The internet has revolutionized businesses and employment in many different ways. Among those, a practice that is becoming increasingly popular is working remotely. This brings benefits for both sides, as employees eliminate the cost and time spent on commuting to work every day, while employers no longer need to provide physical workspaces for all their staff. However, this practice has one major challenge for businesses, as they have to continuously work on keeping their remote employees engaged and productive. Here is how they can achieve that.
Build a Helpful and Intuitive Intranet
There are many benefits of intranet variations, for both traditional and remote workplaces. Aside from easing communication between coworkers, they also serve as databases where they can find valuable information regarding their position or current tasks. Employees that are working remotely benefit the most from interactive digital technology that allows teams to efficiently collaborate on a project, even though they may be continents apart. Sharing the virtual workspace has never been easier, and there are many tools that allow members of an organization to work together and establish strong professional and personal interactions.
Host Regular Meetings
No matter how well-constructed an organization’s inner network is, remote employees are human, and the lack of face-to-face interactions will inevitably cause them to drift apart from their office-based coworkers. By hosting regular video meetings through the internet, everyone has the chance to communicate their ideas in an open forum, understanding each other’s challenges and easing their cooperation. A short daily meeting and a longer weekly one will keep everyone on the same page and do wonders for their productivity.
Organize Time Management Trainings
While working from home sounds ideal for most employees, such a personal space has countless distractions, while the lack of supervision may cause the employee to lose focus. This is the reason why many very large companies such as Google do not allow remote workers. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have engaged employees working for you remotely. By training them on time management and providing them with a clear plan of mini-tasks they must deliver on a daily basis, employees will constantly have their goals in mind and work efficiently without direct supervision.
Use Remote Positions as a Privilege
A good way of making employees understand that they need to constantly be engaged when working remotely is offering remote positions as a privilege that needs to be earned. Establish a clear policy which specifies the conditions an employee must meet before being allowed to work remotely. By doing this, you will make sure that the employees that will be working from home will not take this practice for granted and will understand that they need to provide value to the company in order to keep their privilege.
Depending on how it’s implemented, remote work can greatly benefit a company and its employees or it can sabotage focus and productivity. You will be creating a win-win situation by giving employees a platform that they can use to efficiently communicate, keeping them engaged with constant face-to-face meetings over the internet, and teaching them how to efficiently organize their schedule, while not letting them take this practice for granted.