Stay Connected to Remote Employees With These 5 Steps

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If your employees are working remotely these days you’ve probably learned two things: First, they are pretty darn good at working from home. Second, it’s not quite as easy to keep in touch with them as it was when they were in the office. 

Knowing how your employees are doing and making sure you’re meeting their needs requires more effort than it did when you could just pop into their workspace for a quick chat. The good news is that even though you may not feel as connected as you did before, your employees are likely just as productive and probably happier, too. 

Still, being a good manager is going to require some extra effort on your part to be sure you’re touching base and monitoring employees’ productivity, engagement and happiness. Here are some of our most recent articles to help you do just that.

Step 1: Start Listening Better

Studies have found that a good listener makes the other person feel less anxious, more willing to share what’s on their minds, and more likely to express attitudes that are less extreme, less one-sided and more complex. “Whereas feedback is about telling employees that they need to change, listening to employees and asking them questions might make them want to change,” the researchers say. Read more: Are You a Good Listener? Your Employees Sure Hope So

Step 2: Think Bigger

Employees at companies with a statement of higher purpose are happier, prouder of their company and have greater trust in its leaders, new research reveals, and small businesses are best positioned to leverage the concept. This is especially important while employees are working from home and need to feel more connected to their employer. Read more: A ‘Higher Purpose’ Boosts Employee Happiness, Retention and Profits

Step 3: Track productivity

Tracking productivity is a lot more challenging when your employees aren’t all in one place. You do your best to hire the right people, but it’s impossible to know how your employees are spending their work hours. These tools can help. Read more: 10 Tools to Help You Manage Employee Productivity Even If They Are Working From Home

Step 4: Get creative

Offering a generous benefits package is key to hanging onto your employees, but this can be tricky to navigate when most of your employees work remotely. But these creative perks that go beyond typical work benefits can really help. Read more: 6 Creative Perks You Can Offer Remote Workers

 Step 5: Reward Workers

A recent study from BambooHR found that 82% of employees don't feel recognized for their hard work. With more employees working from home permanently, the casual office shoutout or in-person recognition becomes difficult. Rewards provide an easy way to make sure hard work gets noticed. Read more: 5 Effective and Affordable Ways to Reward Remote Workers

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Jeanette Mulvey is a passionate advocate for small business and the Executive Director of Content for CO— by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.