The pandemic has turned 2020 into a “year of remote work.” Regardless of large organizations or small local businesses are forced to enable remote work at a scale they have never done before.

The initial hype in virtual meetings to maintain the face-to-face interaction also started to get burnouts from the constant usage.

Work from home, or now abbreviated to WFH, was an arrangement that seems novel and exciting at first but is losing its appeal over time, resulting in disengaged employees. And disengaged are susceptible to a significant drop in productivity and motivation.

Here are 4 tips to create an employee engagement arrangement that support WFH arrangement and sustain productivity.

Build a Community

Just like any normal human, employees want connection and also want to feel included. They would love to share what’s happening in their lives or to listen from sociable colleagues about theirs. The intent of creating a community means recognizing that employees are more than workers, they’re people with unique backgrounds, interests, and ideas. Some ideas on how you can build a community online include:

• Virtual coffee breaks chatroom
• Fun video meetings
• Mini virtual team bonding games
• Online knowledge sharing sessions

Making Communication Content, Channels & Availability Robust

Constant, but meaningful, communication from the leadership is necessary, and not only for work purposes all the time as well. Regular uplifting messages and company ongoing progress updates from the leadership team help to bring the employees psychologically closer with the company even though working remotely from home.

Co-worker updates that will affect your employees professionally can add a genuinely personal touch, i.e., such as assuring them that there are no cited cases on any fellow employees who have been tested positive for the virus or urging employees not to panic or spread rumours.

Recognition

With the arrangement of bringing work back into their personal space and now that the new ‘office’ is just a door away from their bedroom, working in such an arrangement isn’t something most employees signed up for but they’re doing the best they can to make it work.

With other distractions back home such as children, pets, parents all cramped up within the same space, it can be tough for employees to balance the two spaces, professional & personal, responsibly.

Showing appreciation with a simple thank you or a genuine compliment goes a long way. Or just a posted letter to show that there has not gone unnoticed do make employees feel cared about they’re more inclined to go above and beyond for their employer.

Redesign Your Company Culture

If your company didn’t have a remote working framework in place before, it is time to adopt an attitude to fully embrace remote employees or those who may need to work from home on occasion, starting from the leadership team.

Institutionalising the recognition of remote co-workers’ contribution as part of the team performance is crucial in sustaining employee engagement.  Establishing or re-designing a corporate culture to support the business growth in this changed era would require thorough planning and execution.

If you have some areas on redesigning corporate culture that you would like clarifications on, please feel free to reach out to one of our consultants who have and are helping companies manage their remote workforce here.

ABOUT ENABLE CONSULTING

Established in 2013, enable Consulting is a specialised HR solutions provider for small and medium-sized enterprises.

We believe that having a strong and robust HR function is a key driver for continuous growth in any successful business. It is on this belief that we have built many successful partnerships with clients across different industries.

We are a people business and it is our talent pool that defines us. Each and every one of our consultants are highly professional with many years of experience in HR management and services.

Our Consultants are PMC certified to further be able to help local SMEs improve and optimise their HR operational efficiency through Singapore Grants. enable is about offering affordable, high-value-adding solutions to improve business performance; while at the same time nurturing and inspiring a fair and respectful working environment. But above all, enable is about enabling you.

Contact us for a non-obligatory Q&A consultation today

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