Working from home has become a common practice in recent years in many different industries. With the recent Covid-19 pandemic, the number of people working from home reached an all-time high.

More and more companies resorted to remote work or work from home during the pandemic to remain safe and keep the business running at the same time.

Even after the pandemic, numerous workplaces are allowing their employees to keep working from home, as remote working has its fair share of benefits.

Companies these days are offering flexible and remote working options to attract top talents. It helps them to retain a competitive workforce in a competitive market in a cost-effective way.

Remote working tends to save a lot of time and money for the company. It also helps the employees have a better work-life balance. They also remain more productive while working from home.

However, working from home doesn’t only come with advantages. Managing a remote workforce can be really difficult at times. Especially, keeping your remote workforce happy and engaged can be really challenging.

As remote employees don’t come to the office to work in the same place as their team, they often feel less connected and engaged with the company. It can hurt their performance and productivity in the long run.

Importance of Keeping Remote Employees Happy

Working from home is set to become a permanent part of the work culture. Even though most remote workers feel that working from home has only positive impacts on their productivity, work morale and engagement, that’s not the case.

Based on the Harvard Business Review, around 62% of the employees think that remote working impacts their work engagement positively. But only 5% of employees tend to stay long-term at their company.

Based on the reports of Monster, 69% of employees are burning out while working remotely. All these stats should be really worrying for the companies.

You will need to improve your strategy to keep your remote employees happy and more engaged so that they feel good about their work and decide to stay long-term.

You will need a strategic approach to keep your remote employees happy and engaged so that they feel like they are a part of the team. They will also feel that they are being noticed, and their hard work isn’t getting demeaned due to working from home.

Ways of Keeping Your Remote Employees Happy

There are many different things you can provide your remote employees to make them feel happy and recognized.

You can implement a proper strategy to keep them content and happy through their remote working journey for your company or organization. Here are some ideas that you can include in your strategy-

Staying Connected Through Technology

You can use effective communication channels to keep your employees connected who are working from home.

You can use zoom, google meet, etc. communication methods to streamline team meetings and project management between team members. It will keep everyone on the same page.

Most importantly, video conferencing will provide the taste of working with the team in the same place. It will make them feel more engaged, and a part of something bigger.

Digital chatrooms can work for keeping in touch too, but face-to-face communication will make your remote workforce feel more present in the official environment.

You can regularly schedule video calls with screen sharing both formally and informally. This will make them more familiar with everything, and a stronger bond will be created with the company.

Also, you can encourage your team to use file-sharing or cloud for smooth transitioning between tour in-house team and remote team.

Promoting Social Interactions

Most remote employees fall victim to loneliness due to keeping working in their homes for a long time. They don’t really get to see anyone or meet people that don’t live in their house already.

People can often get tired of constantly being in the same place, or being with the same people. Everyone needs refreshment.

You can help your remote employees by promoting team connections through video chats, social hours, and various virtual team-building activities.

Also, you can facilitate quality outings for your remote employees during weekends if they are up for it. In-person company retreats or outings can be highly beneficial.

You can try assigning mentors to your new remote workers so that they can feel easy to talk to someone and ask questions. It will make them feel more comfortable. Also, it will be easier for them to fit in right away.

Recognizing Employee Contributions

People working from home often work harder than their office-working team members. But their efforts and hard work often go overlooked by the higher-ups due to their not being present in the office.

It is important to recognize the efforts and accomplishments of your remote employees.

For doing so, you can leverage an online recognition platform or any recognition software. It will help you provide deserved recognition to any of your employees in real-time.

There is nothing more effective than employee recognition for making your employees feel happy and engaged. If they get appreciated for their efforts regularly by their managers or peers, they will feel valued, respected, and more connected.

Being Flexible

Flexibility is one of the best benefits a remote employee can have. Try to provide them with their needed and expected flexibility so that they can balance everything easily.

They will be able to have a proper work-life balance after conducting all the official tasks.

You might need to have set times for meetings, collaborative sessions, etc., but you can give your remote employees autonomy regarding how and when they will work for the remaining time.

You’ll need to trust them for doing the job. It is crucial to have trust between the management and the remote workers.

Trusting them to complete the job within the deadline by working in their own preferred time will make them feel satisfied and happy about their job. They will also be able to have a healthier balance between their work and life.

Caring About Your Remote Employees and Their Feedback

You can try building meaningful relationships with your remote workers. You can help them to create the proper balance between their lives and work.

You can set healthy and reasonable boundaries around assignments, schedules, and expectations for their specific performances.

You can make time to talk to them about what’s going on in their lives. You can also occasionally talk about their family, goals, ambitions, hobbies, etc.

It is really important that you care about their physical and mental health. If they are going through mental and emotional stress, make sure that you are doing everything you can to help them.

Provide them with options to balance everything properly. Discuss their workload to help them not get burned out. Provide them with the rest and leave they need so that they can come back stronger. It will be helpful for your business too.

You need to take proper feedback from your remote employees. It will help you create a better work environment for them. They will also feel happier and valued.

Also, provide them with feedback of your own. This way you can help them do better with their work and career.

 Final Words

There is no doubt that remote working or working from home will only grow in the upcoming years. The benefits of remote working are massive for both the company and the employees.

That’s why you need to better understand how you can manage your remote employees in a proper manner.

It is paramount that you make them feel happy, engaged, and comfortable about working for your company or organization. You can easily go through these above-mentioned ways to make them feel so.

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