There has been a distant revolution in the workplace. Remote working has evolved from being a specialized technique to a significant change in how individuals carry out their employment. As a result, both employers and employees are re-evaluating what being remote means to them. 

Some of the essential questions founders have are – Is the situation as it is now going to continue? If that’s the case, what lies ahead?

Tech employers need to look for practical solutions to overcome any obstacles that are getting in the way of their success with digital transformation to manage and sustain a zestful work environment. Employee motivation, while working remotely, might drop to less than half of what it was when they were in the office without proper management and communication.

A good workplace culture fosters employee engagement and keeps teams engaged. But how can you establish a tech remote work culture that encourages innovation, productivity, and teamwork?

In this blog, we’ll go through various tactics to help you build a remote workplace that satisfies your employees’ requirements, keeps them engaged, and benefits your bottom line.

Why Is Maintaining Remote Employee Engagement Critical?

Some employees may find it simple to lose contact with their co-workers when working in remote teams. Creating a welcoming environment for remote workers is crucial since it makes them feel included in a group.

Developers who feel like they “fit in” are more committed to your business and more inspired to produce excellent work. 

Here are a few more advantages of having a solid culture for remote work:

• Employees become more cohesive and inspired to work hard. 
• It promotes the exchange of innovative ideas among employees in a friendly setting.
• It enables relationships to grow amongst team members, which facilitates communication and collaboration.

Common Challenges With Remote Work

The trend towards remote employment has been around for a while. However, despite its rising popularity, working remotely has its share of difficulties.

Time Management

Usually, remote employees work from home, which calls upon several distractions, be it their laundry, dishes, or young kids, making it too easy for them to get distracted. Additionally, there is no backhanded responsibility of keeping them off their phone.

The best thing that you can do as a team leader is to introduce them to time-tracking software. This software helps them keep track of the time they spend on tasks or different types of projects.

You can inform your staff of the time zone change and discuss their schedule. Additionally, you should explain to your employees how critical it is for them to understand the importance of working in a fixed yet slightly flexible schedule for the sake of deadlines and meeting project milestones. 

Absence of Direct Supervision Poses Unique Set of Challenges

Employers are concerned that they can’t efficiently monitor productivity, and without fast feedback, employees may feel alone and disengaged. Employees require incentives that let them know they are seen and respected, and management must learn to act from a position of trust.

Lack of information makes it challenging to carry out tasks for projects and work with other team members. A lack of what experts refer to as “mutual knowledge” can affect your remote team’s motivation, zeal, and productivity.

Lack of Interaction

There is very little interaction between remote employees and the rest of the team when they log out immediately after finishing their job and rejoin the next day during business hours. They may frequently feel excluded, which will demotivate them.

 To ensure remote workers feel included, you can arrange weekly Zoom meets where you discuss the goals achieved, and targets accomplished, and also have non-work related conversations.

You can further arrange online game nights to lighten their mood. Employees work better when the environment is lively and fun. Also, with such informal activities, your remote team will bond better, which will show during delegation and communication of work. 

Different Time Zones

Businesses can recruit workers worldwide and get specialized talent in their teams because of remote work. But managing it isn’t always straightforward. Keeping the team on the same page is more challenging when members work in various time zones. Time zone variations make real-time cooperation and communication difficult or even impossible.

It’s not unusual for your remote developer to wake up as another teammate is signing off when they work remotely. Though, this shouldn’t be a concern. If you are a manager and someone on your team is in this situation, ensure you set specific rules that everyone must abide by.

In this kind of circumstance, flexibility is essential. Ensure that team members who don’t work during regular business hours adhere to a consistent schedule and start their shifts simultaneously every day.

Everyone will know exactly when they will be accessible in this fashion, which will significantly simplify communication. The ideal strategy to incorporate across time zones is always asynchronous communication. The pressure to be “on-call” round-the-clock is lessened if everyone knows that response won’t always come immediately.

Loneliness

Working remotely can take a toll on your employees’ mental health. Managers must provide an environment where workers can interact with each other and build relationships. 

Have a Team Engagement Manager or someone else from your in-house team that actively monitors individuals and develops questionnaires to ascertain their level of engagement.

Bring your team together or form groups where individuals may talk about current issues and share their achievements. Make frequent, brief calls to your staff to chat about things other than work, such as the recent TV shows they are watching, books they are reading, and more.

Tips for Maintaining their Enthusiasm in a Remote Environment

Managers, team leaders, or startup founders must invest in practical communication tools, build an inclusive culture and feeling of belonging, and focus on employee development to create an engaging team of remote employees. 

These factors are essential to employee engagement in any workplace. Still, teams operating entirely in remote workplaces need to be much more vigilant to ensure individuals working from home aren’t left behind.

• Make Sure Your Core Principles Align Well With the Interests of Your Remote Employees

Ensure remote employees understand your company’s values as they reflect your company’s identity. Also, values specify your goals and operating principles. Remote team members will feel more motivated to work for your firm if you persuade them to embrace your core principles.

• Keeping Communication Accessible and Approachable

Remote workers, particularly those who work extended hours or are situated outside the headquarters’ time zone, can feel as though their team isn’t available when they are working.

Even if it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to be accessible all the time, knowing that they can contact their co-workers and stay in touch makes virtual employees feel more bonded.

Try to hire workers who at least overlap some part of your business hours based on your time zone. This way, staying connected and following up on essential project details is easier. 

• Invest in the Right Tools to Keep Them in the Loop

It would be best if you had exceptional software and communication tools to establish a productive remote office culture. Your team may collaborate in real-time and exchange ideas with the correct tools. Here are some helpful apps that might make your remote team more productive:

1. Zoom– For brief calls
2. Google Meet– For long video meetings
3. Asana– For project management
4. Slack- For communication between teams

• Host Video Chats to Check on Them

Schedule weekly check-in video conferences with your remote staff to take progress updates. Video calls add human presence to what may otherwise be an isolating life.

Use video calls for lengthier interactions, such as one-on-one performance appraisals and group planning sessions. 

Text communication, like email, shouldn’t be used for longer talks because there is a greater chance of misunderstanding.

• Your Employees’ Well-Being Should Be Your Top Priority

Make psychological safety and staff well-being the cornerstones of your culture. Physical distance shouldn’t cause emotional gaps between co-workers when they operate remotely and shouldn’t inspire reluctance to voice personal preferences. 

Provide mental health leaves and be in contact with your employees regularly.

Many factors go into developing a thriving remote work culture, but increasing your team members’ sense of loyalty to your business is essential for maximizing their output.

You may keep track of your workforce’s organizational involvement in real-time by measuring remote employee engagement across various parameters, such as community involvement, survey submissions, and open enrollment sign-ups. 

Building a sense of community among employees who cannot interact daily over a water cooler is more challenging. You may support your employees’ continued connection, fulfillment, and motivation by making an effort to establish and maintain a good and inclusive remote work environment.

How to Hire the Best Tech Talent?

You can hire your entire tech team with the help of Workfall. Get to source software developers, or “kickass coders” as we call them, from around the globe – remotely, on-demand, and in just 24 hours!

Hiring remote developers through Workfall is a very seamless and straightforward process. You can choose talent from various countries with a specialized skill set. 

The best part is that you will have enough options to choose from, and you will definitely find the ideal, motivated candidate, who fits your requirements and budget.