Category: Remote & Hybrid Workplace

In today’s world, there is not much option when it comes to where people want to work from. If you wish to be safe, you have got to stay in and work from home. On the brighter side, technology has evolved to such an extent that you don’t feel the necessity to be present in an office space to be able to accomplish all the tasks that is in your kitty. Of course, there will be exceptions. But what about setting remote workforce goals?

Continue reading “Goal Setting for Remote Employees: What Goes In”

Hybrid work environments create unique challenges and opportunities for building and sustaining company culture, but they don’t have to be impossible to navigate. The rise of remote and freelance work has changed the way we look at traditional Hybrid workplaces, but it’s not always easy to put those new ideas into practice. If you have clients all over the world, or if you outsource some of your own functions, creating an environment that values company culture can be challenging. With these tips on how to build and sustain company culture in a hybrid work environment, though, you can bring this approach into your day-to-day life as much as possible without sacrificing quality or productivity.

Not all work takes place in the office, but that doesn’t mean that a company culture can’t be fostered and sustained. With the right strategies, you can foster and maintain company culture even if your team doesn’t regularly meet in person.

Here are 10 ways to build and sustain company culture in Hybrid work culture.

1) Communicate and listen to your employees

No two employees are alike, so why would you treat them that way? So many companies end up treating their remote workers as second-class citizens who can’t be trusted with as much responsibility or leeway, but that’s simply not fair. Do your best to get acquainted with each employee on an individual level; when you do, you’ll find that they’re all working for your success. Your team members should feel like their ideas are welcomed, regardless of where they’re sitting. Keep lines of communication open between yourself and remote employees—good communication will boost morale and productivity.

When communicating from a distance, think about things from their perspective; what is it like for them? What can you do to make it easier for them? Then act accordingly! If you want a culture that promotes trust and growth, then embrace remote work. It takes effort, but it’s worth it in the long run.

It’s also important to remember that out of sight doesn’t mean out of mind. Although virtual teams don’t have to see each other every day, they still need some form of communication (like video calls) just to keep everyone connected. That said, keep meetings short and focused on goals; time together is valuable! A 30-minute weekly call is enough time for everyone to touch base and check-in with one another—if there’s more information sharing needed than usual (for example project updates), then schedule more frequent calls throughout the week or month instead.

Also read: A Complete Guide to Performance Management Cycle

2) Share Vision

If everyone is constantly looking at their own tasks or goals, then it’s impossible for your team members to see how they fit into your organization as a whole. So begin by making sure that each employee knows why they are part of your company’s vision. It should be evident from their daily activities what role they play within that bigger picture, but there’s nothing wrong with ensuring your employees know exactly how it all works. Provide examples: Show, don’t tell. Create situations where employees can experience working together towards common goals, with success being collectively achieved through individual efforts.

As you provide these opportunities, also highlight how much easier it is to work as a cohesive unit than it would be if everyone was doing their own thing. Shared Values: Once you have made sure that every member of your team understands why they are part of your organization, make sure they understand what values you expect them to carry out during their time with you. This will help them understand not only what makes up good work habits but also what makes up good character. Be consistent: As human beings, we crave consistency and routine so when there isn’t any we feel lost and out of place.

3) What type of culture do you want?

Start by creating a list of values that embodies what your organization stands for. It’s helpful to consider whether your company will have multiple offices or locations, as some cultures can be effective at one location but toxic at another. Also think about how you want employees and clients alike to feel: Are you looking for an innovative team that is forward-thinking? An environment where people are empowered? These are just some of many important things to consider when building culture—and it’s something that should evolve as your business changes.

If your business grows, it may need more structure, while if it shrinks, expect less. Make sure these factors are always included when thinking about what type of culture you want, no matter where you are or who joins your team. What behaviors do you want?

