Over the past several years, remote work has become an increasingly popular choice for companies. According to a report from Global Workplace Analytics, in the U.S., 75 million employees, or 56% of the workforce, could work from home at least some days of the week.
When those in charge of leading a remote work culture understand how to keep employees engaged, it can result in amazing things for the company. However, you could lose your best people forever if you are not careful with your approach and have weak leadership skills. Here are five best practices for creating a solid work culture that will encourage employee engagement and productivity.
Take and Give Constructive Feedback
In a remote work culture, giving and receiving feedback from your team members is essential. Giving and receiving constructive feedback is integral to the working process because it helps people grow and improve their skills. You can help your employees by constructively providing positive and negative feedback.
According to a recent survey, 78% of employees say they’re eager to take company surveys, and 38% say they prefer surveys over other methods of sharing feedback. Thus, you can create and conduct 360 feedback surveys to solicit feedback on a team member’s performance from several sources, including managers, peers, reports, and self-assessments.
A 360-degree survey can help employees improve their performance by identifying areas for improvement and providing constructive feedback on those areas. It allows managers to give more accurate feedback because they can see how others view the employee’s performance.
When giving feedback, make sure you are specific about the problem, how it affects the business, and how to fix it. The more specific you are with your feedback, the easier it will be for employees to understand what needs improvement and how they can improve their performance or behavior.
When getting feedback from other people in your company, listen carefully and give them time to explain how they feel about their work environment so that you can understand where they’re coming from before responding.
Think about whether there are any patterns among the people who have given you feedback before deciding whether or not their concerns are valid enough for actionable changes within your organization’s structure or processes.
Celebrate Your Successes
Celebrating your successes is an essential step to keeping you and your team motivated. You can celebrate big and small achievements, and there are many ways to do so. Celebrate with your team. When the team accomplishes something great together, take the time to celebrate with them.
You can host a virtual weekend or lunchtime party for employees who have achieved a milestone, such as reaching a sales goal, completing training, or finishing a project. This will help the employees feel valued and encourage other team members to do their best to achieve their targets.
Reward Employees
In a remote work culture, rewarding employees for well-done jobs is essential. A study of employees found that 69 percent said they would work harder if they felt their efforts were better recognized. When you recognize employees for their actions and good behavior, you send them the message that their work is valuable and appreciated. You may also want to reward your employees for having good attendance or performance reviews with improved pay or benefits.
For example, you could create an online game where employees can submit their answers to questions about their job or company culture and then award prizes based on how many people answered correctly. In addition to providing financial rewards, consider offering non-cash rewards such as gift cards and tickets to events like concerts or sporting events.
Healthy Work-Life Balance
Remote work culture can help you achieve a healthy work-life balance. But how do you ensure that your employees complete their tasks while maintaining a healthy balance? The key is ensuring they have a reasonable number of hours in the day to accomplish both. Nearly 60% of Americans say they can effectively balance work and life. However, around 77% say they have experienced burnout at least once in their current job.
A good rule of thumb is that each person should work no more than 40 hours per week, depending on the job type. If your employee’s workload does not allow for this level of productivity, then it’s time to reassess how things are going and make some changes.
Frequent Communication
Communication is vital in any workplace but particularly crucial in remote work environments. In the 2022 Buffer report, 52 percent of people working remotely reported feeling less connected to their coworkers.
To ensure that everyone on your team receives the information they need, you should be as transparent and communicative as possible. While this may take some adjusting for employees who are used to being physically present with their coworkers, it’s critical to ensure everyone gets everything they need.
The Importance of Creating a Strong Work Culture
One of the most important things to remember when working in a remote culture is that your team needs a strong sense of community. Healthy company culture will be one where employees feel like they belong. This can be difficult in an environment where everyone works from home and only meets up for occasional office events or conferences, so it’s important to create ways for employees to form connections outside the workplace.
For example, you could set up an internal social network (like Slack) where people can discuss upcoming events or share funny memes during work hours. You could also organize monthly happy hours at a local bar where everyone gets together and unwind after a long week of working independently at home. These opportunities will help reinforce your company’s culture by bringing people together and making them feel more connected to one another as individuals who work toward common goals within the same organization.
Final Words
The key takeaway is that creating an environment that fosters a strong work culture is essential. Remote workers can sometimes feel isolated and alone, leading to poor performance. By creating traditions, rewarding employees, and fostering healthy relationships with your team members, you will have happier employees who are more engaged in their work. This means they will be more productive and loyal to their company or organization.
