I have a number of clients who have remote (virtual) employees. For a number of these clients, they are challenged with keeping these employees engaged. They aren’t worried about the work getting done, they are worried that the employees may feel too disconnected from the workplace and that they may lose good talent because of this disconnection.
I recently provided a webinar to a few clients on how to best engage remote employees. Here are a few ideas shared in the webinar:
- On a quarterly basis have all employees get together in one location to meet, share ideas, catch up on what’s going on throughout the organization and otherwise socialize with each other and with leadership.
- Utilize a collaboration portal to enable for a location for remote employees to engage with each other. Include information about happenings in the organization, updates on projects and a place where employees can share best practices and trouble shoot problems.
- Ensure that your intranet site includes a directory of each employee – with their photo, role, department, and something of personal interest about each employee to help build relationshisp (such as how many pets an employee has, where they like to vacation, etc.) If leaders in the organization take the first step in participating, others follow along easily.
- Utilize an e-newsletter to keep employees up to date on what is happening throughout the organization. Ask remote employees to share what’s happening with their projects in the newsletter or to contribute best practices.
These are just a few suggestions on how to keep remote employees engaged.
What are you doing to keep your remote workers engaged?