Having established a foundation of what kind of culture you’re looking for, it’s time to move on to behavioral expectations. This part is all about accountability. Once again, make sure there are clearly defined expectations around work ethic, collaboration and communication styles, customer service habits and decision-making processes. Many companies use personality assessments such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) tests with their teams so they can better understand how each person prefers to work. When individuals know how they fit into the big picture—as well as others on their team—they tend to feel more motivated because they understand their role within the group dynamic and its purpose within their overall mission statement.

4) Make sure there are clear rules

When you let your employees work remotely, it’s important to make sure they’re not just doing whatever they want. Establishing clear guidelines for working remotely will help prevent your team from becoming too distracted. If you’re working for a growing company, consider allowing employees to work remotely on Fridays or only when their performance is top-notch. Just be sure that you communicate rules clearly upfront so everyone understands what’s expected of them. Before your team members set their own hours, get clear agreements about who owns what duties and how people are expected to perform them (and monitor performance).

Remote work can lead to fuzzy boundaries between life and business—make sure everyone knows where these lines are drawn. The most successful remote workers have bosses who check in regularly with them via phone calls, video calls, email, etc. No matter how good at communication someone is, regular face time with your boss should be non-negotiable.

Set specific goals: If you’re thinking about hiring remote workers but don’t know exactly what kind of role you’d like to fill, set some specific goals before making any offers. For example: Do you need someone to provide customer support? Create a process by which your remote workers can share customer feedback and concerns with other employees if needed; make sure all feedback goes through one person who’s responsible for recording it all so that no customer gets lost in translation.

Define concrete processes: You may find yourself facing unique challenges when managing remote teams.

5) Give autonomy and freedom

The main feature of Hybrid work culture is that it combines remote workers with your on-site team. This means that you don’t need to micromanage your employees. Instead, you can trust them and their judgment. Offer freedom at work; let them work from home or abroad if they want to, and allow each employee to set his own working hours. Give them autonomy over how they do their jobs—as long as it gets done correctly!

Be open about what needs to be done: If you’re working remotely, there are no walls separating your employees from one another. They know exactly what everyone else is doing, which allows for open communication between them. This also helps break down barriers between departments and offices, making communication more effective overall. Encourage your employees to communicate openly by holding weekly meetings where everyone shares what they accomplished last week and what they plan on doing next week.

You could even use tools like Slack or Google Hangouts for these meetings so that all of your teams can participate simultaneously—and you won’t have to worry about scheduling conflicts because everyone will be available at once! 

6) Foster Interdepartmental Communication

Because teams that work together do better work. In departments where managers are of similar rank, be open about your objectives for both sales and service, not just one or the other. Be transparent with each other’s metrics: Knowing your co-workers’ numbers gives you more opportunities to team up and cross-sell each other’s services.

Play friendly competitions against each other: Keep score on games like Quora (the question-and-answer platform) have fun but get you talking across departmental lines.

Start weekly interdepartmental lunches or social events: If you don’t know who people are outside of their cubicles, get to know them! It doesn’t matter if it’s lunch or happy hour, as long as you’re getting to know each other personally.

Celebrate company wins together: Don’t celebrate alone—celebrate together! Everyone wants to feel included when something good happens at work, so make sure everyone feels like they’re part of a winning team by celebrating big wins with company-wide parties and office celebrations.

Share best practices across departments: The best way to learn is from others’ mistakes—so share those lessons learned by publishing success stories from different departments on your internal intranet or sending out an email newsletter highlighting what worked well in different areas of your business. These are some shot steps to building a hybrid work culture.

7) Encourage everyone’s participation

There is no one right way to do hybrid work. How you run your project management software or remote teams may vary from person to person, but one thing that should remain consistent is an open-door policy. Give team members all of your contact information and encourage them to ask questions, share feedback, and discuss problems—whatever it takes. If there’s ever a discrepancy or concern within your team regarding something as simple as email etiquette or communication methods, take time on that issue immediately with everyone who’s involved (both in-person and remote) so it doesn’t snowball into bigger issues later on.

