One of the ways managers can help remote workers stay productive and engaged is by fostering a little competition internally. Try to get more creative than just sales goals, and offer rewards that people actually want. While company t-shirts are great, people will be less likely to engage with the competition if the prize(s) are not desirable. Create fun competitions that encourage employees to interact with and learn new things about each other, allow them to feature their special talents or hobbies, or expose them to new things. Make it exciting and enticing if you want it to be successful.
Employers should try to maximize autonomy for their workers. This means that employees are free to work wherever, whenever, and however, they please. Our philosophy at Contentellect is that we’re all adults and we trust our employees to manage their day in a way that works effectively for them. All we care about are quality outputs. As long as deadlines and a high work standard is maintained there is no need for extra perks or micro-management. Remote workers respond extremely well to this approach and we've enjoyed much success in retaining workers since we went fully remote.
For all team and 1-1 meetings, we keep a single shared doc that we review and add to. Each meeting gets a new entry and nothing gets erased. This way important notes are recorded, tasks are followed up on, and anyone is free to review. This has been hugely helpful since our move to remote and many other teams have adopted something similar to help keep everyone on the same page.
If you want to improve your company’s remote work strategy, you have to ensure your employees feel connected to the company and each other no matter where they are. Having regular check-ins between supervisors and their teams, hosting virtual company hangouts, and utilizing chat software like Slack are all great examples of how your company can keep employees engaged. When employees start feeling isolated, their mental health can suffer which can ultimately impact their productivity and overall quality of work.
Communication and setting expectations are absolutely essential to avoid problems with employees working remotely. Having very clear and detailed SOPs (Systems and Processes) that are well documented will make the work process go smoothly. It is best to let them know what is expected of them and how you will judge the success or failure of their work. It is important to give remote employees the resources they need to successfully carry out their work. I have also learned that it works much better to give remote workers measurable responsibilities and allow them to accomplish those tasks in a timely manner. Being available to answer their questions is also key.
One key hiring practice we use that is conducive to managing in a digital world is hiring for core value alignment. We work with our core values at front of mind, so we've developed questions to help us identify if someone will work in a way that is aligned with our core values. We can teach skills, we can't teach attitude and culture add. That comes naturally. So, we ask behavioral interview questions related to our core values - because past performance is the best predictor of future behavior. These questions allow the candidate to identify HOW they work, and it will help us understand if they are prepared to work for a firm that supports hybrid work and requires a certain level of independence and maturity to be successful.
A good example of digital disruption in the HR industry is the emergence of employee intranet sites. It's a cloud solution that offers a self-service portal where employees can manage their personal details, update insurance information, request time off and complete other job-related tasks. The space can also be used as a central location to post newsletters and other compelling employee information.
Digital hiring can be faster, but it can also give a much larger volume of global candidates. Chatbots can easily handle those initial screening interviews and are much more flexible now than they were just a few years ago. You can even have chatbots set up to translate a candidate's answers if you're hiring across languages. There's so much you can do with them with just a bit of initial set-up. Figure out what the bot should take care of before moving to a human-to-human interaction, and you'll save yourself valuable resources.
We emphasize work-life-balance when managing staff. Over the last two years, remote work has become increasingly common and digital advancements have only made it more efficient. However, working from home has drawbacks when it comes to time-management and potential burn out in an entirely different way than traditional workplaces. When working remotely, it's possible to work at odd hours all throughout the day, having the comforts of your home consistently interrupted by work. This lowers employee satisfaction and performance, however setting strict regulation about how and when employees should work, reduces flexibility, the defining benefit of remote work. The key is to create a company strategy around work-life balance, such that employees feel free to work when they want, but not like they are working all the time.
Talent management in the digital age means that companies must utilize technology as a relationship building tool between senior leaders and employees. Think about integrating an online digital platform, such as LinkedIn or GitHub, into your hiring process to help you find top talent that will thrive with your digital team. These same online tools can be used for corporate learning to help leaders raise productivity and chart career paths of employees.
One key hiring and management practice for successfully managing staff in a digital workplace is to ensure that all employees have the required skills and knowledge to effectively perform their jobs. This can be done by providing employees with adequate training and development opportunities, as well as by continuously monitoring their progress and providing feedback. Additionally, it is important to create a positive and productive work environment where employees feel valued and supported.
