To ensure that there is high engagement and productivity in the workplace, employers must see the need to be intentional in ensuring that employees do not experience work burnout because experiencing such will definitely have an adverse effect on their productivity. This article majorly focuses on how employers can improve employees’ engagement and productivity in a remote work setting. The outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic gave rise to the change in workplace structure with the trend of remote work.
Even though the covid virus has subsided, most companies had to still stick with the remote setting. According to statistics, about 67 percent of white-collar jobs are performed from home on a full-time or part-time basis. Most employers get to discover the benefits of remote work which include cost reduction, saving of time, etc. Employees are also not left out with certain benefits of remote work such as saving transportation fares, flexible work schedules, and so on.
One may wonder, why does an employer need to promote employee engagement in a remote setting? Some people have the belief that remote work has little or no challenges simply because employees work from the comfort of their homes. One thing people must understand is that working from home also has its own unique set of challenges irrespective of how comfortable they depict it to be. Employees also experience work burnout which is said to be on an all-time high, which often affects productivity.
Failure for employers to seek ways to promote employee engagement and productivity in a remote setting might spell doom for the organization because low productivity equates to more loss than profit. While researching on this topic, I came up with a few ways employers can improve employees’ engagement in a remote setting.
Check-In: For me, the reasonable thing an employer should do is to treat his/her employees as not just mere staff, but as family. It is ideal for employers to check in on his/her team members and inquire about their well-being inside and outside of work. Unfortunately, the personal lives of employees are often ignored which is not the ideal thing to do. Employers should be intentional about the difficulties employees face most especially outside of work. There should be a follow-up when employees share difficulties, that way, they will promote employees’ engagement and productivity because the employees will feel loved.
Keep Things Short: Research shows that the attention span in a virtual setting is usually shorter than in-person. Employers must take note of things and ensure that meetings should always be brief and concise in a remote setting, unlike face-to-face meetings. Long meetings in a remote setting often increase fatigue among employees. If there is so much to be said at the meeting which might make it take longer, the ideal thing an employer should do is to break the meeting into sessions. For example, morning, afternoon, and evening sections.
Avoid Unnecessary Interruptions: Even though employees have been briefed on their task, some employers have the habit of always interrupting either with calls or notifications, probably to pass a message or something else which often causes distraction. When an employee is constantly distracted, it kills productivity and the drive to continue the given task. Too many calls and notifications kills productivity. Employers must ensure that whenever they give out certain tasks to employees, they must be intentional not to omit important points to avoid constantly distracting from their work.
Promote Overall Awareness: Employers must encourage their team members to be intentional about their wellness. It is often said that health is wealth. Without sound health, an employee cannot effectively carry out his or her duties. Employers need to understand that employees spend about a third or more of their lives at work, so keeping them healthy should be a top priority, because it will greatly benefit the organization. Employers can go as far as providing employees with physical and mental health care and also designing proper wellness programs. It has been proven that wellness programs help in the reduction of sick leave.
Final Thoughts
To improve wellness and productivity in the workplace(remote), employers must see the need to promote employee engagement and productivity. This should be a top priority to them because the proper wellness of employees greatly affects the company in a positive way.