At its core, creating a company culture in a Hybrid work culture means encouraging participation from every single member of your team. Without participation, you can’t foster teamwork; without teamwork, your business will fail. Period.

Communicating clearly and regularly is key to establishing trust among co-workers (and clients). Set up weekly video calls with all employees to keep lines of communication open, regardless of location or role within the organization; even more frequent phone calls are encouraged if they make sense for each individual team member’s situation.

8) Support your employees’ growth

As workforces transition from traditional, in-office jobs to more flexible, remote ones, it’s important that managers continue to support their team members’ growth. This is especially true for employees who aren’t necessarily sitting across from you or working out of your company’s office. You’ll want to communicate with employees frequently and check in on their progress with ongoing conversations about both their career goals and how you can help them reach those goals. Even if you’re managing your team virtually or partially remotely, there are still plenty of ways for you as a manager to learn about your team members’ skill sets and how they operate within your organization.

Keep an eye out for these signs that indicate your employees need some additional guidance: They don’t have many opportunities coming up at work. Your virtual workers may not be getting enough assignments because you’re not giving them opportunities to demonstrate their skill set. While it might seem like assigning tasks will take too much time away from your other responsibilities, consider delegating more often so each employee has something new to do every week (or even every day).

They get stuck on one project and have trouble. If an employee seems stuck on one project and isn’t able to move forward with anything else, ask what’s going on.

Also read: HOW PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE HELPS IN EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT

9) Develop leaders inside your company

By placing perks on offer for employees, you can attract talent that matches your corporate culture and make sure you’re picking up folks who will stick around. We all know traditional perks like free food are a great place to start, but there’s no reason your non-traditional benefits have to be any less enticing. For example, one of our client companies is using membership badges at select fitness centers as employee perks, while another has put together an intramural softball league. A player’s lounge stocked with games like ping-pong or pool isn’t just fun—it also gives workers space away from their desks that they might not otherwise use if it weren’t available. These types of amenities give new hires something to look forward to and keep current employees happy. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

Besides perks like these, consider implementing other company culture-building initiatives into your hiring process. You could try interviewing applicants via video chat, having them complete a project instead of writing a cover letter, or asking them to submit samples of previous work. Doing so will allow you to determine how well candidates would fit into your office environment before bringing them on board full time.

If you aren’t already doing so, take some time to map out what your company culture looks like today and where it needs improvement before drawing up goals for its future state. Note both tangible things (like office layout) and intangible aspects (like attitudes). Then build hiring strategies based on those findings so you can recruit people who align with those goals.

10) Use perks that fit your brand

Whether your team is entirely remote or you have some coworkers who work from home, it’s hard to define what your company culture looks like. Since you’re not all in one place, there are new opportunities for keeping your workforce happy. Instead of offering fun food options for workers who come into the office (it’s easy enough for remote workers to just bring their own), consider offering an employee discount on healthy food items instead. Or, when it comes time for your annual company retreat, don’t make everyone fly somewhere—invite them (remotely) to dinner at a local restaurant instead.

These perks can help people feel more connected with one another while giving you brand visibility that doesn’t cost as much as travel or fancy snacks would. You could even save money by asking your employees to share their favorite restaurants. This makes it easy for everyone involved and helps spread awareness about your business as well.

When thinking about how to build and sustain company culture in Hybrid work culture, keep in mind that building connections between coworkers aren’t always based on physical proximity. By offering incentives that encourage teamwork rather than those based around location, you can build up goodwill among employees no matter where they live or how they get things done during off-hours. These were the 10 ways how to build and Sustain Company Culture in a Hybrid Work Environment.

Want to know how Engagedly can help you mange your hybrid employees better? Request us for a demo.

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Managing remote teams poses many challenges, not the least of which is the constant need to get people together and ensure that everyone’s working on the right tasks. The problem is exacerbated by time zone differences, which can make it a real challenge to keep remote teams productive and on schedule.