All those qualities you look for in good hires–good communicators, self-starters, innovative thinkers, and organized performance management–took on a whole new meaning once employees had to work in silos. Working from home without the luxury of office drop-ins and strict schedules means team members need to think outside of the box to find ways to not only get the job done, but get the job done well. Be sure to really assess these qualities when hiring for remote jobs because they’re more important than ever for success.
Managing people in a digital world can be convenient yet challenging. To ensure success, one of the things you can do is to provide the necessary tools that your people need to perform their jobs productively. You need a collaboration platform to communicate and coordinate project tasks. You may also need specific software and subscription services. If you have the budget, you can also sponsor their home office setup. A lot of remote workers complain of backaches, neck pains, or eye strains because they don't have a comfortable chair and table or ergonomic tools like a keyboard or mouse. These will help keep your employees happy, which consequently keeps them productive and committed.
Peer to peer recognition programs are an incredible means of fostering employee engagement and satisfaction in a digital environment. Our company has adopted a peer to peer recognition program because we believe that it contributes to overall employee engagement by empowering employees to recognize and be recognized, which is critical in a non-physical setting where people don’t see each other everyday. Employees can sometimes feel underappreciated in our new digital world, as managers don't always recognize when an employee has done an exemplary job or put in an inordinate amount of time on a project. More often, it is the employee's peers that see this level of effort. So allowing colleagues an avenue to recognize their coworker for a job well done serves to spotlight their hard work that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.
In a digital space, one of the best ways to keep your team running efficiently is through performance management. It's important to gather data on a regular basis to see how you may be able to overcome certain challenges, or to celebrate big wins. In a time when retention is at an all-time low, continue your search for independent thinkers in the job market, and encourage your current employees to implement innovative ideas and techniques.
In 2022, great hiring practices focus on personalizing the process to maximize candidate experience and find the best fit. We created profiles based on our top performers, including their hobbies and interests, so we could easily refer back to them as we design job postings, interview, and hire based on targeting more of the talent we want. The days of broad job listing are gone, with each one thoughtfully designed with specific messaging to appeal to the virtual target audience.
A successful management practice I use for my digital staff is leveraging their feedback regularly. It encompasses all structures in the company, which includes recruitment and retention initiatives. Instead of the monthly, quarterly, or year-end feedback surveys, our company constantly checks on our team every week. It helps us see how our staff is doing, from their task completions to their overall employee experience within the week. It helps identify and address issues early on, and it fosters a genuinely non-toxic workplace culture rooted in their satisfaction and welfare at work.
One key hiring and management practice I use to successfully manage staff in a digital world is to make a point to meet potential or new hires on a video call. Remote workplaces can seem impersonal, and meeting face to face grounds employees and gives virtual team members the sense that they are working for a human being rather than a faceless organization. One benefit of online offices is that executives are not limited by geographical location and can connect more immediately with new team members. By making a point to do a meet and greet with potential or new staff, I demonstrate that our company values staff and takes teamwork seriously, and do my part to create a personable and connected online culture.
Ask for feedback. You’ll never know if your hiring and management practices are working unless you ask your team for their input. Conduct surveys after the application submissions and interviews to learn how to improve your job descriptions and the screening process. When you manage a remote team, check-in with them regularly to clarify, troubleshoot, and support. A remote team might have different pain points than an in-person team, so the best way to lead them is to ask them what they need.
When we implemented the "Work from Anywhere, we put the keys to success in the hands of our new hires on day one. Our employee portal serves as a bank of information about employment at our company to help team members familiarize themselves with our organization. It also fosters our culture by including our mission statement, story, and behind-the-scenes videos. Links to informative online books, articles, and podcasts can help develop their professional growth. And with employee checklists, form templates, media assets, fun Zoom backgrounds, and an employee directory, our hybrid and remote workers will have the resources they need to perform well, be productive, and stay connected with the team. It also instills confidence and enables remote employees to take ownership of growing their careers. But remember, designing an effective employee portal is an ongoing process. As your business is constantly improving, so too is your employee portal.