Written by Alistair Hendrie

At a time when the government has introduced work from home guidance, businesses should be aware of the importance of remote working policies and how to manage employees who are working from home. One element of this is making sure staff remain motivated, engaged and immersed in their work. After all, employees need to buy into the brand and be passionate about their duties. As such, take a look at the below tips on how to promote employee engagement while remote working.

Turn the cameras on

Since the pandemic struck in 2020, companies have communicated largely through video conference platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Skype and Zoom. Asking employees to turn cameras on during meetings is a great way to maintain engagement and ensure conversations feel more comfortable and natural, even though you’re not meeting in person. Indeed, being able to see employees means you can gauge facial expressions, body language and overall mood a lot clearer than if you were talking over the phone or with cameras turned off. This means conversations will be transparent and more productive, and engagement will improve in the long run.

Keep up team-building practices

With businesses operating on a remote structure, it’s also important to continue team-building practices. Granted, some companies are cancelling Christmas parties because of coronavirus, but there are other means to get your team together even if they’re based remotely. Consider arranging an informal team-building call once every few weeks. Lasting perhaps an hour, the call could include informal quizzes and light-hearted tasks to get employees to relax and talk about something aside from work. After all, ensuring colleagues gel, bond and get on with each other is a great way to promote employee engagement during the pandemic.

Make sure to arrange individual catch-ups

Although remote working can be convenient, especially if employees are experienced and already have relationships in place, newer staff might not be able to communicate as confidently or effectively when working from home. This is because they won’t have constant access to colleagues, and might not know how often they can contact peers throughout the day. As such, it’s important to arrange frequent catch-up calls with those who are working from home, particularly if they’re new to the business. This means relationships are strengthened and employees have a chance to discuss questions, concerns, training issues and provide honest feedback – all of which is valuable information for any manager.

Encourage messaging between colleagues, but call if needed

When considering employee engagement in remote environments, it’s important that your team makes the most of conference calling platforms. For instance, you should encourage your team to use group chats for shorter questions or brief clarifications. Alternatively, if employees want a longer conversation such as a handover or a training session, it’s always best to call. Working in this way will boost your colleagues’ time management and make for more efficient lines of communication, which is always crucial for employee engagement.