While the road ahead of you may be tricky, it’s not entirely impossible to manage your remote talents effectively. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the best tips to keep your team efficient and on track.

1. Set Clear Expectations

It’s important to set clear expectations when working with a remote team. You’ll want to map out exactly what each member’s role entails, from their goals and job descriptions to their weekly responsibilities.

Additionally, you’ll want to let them know what’s expected of them and how much time they’ll have to accomplish specific tasks. It’s also important that you respect the roles that each person is playing in the process and don’t overload an individual team member. Working as a cohesive unit is vital for success when managing your remote talents.

Also read: 7 Reasons Why Goal Setting Is Important

2. When it’s Time to Meet, Meet

Whether it’s for your virtual corporate events or a weekly huddle, it’s essential that team members from both sides maintain a healthy level of communication and regular meetings. This will make sure that everyone is on the same page, which is essential for ensuring that everyone’s on task and productive at all times.

You’ll also want to schedule meetings with your remote team members when you’re in different time zones so they can communicate effectively.

For example, if your employees are clustered around the East Coast, consider scheduling a meeting to have everyone in sync with one another. If your team members are scattered across time zones, consider holding a weekly huddle to ensure that everyone knows how their job is progressing.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your team well-versed in virtual meeting etiquette. Some of them may not be as seasoned as others when it comes to working remotely, so it’s important to remember that there may be a learning curve for other members of your team.

3. Successful Teams Need Nice Things!

If you’re working with a remote team, it’s important to keep an eye on the morale of your group. You should never fall victim to the trap of assuming that your employees are motivated solely by money. As a matter of fact, people are often motivated by more intangible things, like recognition and encouragement.

In order to keep your team members happy, it’s important that you give them positive reinforcement and helpful feedback. Let them know how their work is directly contributing to the success of the company. You should also be on the lookout for opportunities to reward them for their efforts and hard work.

Also read: Tips To Manage Stress Of Your Remote Team

4. Cultivate a Culture for Growth

It’s important to make sure you nourish your team’s well of knowledge. To do so, you’ll want to foster an environment of learning and development. 

For example, you should think about compiling a library of resources to help them stay up-to-date on relevant trends and techniques. Another way you could go about it is by offering your team members mentoring programs to help them sharpen their skill set.

In addition to cultivating that culture of growth, it’s also important that you allocate time for your employees to collaborate together. Encourage them to bounce ideas off one another, swap tips and tricks, and so on.

5. Be Organized, But Flexible

One of the biggest challenges with remote teams is knowing where everyone stands. To make sure you can keep a close eye on everyone’s tasks, it’s important that you create a system that works for you and your team.

This could be as easy as creating an organizational chart or weekly calendar. The goal is to have a clear picture of what everyone is supposed to be doing and when they should be doing it.

One way you can do this is by making sure you have performance management software in place. Here are a few tips you should keep in mind when looking into team management software:

• You’ll want to make sure that your software works with all different types of devices so you can access your team members from anywhere, but you’ll also want to make sure it’s compatible with most standard operating systems.
• It’s important that your software is flexible; this will allow you to add and remove members as they’re added or removed from the company. As a result, management software should allow you to quickly send out tasks and track their status so you can stay on top of everyone’s progress.
• Make sure the software you choose has all the features and integrations you need. This will ensure that you can enable your team members to work from anywhere and collaborate easily.

Also read: Top 10 Performance Management Software To Use In 2022

On the flip side, it’s important that you allow yourself and your team members to be flexible when necessary. Remote teams can easily fall into the trap of over-planning, so it’s important that you allow some flexibility when it comes to assigning tasks. That way, you can avoid any unnecessary roadblocks and keep your team members on task while they work.

6. Emphasize Communication

Remote teams won’t flourish without proper communication. Since you won’t meet in the office every day, you’ll want to collaborate by email and through instant messaging if possible. As a result, you’ll want to establish a consistent communication channel that’s inclusive of everyone.

