to understand what is expected of them. Getting regular feedback on performance gives the employees the motivation to work harder and helps them improve upon their weaknesses.
Define clear and achievable goals
Defining clear goals is a great way to keep employees invested in the company. While working remotely, some employees might not be aware of the goals of the company and miss seeing the bigger picture. This is especially true in cases where the employees are new hires and have never met their colleagues in person. Defining clear objectives will help employees know what task is to be prioritized and will not hamper their productivity due to a lack of communication. It will also give them an idea of the ultimate goal of the company. At the same time, the managers must ensure that the goals are achievable. The idea behind setting goals is not to overwhelm the employees but to give them direction.
Adding A Personal Touch
Adding a personal touch to the conversation with employees is another way of making them feel connected. While talking to an employee, avoid jumping straight to business and then hanging up. Instead, take a few minutes and ask the employee how they are doing, if there are any challenges they are facing, if they are satisfied with their work, and so on. Focus on building a positive relationship with your employees by checking in on them.
Encourage Team Projects
Encouraging your employees to work in teams will help in keeping them invested in a project. When there are multiple people involved in a single project, they provide each other with feedback, help each other out in staying on top of deadlines, and, most importantly, feel like they are not working alone. It is important to remind employees that they are part of a bigger team and can still collaborate with others, despite not being present in person.
You can ask two coders to collaborate and develop a unique code. Similarly, you can invite the design team and developers to sit together and think about ways to improve the product.
Pick The Right Communication Tools
If you use E-Mails as the primary means of communication, it is time to rethink. Think about it. How many times have you missed E-mails because there were just too many unread emails lying around in your inbox? This happens to all of us. Hence, it is best to resort to EMails only in situations that require a written record of something. For day-to-day conversations, use instant messaging applications such as Slack, Google Chat, etc.
Encourage Employees To Work From A Dedicated Space
When an employee works from home, the environment matters a lot. Having a space that is dedicated to office work is a good way of minimizing distractions. The correct environment will help in increasing employee engagement as they would be able to focus better on the tasks at hand. You can help in creating this environment by getting work desks delivered to the employees’ homes. If that is not possible, you can give them a one-time allowance to purchase work desks, chairs, etc, for their home office.
We hope this article helped you in determining strategies for remote teams of a tech company connected and engaged with the organization. If you are looking forward to reading similar articles, check out our blog by clicking here.
