The rise of remote work has helped countless businesses staff job positions during the pandemic but also created particular challenges of its own.
As employees ditch the office for the comfort of their homes, tracking their engagement has become more difficult. Even worse, the online nature of remote work means that your employees are only a few clicks away from other remote employers’ contact pages.
If you’re to retain top talent beyond the pandemic, you’ll need to revamp your company culture. So here are four retention tactics that will help you improve your remote employees’ retention rate.
HELP YOUR REMOTE EMPLOYEES FEEL CONNECTED
Working from home is more challenging than people think. Without colleagues around they can bond and socialize with, remote workers can easily feel unmotivated and disconnected from their job. Each day then seems like a repeat where any feelings of excitement or achievements are missing.
You can help your remote workers find purpose in their work by creating opportunities to communicate and submit feedback.
Managing remote workers is a science of its own. Creating smaller, highly-driven teams where managers set and check daily goals is a great way to recreate the atmosphere (and results) of the office.
But the meat of the matter relies on building solid channels of communication that tie your workers together. So whether it’s helping workers solve issues with a particular tool or routinely recognizing the best performers on a team Zoom call, it’s up to you to make your remote workers feel like they’re part of a team.
MAKE FLEXIBILITY THE CORNERSTONE OF YOUR REMOTE WORK POLICY
Remote employees love flexibility, and this is even more so for hybrid workers, as their job requires them to step into the office a few hours a week.
When remote workers are given the ability to choose when, how, and where they work they can excel in their job while also maintaining an excellent work-life balance.
The trick behind creating a flexible, remote work environment is basing your metrics on outcomes rather than on how many hours a worker spent in the office. If hybrid workers are given clear, achievable goals, they can attain them on their own without the need for being briefed/debriefed at the office.
Even so, hybrid workers should still want to go to the office for face-to-face meetings every now and then to avoid having their careers suffer from “proximity bias.”
CHOOSE THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB
Working remotely adds a new layer of difficulty to office work. Something as simple as setting a meeting – which in the office could be done talking by the water cooler – could require logging into multiple accounts and exchanging dozens of emails.
When choosing your software stack, make sure your employees have a saying in your decision. Email them a poll and ask them what collaborative software – Kanban boards, desktop sharing applications, video conferencing tools, etc. – they have experience with. Better yet, instead of imposing them a one-size-fits-all solution from above, allow your teams to choose the tools that suit them best.
With the right tools on their hands, your company can streamline your communications and make for a more enjoyable and productive remote working experience.
MAKE EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENT PART OF YOUR EMPLOYEE BENEFITS PACKAGE
Employees working from home rely on themselves to furnish their home office. Whether it’s internet use or office supplies, like paper clips or pencils, all these little expenses add up and take up a small part of their earnings.
Instead of making them choose between bearing the costs or driving into work and raiding the office cabinet, why not use company funds to cover these expenses?
Establishing an expense reimbursement policy for remote employees will help keep their minds on their work.
Moreover, it will also save you the costs of litigating expense reimbursement lawsuits, since many states have laws requiring employers to reimburse workers for expenses incurred while carrying their employer’s business.
Now that your workers are out of the office, it’s important that your remote jobs are attractive, engaging, and have clear advancement opportunities. So make sure these retention tactics are part of your company culture and your employees will have plenty of reasons to stay!
As employees ditch the office for the comfort of their homes, tracking their engagement has become more difficult. Even worse, the online nature of remote work means that your employees are only a few clicks away from other remote employers’ contact pages.
If you’re to retain top talent beyond the pandemic, you’ll need to revamp your company culture. So here are four retention tactics that will help you improve your remote employees’ retention rate.
HELP YOUR REMOTE EMPLOYEES FEEL CONNECTED
Working from home is more challenging than people think. Without colleagues around they can bond and socialize with, remote workers can easily feel unmotivated and disconnected from their job. Each day then seems like a repeat where any feelings of excitement or achievements are missing.
You can help your remote workers find purpose in their work by creating opportunities to communicate and submit feedback.
Managing remote workers is a science of its own. Creating smaller, highly-driven teams where managers set and check daily goals is a great way to recreate the atmosphere (and results) of the office.
But the meat of the matter relies on building solid channels of communication that tie your workers together. So whether it’s helping workers solve issues with a particular tool or routinely recognizing the best performers on a team Zoom call, it’s up to you to make your remote workers feel like they’re part of a team.
MAKE FLEXIBILITY THE CORNERSTONE OF YOUR REMOTE WORK POLICY
Remote employees love flexibility, and this is even more so for hybrid workers, as their job requires them to step into the office a few hours a week.
When remote workers are given the ability to choose when, how, and where they work they can excel in their job while also maintaining an excellent work-life balance.
The trick behind creating a flexible, remote work environment is basing your metrics on outcomes rather than on how many hours a worker spent in the office. If hybrid workers are given clear, achievable goals, they can attain them on their own without the need for being briefed/debriefed at the office.
Even so, hybrid workers should still want to go to the office for face-to-face meetings every now and then to avoid having their careers suffer from “proximity bias.”
CHOOSE THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB
Working remotely adds a new layer of difficulty to office work. Something as simple as setting a meeting – which in the office could be done talking by the water cooler – could require logging into multiple accounts and exchanging dozens of emails.
When choosing your software stack, make sure your employees have a saying in your decision. Email them a poll and ask them what collaborative software – Kanban boards, desktop sharing applications, video conferencing tools, etc. – they have experience with. Better yet, instead of imposing them a one-size-fits-all solution from above, allow your teams to choose the tools that suit them best.
With the right tools on their hands, your company can streamline your communications and make for a more enjoyable and productive remote working experience.
MAKE EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENT PART OF YOUR EMPLOYEE BENEFITS PACKAGE
Employees working from home rely on themselves to furnish their home office. Whether it’s internet use or office supplies, like paper clips or pencils, all these little expenses add up and take up a small part of their earnings.
Instead of making them choose between bearing the costs or driving into work and raiding the office cabinet, why not use company funds to cover these expenses?
Establishing an expense reimbursement policy for remote employees will help keep their minds on their work.
Moreover, it will also save you the costs of litigating expense reimbursement lawsuits, since many states have laws requiring employers to reimburse workers for expenses incurred while carrying their employer’s business.
Now that your workers are out of the office, it’s important that your remote jobs are attractive, engaging, and have clear advancement opportunities. So make sure these retention tactics are part of your company culture and your employees will have plenty of reasons to stay!
Retention Tactics for Remote Employers
Andres Rojas
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