One of the best ways to ensure this is by having a chat board at your disposal. This way, you can have all members post questions and feedback on their screens as soon as they log in. This helps keep communication between members open and fair between them; it also helps prevent any misunderstandings or miscommunication that could lead to problems later on down the road.

The Takeaway

Working with a remote team can be challenging at first. But if you have the right tools and procedures in place, it can be a positive experience for everyone. You’ll need to make sure that your employees know the ins and outs of working remotely. That way, they can do their jobs effectively while working at home or on the beach.

Learn how Engagedly can make your remote talent management easy by requesting a demo with us!

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Guest blog contribution by Chatty Garrate

Chatty is a freelance writer from Manila. She finds joy in inspiring and educating others through writing. That’s why aside from her job as a language evaluator for local and international students, she spends her leisure time writing about various topics, such as lifestyle, technology, and business.

We are almost half-way through 2021, and in most countries employees are still working remotely. Remote working has become a norm in today’s world. Given the current scenario, it’s necessary that you have an effective employee check-in strategy in place. Essentially, employee performance check-ins are one-on-one conversations between managers and employees about their goals and objectives and their performance plans.

The check-ins help you gain an understanding of what your employees are working on and the issues they face from time to time. It will help you resolve it without having to wait for annual performance reviews.

Also Read: Tips To Manage Stress Of Remote Team

The basic process for conducting an employee performance check-in is that managers and employees typically meet for a few minutes and have a quick chat over the work that has been done over a particular period of time. Alternatively, it can also be carried out in the form of a structured questionnaire, which can then be followed up by a video chat. Effective managers use employee check-ins to gain insight into how their direct reports work, what works for them, and what needs to change. Employee check-ins require you immediately to acknowledge the issues addressed and act on them.

In this article, let’s find out about the best practices for employee check-ins. If you want to make the most of employee check-ins, there are a few areas you need to focus on.

Decide the Purpose

Always have a clear agenda for employee check-ins. Understand and communicate what is expected of your employees through these check-ins. Decide on their objectives and key results and agree on expected deliverables of your employees. Be clear and specific. The check-in form shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes for your employees to fill out.

Also Read: 4 Simple Tips To Recognize Remote Employees

Frequency Of The Check-Ins

It is important to have an employee check-in based on your organisational needs and business cycles. This frequency also depends on the department. For example, the engineering team might need an employee check-in every week because of the major weekly updates in the product, while the support team might need it once every two weeks. So depending on the performance cycles and the agendas of different teams, the frequency of employee check-ins also changes.

Give Them Feedback

Depending on the employee check-ins, managers understand and plan a few things about their employees. Give them feedback based on their check-ins on what behaviours they should continue to demonstrate and what behaviours should be modified so that they contribute to organisational success. Providing frequent feedback on this is vital.

Also Read: Importance of Continuous Feedback In The Post COVID Era

Employee Development Is The Priority

Track employee development and understand their areas of expertise. You can utilise this opportunity to understand where they need help and how as an organisation you can provide support for employee development. You can even encourage your employees to come up with an actionable plan for their development.

If you wish to know how we at Engagedly can help you manage your employees better, request for a demo.

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The World Health Organization estimates that the global economy loses 1 trillion dollars per year of productivity because of anxiety and depression. Contrary to this, they found EVERY DOLLAR spent on treating mental health issues; the return is FOUR TIMES improved productivity and health.

The above numbers are not surprising, and the impact of mental health is real. In 2019, that is two years back, none of us could have imagined working from home continuously. The shift to remote working was sudden. While many adjusted to the new norm, for others it was difficult. Consequently, they suffered from isolation, anxiety, depression, stress, screen fatigue, burnout, etc. Employee well-being and mental health are now a top priority for all organizations as it affects employee engagement, retention, and productivity. 

