Employee engagement is the corner stone of any collaboration – Part 1
Employee engagement is the growing need in the new business model of work from home. Business are trying to find answer to improve employee engagement. Remote working will be a new norm. The major concern for the organization would be
- how to ensure productivity,
- well being of the employees
- the culture of the organization are managed effectively.
Our earlier blog addressed, how a collaboration portal can rescue the company culture. In this multipart series blog, we drive to bring in various engagement points related to employee engagement factor.
The blog covers 5 major concerns that arise from a remote working model and how organization can manage it better. The 5 major bottlenecks which starts to open up as cracks on the surface, can eventually rattle the whole structure
- Employee Manager relationships
- Think tank groups/Discussion forums
- Line of sight
- Ask for help
- Growth & KPI’s
Each of the above bottlenecks has its own challenges and probable solutions. Technology can help to streamline as well as fix the cracks that opens up in the initial stages.
Employee Manager relationships
From the regular morning greetings to the quick followup chat during the coffee time have vanished abruptly. This puts a strain in the direct communication. Thus, it becomes more important to have regular updates, quick greetings; discussions or quick 10 minutes standup meeting as seen in manufacturing facility. These calls can be as a chat discussion or a video call. They can as status updates in a collaboration portal.
For instance, in one of the organization, when the remote work model came in place,HR guided all managers/team leads to have a morning coffee call. This made the team to feel connected. Most importantly they felt that the organization is looking at the well being of their respective team. This helped to maintain company culture.
The below is a work in progress Remote Work Framework model. Organizations can use to build their own remote working model using this framework.
A sudden remote work schedule, brings in a kind of loneliness to the team members. We as humans are social animals. We love to interact and be connected.
- A 5-10 minute video call by the respective leads/managers/heads. This makes the team to feel engaged, connected and gives a sense of belonging. Make it a habit.
- Weekly or fortnightly dig – Forcing the different teams to give feedback. This can be related to their expertise of using the tools, to their view about the remote working model etc. Any varied topics shall help to gauge their knowhow or apprehension. HR with these results can work out new engagement models.
- Manager can call for weekly open discussion. This can be similar to weekend evening get together. This helps to get to know the team as well as to keep them connected.
- Teams can build their own social media influencers within organisation. These influencers can nudge, influence and engage their own team.
The above methods are not, the definitive one’s. There can be multiple other means through which organisations can build the employee/manager relationship in a remote working model. A collaboration platform can enable these communication more easily. Share your thoughts as comments in how to augment employee/manager relationship in a remote working model. We would update the framework as the related series of the blogs gets released.
