COVID-19 has changed the way we do business. We need to find ways to keep our remote workforce engaged and happy now, more than ever. The pandemic is making companies mandate working from home for their workforce.
Most employees are feeling disengaged, unhappy and under-appreciated since the long session of working from home has begun. Is there a way to fix this and help employee engagement? Well, recognizing remote employees and their efforts could be the first step. In fact, according to a recent study, 58% of employees when asked how to improve employee engagement, they pointed to employee recognition. The only problem here is that managers aren’t really used to regularly acknowledging and recognizing the work of their remote teams.
If you’re a manager looking to recognize your remote employees, here are a few things to consider:
Have Frequent One-On-One’s With Your Employees
As a manager, it is important to have frequent one on one meetings with your remote employees. Though this isn’t recognition, these steps help you understand your employees and acknowledge their work. Once you acknowledge their efforts, it will be easier for you to make judgement on who deserves recognition and not.
One-on-ones can be simply defined as standard scheduled time for managers to check-in with their direct reports. These meetings are important for both managers and direct reports because they ensure that both of them stay on the same page.
One on one’s help managers with the following:
- Keep track of team goals
- Discuss action plan with their team
- Stay aligned with direct reports’ goals
- Sharing ideas and concerns
Understand The Objective Of the Program
Determine and understand the objective of recognition. Before you reward and recognize a remote employee, it is important for you, as a manager, to have a proper vision about it. Don’t make recognition programs only about increasing your overall organization revenue. Identify the focus of the recognition program and make sure that it aligns with your organizational values.
Use Employee Recognition Software
Digitize the employee recognition process. There are various tools to recognize and reward employees for their exceptional work. Give your remote teams access to these tools so that they have a specific platform to recognize and reward employee progress and accomplishments. This way they can also recognize their peers.
Many employee recognition tools are now available for you to implement this in your organization.
Be Unbiased and Frequent
Being honest about feedback is one of the keys to a positive work culture. It is important to understand that there could be some limitations and challenges you face when initially implementing employee recognition programs. One thing to always remember is, practice makes perfect. So, keep practicing and revising the format of employee recognition programs, eventually you are bound to get it right.
Want to know how Engagedly can make your remote employee recognition programs easy? Request for a demo from our experts.
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Kylee Stone
Kylee Stone supports the professional services team as a CX intern and psychology SME. She leverages her innate creativity with extensive background in psychology to support client experience and organizational functions. Kylee is completing her master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational psychology at the University of Missouri Science and Technology emphasizing in Applied workplace psychology and Statistical Methods.