6 Ways To Support Mental Health Of Your Remote Team

While in our previous articles we have highlighted the impact of work-life balance and a culture of appreciation on employees and their wellbeing. In this article we will focus on how organizations can support the mental health of their remote teams.

1. Leadership Support

Employee wellbeing initiatives cannot be effective without leaders actively supporting the cause. As leaders or managers, share your own struggles and stories of mental health issues. Make your employees feel it is ‘OK’ to speak about it. This will encourage your employees to speak up and reduce the stigma. Understanding how to support your employees’ well-being is important, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to successfully managing a remote team. Remote leadership comes with other challenges as well, like understanding that your employees might have a harder time disconnecting from work, and that it’s not uncommon to feel lonely and isolated from colleagues.

Also Read: Leadership In Times Of Crisis : How To Lead Efficiently

2. Conduct Employee Training Sessions

In a survey by the U.S. National Comorbidity, 18% of employed individuals with ages between 15 to 54 experienced symptoms of mental health issues. Mental Health issues are not always easy to identify, unlike physical health issues. It’s difficult to identify the signs of anxiety, depression, isolation, burnout, stress, etc. easily. Often they go unnoticed. And as a result, your employee’s productivity goes spiralling down with no one knowing the actual reason behind it. 

Also Read: How Performance Management Has Changed In 2021?

To prevent this, conduct virtual training sessions with your remote employees on mental health. With so many video conferencing tools such as FaceTime, Google Meet, Skype, and Zoom it should be easy to organize one. The key focus of these sessions should focus on identifying mental health issues and preventing stress and burnout. Onboard shrink or mental health experts with whom the employees can connect on a one-on-one session virtually. 

This will help you create an engaged and a productive workforce who are cognizant of their mental wellbeing.

3. Communication & Check-In With Your Team Frequently

Communication is the key through any crisis! The amount of communication that an employee used to have with their colleagues reduced drastically, be it work-related or socializing. Not only this, but they are also in the constant fear of missing out on information from the organization. This has added to the stress and anxiety of the employees.

Communicate with your remote employees often. Have a one-on-one’s over a video call or just ping them on official chat to know their wellbeing and if they need help. With Engagedly’s inbuilt survey feature, create and assign simple surveys for your employees to measure employee engagement, employee motivation, and employee happiness quotient. Besides that, keep them in loop about organization-related information, policy changes or rule changes. As a manager, ensure that your employees have all the tools in hand for communication and collaboration to be seamless. Some common tools which they can have access to are:

• Asana, Basecamp, and Trello for Project Management
• Engagedly, Lattice, 15Five for real-time performance management, feedback, rewards, and goal setting
• Slack, Google Meet, and Skype for communication and easy collaboration

Effectively communicating with your employees will not only reduce their stress and anxiety, but will also help them be more productive and engaged at work. 

4. Benefits and Perks 

Organizations often develop health policies that give importance to physical health and tend to ignore mental health issues. In the current scenario, where mental health has become a matter of concern for all, developing a holistic employee wellbeing policy is the need of the hour.

Establish and offer Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) to your employees. According to a poll by SHRM, 91% of organizations have EAP as a part of their employee benefits, but most of them go under-used. The aim of these programs is to find solutions to employee’s work-related or personal problems that might affect work and productivity. Let your employees know what EAP offers so that they can know the benefits and use them whenever necessary.

Also Read: 5 Employee Appreciation Ideas For Your Remote Team

5. Organize Virtual Team-Building Activities

The weekly ‘Fun-Fridays’, team lunches, water-cooler breaks or a casual chit-chat with colleagues is not possible anymore. But these casual or planned team-building activities are necessary to build a cohesive team. As a manager, plan team-building activities for your remote teams. Conduct quizzes, book clubs, trivia, virtual team lunches or ask your employees to share their childhood photos or workspace photos. Team-building activities help in generating a sense of trust among your employees and increase collaboration. Although connected digitally, they still get a sense of being in the office, and it helps them take their mind off from work. It also reduces the feeling of isolation and reduces stress and anxiety.

