Remote Working: Optimising Team Engagement

-Imogen Clarke

If we have learnt anything from 2020, it is the importance of remote working and the ability to stay productive and on track whilst working from home. This year, an estimated 88% of companies made it mandatory for workers to do their jobs remotely, and even before covid-19, 4.7million people worked from home. Remote work has many benefits and has been a vital part of keeping businesses alive throughout the pandemic. However, it is very easy for employees to show slack in their engagement and for productivity to drop as people start to get comfortable working from their home environments. High team engagement is the key to business success, and in this article, we will discuss ways in which you can optimize team engagement during remote working.

Encourage employees to stick to a routine

When working from home, the temptation of a morning lie-in or an afternoon nap may result in employees falling off task and becoming disorganized. Encouraging workers to stick to their normal working day routine will help them to remain on track and work with similar productivity levels as they would do in the office. Waking up at 7 am and logging into their laptop by 9 am could be the difference between a day of work and a day of nothing. Having a routine will also keep your employees feeling as though they are part of a team, as everyone will be working at the same time regardless of where they are located.

Maintain team socialization

For many workers, having friendly faces around the office is what makes their working day a little easier to handle. When working from home, it can become easy to lose this face-to-face contact and to feel isolated from the rest of the team. If this happens, employees may start to resent their job and therefore put less effort into the work. To maintain a social working environment, you could propose regular zoom meetings, quizzes or themed group calls which will allow employees to speak with each other and share their usual workplace conversations. When people feel part of a team, they are more motivated to work hard for the shared goal of that team.

Define goals for your workers

Another great way to stop employees falling off track and losing productivity is to set attainable and challenging daily goals. At the start of each working day, clearly state what you want each employee to achieve and encourage them to work towards this goal by offering incentives or making it into a challenge. Goals must be challenging so that employees work hard, but they also need to be attainable, otherwise, your team may be left disheartened and unmotivated to keep trying. Good goals could include making a certain number of sales, gaining new clients or even just avoiding your phone for the working day. These goals will provide a structure for your employees and will encourage them to keep working hard.

Make data easily accessible

One of the biggest obstacles for many businesses moving to remote work is providing all members of your team with data in a secure and easy way. One way to overcome this challenge is to look into data center services, such as Digiplex, who will store all of your data in one secure and safe place that can be accessed by your team from anywhere at any time. Many data center companies offer tailored plans that can be altered to fit exactly what your business needs which makes them a great investment.

Ensure regular communication

Whilst trusting your employees and encouraging independent work is essential, it is also important that you maintain regular contact so that they can ask questions and keep focused on their tasks. Scheduling regular online meetings or phone calls may be a good way to ensure that regular communication is happening. This way, employees will feel listened to, which will help to maintain a positive attitude and, consequently, a more productive working day.