Since the pandemic has forced companies to turn to remote working, people start understanding all the advantages of this work model. Many employees have started to work fully remotely and remote job offers now appear more and more frequently on job posting sites. And the way remote work is organized has changed a lot since then.
Creating a better remote working experience for your team can have a lot of benefits for your company
, from enhanced company reputation to improved productivity and motivation of employees. In this article, we will share 5 practices that can help you to make your remote workers’ experience much better.
Why Employee Experience Is so Important
Every employee takes a journey at your organization, and it’s vital to ensure the best working experience. When working in the office, people can communicate, solve different tasks together, and feel support. Remote work takes away the sense of community, and employees fail to perform their duties appropriately.
A positive employee experience plays a crucial role in their performance, engagement, and retention. That’s why every remote work organization has to take care of human experiences.
5 Best Remote Work Practices
If you are looking for effective solutions for keeping your employees productive while working from home, these 5 tips are right for you. We collected top practices that can assist any company with a remote work mode. The most important things are understanding what your staff needs when working from home and providing means and conditions for a smooth working process. Read on and learn how to build strong relationships with remote team members.
Ensure a Smooth Onboarding Process
Smooth onboarding is essential for building good relationships with new hires. As there is no face-to-face communication, you need to ensure their successful integration into your company and team using technologies. Here are a few points to take into account:
- Make sure that you answer all the questions from new employees to help them understand how everything is organized.
- Ask other team members to help a new hire acclimate to the new work environment, and therefore start building relationships with other employees.
- Introduce a new remote worker to all tools and software you use for work, including communication and management tools.
Understand the Needs of Remote Employees
There is no better way to help your remote workers become more productive than by fulfilling their needs. You can ask them directly what improvements they expect to be able to work more efficiently. Maybe, they want to see more opportunities for professional development or look for more activities to socialize and improve their well-being, or simply want to change currently used software to a more convenient one.
Just talk with your team and find a way to make their working experience better. You can improve communication in your remote company by holding regular team meetings to discuss any issues and changes. Try to keep your team in the loop so that they have a sense of belonging. There are a lot of tools for effective collaboration and collecting two-way feedback.
And don’t forget about bonding outside of working hours. This will enable you to build a workplace culture and know your employees better to understand their concerns.
Provide Employees With Convenient Software
Using convenient and user-friendly software is another way to improve your workers’ productivity and ensure smooth workflow. The good news is there are plenty of online tools that are perfect for collaboration and efficient work. You can choose from various options, depending on your goals and your workers’ preferences. Here are a few types of tools that might need to think on:
- Communication tools. Daily communication must be easy, whether you use email, arrange meeting calls, or use messengers to communicate with your team.
- Project management tools. Collaboration between remote workers is much better when they have an easy tool for keeping track of the workflow.
- Specific creative tools. For example, if you have a team of video editors, make sure to choose the most convenient software for them, so they can easily tackle any task, from creating a reverse video online to editing from cloud storage and modifying source code to get more editing opportunities.
Keep to a Clear Schedule
One of the problems remote workers face is an unhealthy work-life balance. As they mostly work from home, they can work a few hours longer and don’t see a problem with it at first. But, when you constantly overwork, it can impact your health and, as a result, your productivity.
So, companies need to provide remote employees with a clear schedule. Create clear working boundaries, notify about meetings in advance, and make sure no one constantly works overtime.
When people work from home, boundaries between work and home blur, and people need more flexibility. It’s vital to hear what your employees need and consider different circumstances when building schedules. Be ready to update schedules if your staff members require that. Such steps will help to build engagement and trust.
Reward Good Work
The last but not the least tip from us is to show your appreciation to your workers. While it is much easier to celebrate reached goals and milestones when you all work in the same office, it can be harder to find a way to celebrate with your remote team. But, it is critical for showing that you value every worker and appreciate their contribution to a project.
To find out how to reward employees for good work, you need to understand what appreciation they expect. You can prepare gifts, arrange a team retreat, gift cards, and certificates, or do something else that your team will appreciate.
Do not focus on material rewards but consider supporting your employees in tough times. Listen and act every time you receive critical feedback. Once they overcome issues, thank your team members and value their effort.
Benefits From Improved Remote Worker Experience
Once you work on enhancing your employees’ experiences, you will get a lot of benefits. First of all, it’s a boosted engagement. And engagement leads to consistent performance and better productivity. Your company will get more revenue if all team members work hard and enjoy the process of making their organization more successful. Do not accept the bare minimum when your staff can do better with higher engagement.
Employees who enjoy their remote work don’t think about quitting their job and are focused on personal and professional development. It improves employee retention rates, so you will spend less on hiring and training new personnel. Your company can offer employees practical benefits and wellness programs to retain top talents.
A positive remote employee experience directly impacts customer satisfaction. Your company will benefit from improved customer experience if remote workers are fulfilled at their workplace. Your team members will deliver high-quality services and be more motivated to boost customer experience.
Final Thoughts
The 5 practices above are just a small part of what you can do for your remote workers. And the easiest way to learn what your team needs is to ask them! Check-in on your employees, ask them about their experience, and get valuable insights for improving a remote work environment. By making the working experience for your remote employees better, you will increase their productivity, and therefore, enhance working processes and get better overall results.
