5 Important Ways to Keep Remote Workers Active
Remote working became immensely popular in the last couple of years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
The whole world found itself in a position where almost everyone had to work from home at a certain point, no matter if everyone liked it or not.
It allows the chance to work from home or any other place and still be productive to achieve the needed tasks assigned to the remote worker.
Interestingly, people think it is new because it has become trendy in recent years, but a fun fact is that remote work is a lot older than everyone thinks.
It became popular in the 80s, but its roots are connected with the beginning of CTOs.
After WWII, big companies started making research laboratories at locations far away from their main headquarters.
This is how the idea of CTOs came around to be focused on technological and scientific issues since the company’s goals were to hire scientists and offer them the chance to work without the challenges of day-to-day office work.
Remote work becomes more popular constantly as time goes by, and if in 1980 there were 39.4% remote workers from private companies, by 2010 this percentage grew up to an incredible 59%.
This type of working allows employees to relax and work from home, change their working environment by working from various places, have a different perspective of going to work, and many other advantages. It is the future of many different companies.
But, sometimes, it is not so easy to keep remote employees focused and concentrated on the goals and tasks that must be achieved or to sustain a great team chemistry level.
That is why there are several essential ways to keep remote workers active and provide them with the constant feeling that they are part of the company as much as everyone else.
Here we will see some of the most valuable parts of keeping remote workers connected all the time with the working process. So let’s get into it.
1 – Good Communication
Having good communication with your remote working employees can be crucial for completing tasks fast and in time.
Of course, communication is needed by default, but it shouldn’t be perceived only as a way to assign tasks. It is much more than that.
Communication in any job is the most necessary part of completing any task or goal since, without it, nobody can create a desired end-project.
Good communication is excellent for being connected with your remote workers all the time, an effective way to know how their working project is developing, or which are the challenges that come along the way of creation.
In addition, the employees themselves would love to have excellent communication since it provides them with completely defined expectations and goals, exchanging ideas about the task and listening to one another.
Therefore, the lines of connection must be open to achieve effective collaboration and keep everyone involved.
Even though there are many ways to stay in touch, as time goes by and everything in the technological world improves, it is the same here.
There are many means of communication one can use, from phone calls to emails and video calls.
But, one of the best ways to collaborate online constantly is by direct messaging because it allows having real-time conversations, fast communication all the time, and quick updating to everything that is happening.
You can find many different apps you can use. To give you an example, one of them is Slack, which is great for team communication.
The lesson to be learned here is that good communication gives many different benefits for creating a good working environment and achieving targeted goals.
It is not just a means of connecting; it is also a way to produce better and improving results.
2 – Online Virtual Games
Team building is essential, and a high level of team chemistry is even more.
A great way to keep up the sound energy is to play online games for virtual teams at least once a month. This is an activity that distributed teams use all the time, but you can also use it with remote teams to connect everyone and create a great team working atmosphere.
Because working should be fun, and working with other people, even more, you have to find a way to keep everyone active and energised.
You can easily find much fun and engaging Agile games to connect everyone. The process is simple; it is a team-building goal by having various people in the same room use the same tools to make virtual teams and play online.
These games are played on many apps like Google Hangouts, Google Docs, Zoom, etc.
The best advantage is that you can mix teams from different professions like designers, developers, and anyone else, and provide them with the chance to play even though they all are from different parts of the world. Exciting, right?
Some of the best and most popular games and activities among employees are .gif Battles, Virtual coffee chat, Collaborative podcasts, Movie nights, Get Fit Challenge, and many more.
You can use some of them just for fun, and others are more practical. You can use them regularly, or try them once and see if it fits well with your remote team.
You will be amazed by how good these activities are for team-building, keeping employees active, and improving team chemistry.
One of the most interesting ones is Virtual coffee chat because it has become a lot more popular since the pandemic hit, and it is a game where once a month, everyone connects through a video call conference.
Every meeting has a specific topic like best places to travel, favourite movies, meals from different cultures, etc.
Online games for teams are maybe the best way to keep employees active and have a way to build team connection and collaboration at a high level, which provides excellent team chemistry that is vital for having success.
