Remote working is here to stay. If done right, it stands to benefit employees and employers alike. But for that to happen, there are challenges that need to be overcome.
Employee engagement isn’t unique to remote working. In fact, hybrid employees report the highest levels of engagement in some surveys. That said, physical distance does create communication barriers, cultural divides and workflow challenges—all of which can damage engagement.
In this post, we’re going to look at five proven strategies for keeping remote workers engaged—backed by real-world insights and practical tips you can apply today. Let’s dive in.
Looking for a platform that makes remote employee engagement easier from day one? Book a demo to see how HulerHub does it.
1.Create a Digital Workplace That Keeps Remote Workers Engaged
For remote workers, your digital workplace is more than just a tool—it’s their new office. To keep remote employees engaged, it should do everything a traditional office does: support collaboration, reflect your brand and culture, and offer a welcoming experience. Just like a thoughtfully designed office inspires productivity and connection, your digital workplace should do the same.
Taking the digital workplace experience seriously is the first step to providing an environment that both engages and rewards employees. Doing so closes the gap between remote, hybrid and in-office staff.
How to Address This with Remote Teams
Like a traditional office, your digital workplace should be intuitive, accessible and enjoyable to use. Think about:
- Navigation: Employees should be able to find tools, resources and applications effortlessly, rather than wasting time searching for hidden links on complicated pages
- Recognition: Most employees feel energized if they’re thanked more often. Your digital workplace needs to encourage recognition as a traditional office would.
Your digital workplace is where engagement happens. Want to see what that could look like? Book your HulerHub demo to find out.
2. Make It Easy for Remote Workers to Find Tools and Information
Almost 1 in 5 employees found “digging for files” to be the biggest problem facing the future of remote work, with a further 58% stating that searching for files was a “top-three” problem.
In a world where “work from anywhere” is the norm, real solutions are needed. Sifting through online portals isn’t the job employees were hired to do, yet a poorly designed workplace can lead to time wasted on these tasks.
A Strategy to Keep Remote Workers Engaged
The digital workplace shouldn’t make life difficult. Quite the opposite—it should be a way of making life easier. Choose a cloud-based solution that takes the frustration out of finding tools and files, giving employees back their time.
For ease of access, it’s vital your employee engagement tools are in one central hub. Look for a digital workplace solution that gives you that central access point. The right solution should provide smart search functionality and customizable views—giving remote workers a tailored work experience.
3. Build a Strong Culture to Keep Remote Workers Connected and Engaged
Culture is the glue that holds teams together—and when nurtured, it becomes a powerful driver of engagement, especially for remote teams. While it’s often built out of the office, on occasions like post-work drinks, the focus should always be on the values and goals of your company. For remote teams, this poses a challenge. And for managers, working out how to foster teamwork and belonging is the key to unlocking engagement.
The Fix: Supporting Your Remote Workforce
The first step is being clear about your culture, and that means writing it down. Think about the high-level values you want to encourage and how these impact your workplace day-to-day.
For your culture to thrive, it needs to be reflected in your digital workplace. For instance, if you value openness and transparency, employees should be able to access information with ease. Ultimately, the aim is to create the digital equivalent of an open door policy. Encouraging collaboration and communication can help employees feel more engaged and integrated into your digital workplace.
Stop making employees search around for all the apps they need Book a demo to see how HulerHub puts the right tools at their fingertips.
4.Support In-Person Connections to Strengthen Remote Engagement
There are some things the digital workplace can’t capture, and one of those is real-world interaction. Though regular online stand-ups can help remote workers feel more engaged, in-person meetings (if possible) can also have a positive impact.
What You Can Do About It
Company away days can be a great way to boost engagement among remote workers. By bringing teams together in a relaxed, in-person setting—ideally somewhere accessible—you create space for genuine interaction beyond the screen.
Airbnb is one company that has succeeded in this strategy. Having embraced remote working and remote teams, they’ve used collaboration sessions, off-sites and social events—structured around their bi-annual product releases—to ensure ongoing team coordination and cohesion.
Putting a face and personality to the names that pop up in emails helps employees feel like they’re part of a human team. But bear in mind: away days aren’t a replacement for effective and simple day-to-day collaboration via your remote workplace.
5. Train Managers to Keep Remote Workers Engaged and Supported
Management and senior leadership teams play a critical role in employee engagement, even more so in digital workplaces. Often, managers are the only regular point of contact employees have within the company, as chance encounters and catch-ups with other colleagues are obviously no longer an option.
To put a number on this, a massive 74% of employees believe that leadership is the biggest influential factor on engagement. That’s why it’s important to factor in management when thinking about how to keep employees engaged and feeling appreciated.
Solving This for Remote Employees
Managers should be trained and encouraged to build positive connections with the employees they manage. Building connections can be as simple as asking someone how their week was before getting into other work-related topics. Critically, this training needs to occur within the specific context of remote work.
When employees have contact only with other colleagues and managers through digital media, it’s even more important to make sure that they feel valued and humanized, something that managers should consider at all times.
A strong L&D programme provided via a learning experience platform has wide-ranging benefits for employee engagement. It’s also a great tool for management, helping them stay on top of changing workplace trends.
Culture and leadership thrive with the right tools. Explore HulerHub and see how we help remote teams stay connected and engaged.
Technology can help close the distance and create human connections
While remote working changes the very nature of how we connect with our colleagues, digital workplaces provide solutions to most of the issues encountered. Having the right digital workplace to provide a community hub is essential to developing a happy, engaged, and valued workforce.
At Huler, we’ve set out to redefine the digital workplace. HulerHub is an employee intranet designed to enhance how remote and in-office teams connect with their work and one another. We aim to bridge the gap between technology and people, creating innovative solutions to challenges that arise in the modern workplace. Curious to see how it all works? Book your demo, and let’s make it happen.
Oh, and if you’d like to learn more about remote working patterns, here are a few more posts we think you’ll love:
- What Is Hybrid Working?
- The Benefits of Hybrid Working
- What Does Work from Anywhere Mean?
- Embracing Diversity and Inclusion in the Age of Remote Working