Encourage your employees to have virtual water-cooler breaks and meet with their peers.

6. Physical Wellbeing Of Remote Employees

While addressing mental health issues is important, it is necessary to pay attention to physical wellbeing too. We cannot undermine its impact on mental health. Working from home has altered our habits to a large extent. For many of us, we confined our workstations to beds or couches with little or no movement throughout the day. Further, the flexible working schedule has blurred the lines between personal and office time. As a result, it has resulted in untimely breaks, unnatural sleeping patterns, irregular eating habits, etc. This has resulted in obesity and fatigue. Companies can play a big part in making sure that their employees are physically fit. Some of those initiatives can be:

• Setting up of an ergonomically friendly workspace
• Organizing virtual yoga and exercise classes
• Reimbursement for fitness equipments
• Gamification for calories burnt
• Encourage your employees to take breaks for physical workout

Also Read: 7 Common Goal Setting Mistakes Managers Should Avoid

Needless to say, the list of ways in which you can support your employees doesn’t end here. Organizations can come with their own ways to support employees. Do you have something else in mind? Let us know in the comments.

Want to know how Engagedly can help you manage your remote teams better? Then request for a live demo.

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Everyone has been working remotely for some time now, and it has become the new norm globally. While some managers and leaders got adjusted to the new ways of managing their remote workforce, some are still facing challenges.

Also Read: Tips To Manage Stress Of Your Remote Team

The most challenging part for managers is when it comes to tracking progress and reviewing their remote employees. And if it is the annual or half-yearly performance review season, the managers need to give effective and unbiased reviews.

Here are a few tips which could help review your remote employees better.

Know Your Employees

Knowing your remote employees and building trust with them is crucial. It is often underrated, but it cannot be ignored. While we understand it may not be humanly possible for managers with larger teams to know everyone personally, but where there is a will, there is a way. 

One way to know your employees is by having frequent one on ones with them. Having a regular two-way regular conversation with your employees builds a sense of trust and respect. They are more comfortable talking about their work.

Also Read: Know How To Make Your Employee Feedback Work

Not only this, these conversations help managers to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the team members. It helps them to perform as a cohesive team, and set team and individual goals aligned to organizational goals.

Measure And Track Progress 

When employees are working remotely or working from home, it is important to track their progress. It helps them stay focused, engaged and prevents them from falling back. The simplest way to do this is to set SMART goals for your employees. We at Engagedly use OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to set our SMART goals. This approach is one of the most effective and popular approaches to goal setting. It allows everyone to set stretchable, short-term, agile goals.

Want to know more about OKRs? Download the white paper.

Download The Whitepaper

No matter which goal-setting approach you follow, it is important to know how to measure your progress on those goals. Most of the performance management software available in the market comes with a goal-setting module. When goals are set using a software, it increases transparency and trackability.

Use A Performance Management Software

Though it seems easier to review a team that is traditionally working at an office than a remote team, both come with their own set of challenges. As a manager, it is your responsibility to monitor and review the performance of your remote team without any biases. But often, managerial decisions are clouded by recency bias, inaccurate performance data, etc. You can easily overcome the above issues by using a performance management software.

Also Read: How Performance Management Has Changed In 2021?

A performance management software does not magically solve all your remote performance review issues. It is important to utilize features like performance cycles, timely reviews, competencies, feedback, and OKRs to make it work for your team. We recommend that managers track their employees’ goals regularly and come up with solutions to improve them. Have frequent one-on-one meetings and regular feedback so that employees are engaged and are on the right track.

Giving regular feedback and having frequent discussions with your team members makes reviewing their performance easy even though they are working remotely.

Is your organization planning to invest in a performance management software? Then request for a live demo.

Request A Demo