As working in self isolation carries on, HR managers and business owners have been tasked with finding new ways of expanding employee engagement at home by using modern technology.

With today’s advanced technology a lot is possible. With just a smart phone and laptop we can chat face-to-face with someone across the globe or even host a late-night talk show from our living rooms.

For most remote workforces, going viral isn’t at the top of the list, instead managers can use technology to help keep their employees from letting isolation affect their efficiency and engagement. Remember self isolation does not equal social isolation. 

Here are our top 9 tips to help you reach higher levels engagement with your newly remote workforce:

1)  Create Some Office Buzz

Often, it’s the camaraderie and interaction with other coworkers that helps make time pass by faster while at the office. Creating employee channels using a communication platform like Slack can allow managers to recreate some of the missing office chatter. There can be several types of channels created to keep each other connected- channels for employees to ask questions they want answered communally, channels where they can direct message each other for privacy, or group channels about non-work-related topics. The overall goal is to stay connected and encourage each other to vocally ask questions or to contribute to conversations much like they would in the office.

2)  Positive Encouragement

When there is no feedback or incentive to finish something, Netflix and other distractions within reach, become that much more enticing. Providing your employees with praise and positive reinforcement enables them to stay goal oriented by gaining a higher sense of importance. Not only does social recognition let a worker know they are making a difference, it can also be inspiring to others. Praising an employee in a group chat usually rouses others to jump in with a thumbs-up emoji of their own, generating a wave of encouragement for the job well done!

3)  Bring Your Team Together

Make use of social distancing to bring your team closer together. Randomly pairing employees into groups of 2 or 3 for virtual breaks is a fun way to reintroduce team members to each other. At the office, some employees may never get the chance to really sit down and get to know one another. Facilitating an icebreaker with paired breaks on a virtual meeting platform like Google Hangouts can be a great way for teams to come together from the comforts of their homes.

4)  Stay in Tune

Hosting virtual meetings might just be the trendiest thing to do while in self-isolation, so while you’re at it, spend some 1-on-1 time with your employees. It’s a lot easier to understand your team by reading body language and facial expressions in person. Hosting your meeting on Zoom offers you a chance to read their cues and find out how to further support their efforts in making the remote transition.

5)  Get Weird with Theme Meetings

As if virtual meetings aren’t exciting enough on their own, you can kick them up a notch with theme meetings. Holding a weekly theme meeting can be as easy as everyone changing to their favourite vacation themed backdrop, dressing up in costumes or simply choosing a colour themed dress code. Theme meetings are an easy way to share some laughs and offer some levity for those that need a little distraction during these challenging times.

6)  Beat Brain Fog Together

For all the creative thinkers and collaborators, sharing notes can be a difficult task when working remotely. There are many tools to replace physical Post-Its and maintain team spirit away from the office. PinItTo.Me is one such tool that is easy to use and allows teams to use virtual sticky notes that can be placed on unique URL team cork boards for internal use only.

7)  Share the Spotlight

These unique times are sure to produce some unique stories. Give your team members an outlet to post and share their isolation experiences with the rest of the group. They might want to showcase their newly converted home office spaces, breakdown their embarrassing outing to the grocery store or even record their own internal office challenges…maybe you will be going viral after all 😊

8)  Monday.com…for Prizes!

Adding a little competition to the mix can be a fun way to raise engagement and encourage participation. Seeing who can complete the most official tasks on your Monday.com job board or even voting on the week’s best isolation story will surely provide some exciting results. The weekly winner should get a small, useful prize for their new home office, perfect for displaying during the next Google Hangouts session (Just make sure the competitions are achievable and inclusive to everyone).

9)  Soundtrack Your Quarantine

They say music has the tendency to bring people together, or perhaps it’s the frustration we share for not knowing what song to play next. Have your team update a weekly Spotify playlist together to drown out the daily distractions that come with working from home.

10) #RemoteWorkEngagement

We thought we’d save this last spot for you. We’re all learning how to do this together so join us on social media and share some of your best and creative ways that you’ve raised engagement for your team. Simply use #RemoteWorkEngagement and tag us @happierit.

Ready to Increase Engagement?

If you are a happier IT client and need help setting up your team with remote engagement tools, please reach out to us and we will get you in touch with your happier IT vCIO - team@happierit.com.

If you’re not yet a happier IT client, but you are interested in becoming one or have questions on how you can increase engagement for your remote team, please contact sales@happierit.com.