As a co-founder at TINYpulse, I got to spend 10 good years working with some of the smartest people in the business such as Dr. Brooks Holtom, Dr. Katherine Hamilton and Dr. Elora Voyles. We defined Engagement as "The extent to which one is emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally invested in their work”.
There are three keys that are particularly important to maintain high levels of engagement with your remote teams.
ONE: The single most important driver of Employee Engagement is your performance culture. Have you ever met anyone who was terrible at their job yet still happy? Probably not. If you want to have a highly engaged, you will need to start by having clear objectives that flow from the company level down to individual teams and employees. There is a significant amount of training involved to ensure managers in your company are adept at goal setting. With clear expectations, it becomes much easier for managers to coach team members and help them be performant.
>>> Set goals
>>> Meet regularly to discuss progress
>>> Publicize them for accountability
>>> Celebrate wins along the way
TWO: It is easy to lose steam when you are working your butt off and nobody seems to notice. On the flip side, how great does it feel when your watching sports and everyone on the team rushes to the player when a point is scored? Even as a fan that's exhilarating to see. Imagine how it is being the player. The cycle of performance is critically important. Set Expectations > Discuss Progress > Recognize Achievement
THREE: Measure it. We can improve when we know where to look. There are so many great tools out there that will help you keep a Pulse on your organization. By frequently collecting feedback from your team members you begin to build data points which in turn provide you with trends and insights. The best tools will even give you recommendations on areas to focus on. Once you build Engagement metrics into your company culture, the sky is the limit.
I would recommend creating an Employee Engagement Strategy for all your teams and if you have a remote work force it becomes critically important.
If you want to geek out on this stuff please check out some of the content on TINYpulse and reach out to me on Linkedin and we can talk shop.
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