The coronavirus outbreak has changed the fate of the United States. From hundreds of thousands of employees working from home to people struggling to have their old normal life, the virus spread has not been easy on anyone.
However, the employees affected by the sudden change in their working model suffered the most impact of the virus. At the beginning of the coronavirus destruction in the United States, the organizations were resistant towards putting their workforce on remote working schedules. However, the quick and fierce spread of the virus left no option for businesses but to bring major changes in their operations.
While the coronavirus restrictions have been lifted in some of the states, many organizations have decided to extend the remote working schedules for their employees. This means that the difficulties faced by the employees with the sudden change of working mode will become a major problem.
One of the major problems that employees are facing due to remote work is loneliness. Most of the employees that had a habit of working from the office never felt alienated. The in-person meetings, corporate dinners, and hanging around each other’s desks are some of the ways that kept employees engaged in the workplace besides their tasks.
But due to the coronavirus outbreak, the employees are not only feeling demotivated but the need for human interaction has also started making them feel less enthusiastic about being active for the company.
Now it is up to the company to try coming up with ideas to keep the functional teams motivated so that company no longer endures any more loss due to the pandemic and its outcomes.
To help you with this, we have noted down some of the best ideas to help the company with keeping their employees engaged:
Remote Work Playbook
To ensure a high engagement rate while your employees are working from home you should be clear on intention.
To let your employees understand how remote work can be successful via high employee engagement the employers can come up with a “remote work playbook.”
This document can explain the remote work policies initiated by the company to make this work mode effective.
For example, with remote work comes cybersecurity risk. To ensure that no harm is endured by the company throughout this process you should mention in your policy that employees should only use reliable internet connection.
In the United States, WOW internet is known to provide reliable and affordable internet connection to households, especially where employees are working from home.
Other than this you can mention the timings of online meetings or communication channels in the remote work playbook.
Regular Check-ins
Regular check-ins with your employees in times like these are crucial. Like we said remote work has made employees feel alienated due to the change in how they work. And with managers and employees skipping the need to keep regular check-ins with employees, they will only exacerbate the demotivation of their employees.
Therefore, to create a sense of togetherness in times of crisis these regular check-ins via online meetings will add additional value.
Also, you should make sure that your team leaders keep regular one-on-one meetings as well with their teams.
Other than this you can choose to have these quick meetings via chat, video call, or messenger, whatever works best for your team.
Virtual Coffee Breaks
When employees used to work in the office, the regular coffee breaks and snack breaks were the best time of the day. Swinging by each other’s desks and having the time to chitchat before you head on to the next task, re-energizes the working staff.
But with the coronavirus outbreak, these mini-meetings have been shattered. Therefore, try to rebuild the energy into the employees via virtual coffee breaks.
You can instruct the managers to make a video call to have a team meeting on a friendly note where they could enjoy each other’s company and have a virtual coffee session.
Online Team Buildings
You should never underestimate the power of online team building. The onsite team building had always been a source to gain knowledge for new employees in the projects. Office interactions were also a source of appreciation for those who are working on company projects. The online team-building meetings can also help in such times.
Along with this, you can make online meetings interesting by introducing online games to play with the team. Not only will this increase team bonding but will also help the team members feel motivated in such saddening times.