But, don’t forget that today if you want to get better and stay at least on the same level as your competition, you must follow the newest trends and keep pushing the boundaries of what is expected.
3 – Feedback Video Meetings
Giving feedback is extremely valuable for making employees participate actively and passionately in every given task. But, of course, there can be negative feedback and positive ones.
Nevertheless, even though positive feedback gives higher motivation to continue working even harder, negative feedback can also keep an employee active and motivated to get better.
The most important thing that we must mention here is that every time you give feedback, the goal must be to improve the employee and the company. That’s it.
Otherwise, you can create problems if someone misunderstands or thinks they got a compliment, but the reality is different.
So you have to remember this if you want to give good feedback that will not insult the worker, but instead, it will motivate both of you to get better at what you are doing.
Another vital part is how you give feedback. This should be done by video call by making a video meeting. This way, it is more serious; you can hear what the other side has to say by making it a two-way conversation and show that the employee matters to you.
Feedback video meetings will keep the remote workers active and constantly trying to improve each day.
Another reason it will keep them active and concentrated is that by doing this, you show them that you want them to improve and that becoming better is crucial to the company.
There is no way to keep the activity going on a good path without giving feedback, which is essential for heading in the right direction.
4 – Work From Home Policy
Remote working doesn’t always mean that one should work any time they desire or have no working policies involved.
Of course, this could be the case, but you can make a work from home policy to keep your remote workers more active and make them feel like part of the complete atmosphere.
This means that they will have to adjust to specific policies that are the same as working in an office of the company. It is an agreement between the employer and the remote worker that clarifies the responsibilities and expectations that the employee must fulfil.
As we mentioned earlier, activity can be boosted by communication, and to communicate constantly; it is essential to have all workers, or at least those that work in the same time zone, work at the same time.
A type of 08h to 16h working environment can be beneficial for these situations. This type of remote work will allow the company to get an insight into the developing process all the time.
The remote workers benefit from having communication options whenever they desire if something unexpected comes up.
If you provide these policies, you will get a chance to make remote work similar to office work. You don’t need to have everyone in the same office or the same building.
Remote working can be very beneficial and creative; you need to improve the atmosphere to make employees feel part of the bigger picture.
And by agreeing on working at the same time with most of the other workers, you will create an opportunity for everyone to feel like a connected team every day.
5 – Recognise Contribution
This is similar, but yet a little bit different from giving feedback. Giving feedback is more of a task or goal-oriented option that provides better future qualities.
It can be a positive motivator for future assigned tasks because of recognition for something you did in the past. Still, in essence, it is about getting better and better by resolving problems and challenges.
On the other hand, recognising contribution regularly is the biggest motivation for every remote worker because this means being recognised by the employee for the effort one puts in every task for the overall job.
In addition, it is an overall recognition of the excellent quality working habits of the remote worker. And since remote workers are not as connected with everyone else, they need to be recognised for their contribution.
When you recognise the contribution a remote worker makes, it will energise their active participation even more, not only because everyone loves to be recognised for something they have done but also because it shows appreciation and respect towards the employee.
This also builds good teamwork and high-level team chemistry. No matter what anyone says, or if people sometimes say they don’t care about getting an “applause” for what they have done, it is not valid.
Everyone likes to be recognised for putting effort into something and providing the best possible results.
Therefore, it is crucial for motivating, especially for remote employees, to get better and better for every next task and make them feel like part of the company’s best contributors for the achieved success.
Conclusion
Here you have the most important ways to keep your remote workers active and ready. Remote working is widespread, and it will get even more popular without a doubt.
Remarkably, today we have many different ways to communicate and improve the working environment every day.
Remember, you can not keep your remote employees active if you don’t have good team chemistry, and to achieve it; you need team-building games.
And you can’t make progress if you don’t give feedback every time it is necessary and recognise the contribution everyone makes to create better results.
Keeping everyone together at the same or similar working hours can be highly beneficial. You can connect all these parts only through good communication tools that will give every remote worker the opportunity to be connected constantly and resolve issues fast.
Keep your remote employees active, no matter where they are around the world, and create a working atmosphere that everyone will love to be a part of and contribute as much as possible!
