Employee Engagement in Remote work place- HR Practices

Employee engagement has become a hot topic in human capital management. It enhances the gravity of the talent management. Engagement is a very important concept because an organization attracts and retains employees if they don’t engage in particular tasks then will add lesser value addition for the organization and also affect the performance of an organization. Past researcher Anitha (2014) stated that employee engagement is important to the organization, the person who is involved and putting effort into the organization's success.

Employee engagement continuously showed employees who engaging work they could serve the organization through their commitment and dedication to the work and full effort the achieve targets and goals within the organization that shown the talent and fullest engage employee supportive to the achieve goals and values. As considered in the above-mentioned statement, the employee feels their work effort is attached to their work performance as well as supportive of the organization as a whole.

Most of the researchers have revealed that engagement different to employee job satisfaction (Robertson, Smith, & Markwick, 2009; Zaki Dajani, 2015). Job satisfaction means employees are being happy with their task and responsibilities. But the concern of the engagement, employee involves work beyond what expected level, by themselves their motivated to contribute the organization goals and objective being loyal to the organization. Nevertheless, employee engagement is most important and needed to successful organizations achieve performance. If an organization having a good and healthy working environment and employee are high-performance and responsible for their duty, they are not leaving the organization and are retained within the company. Furthermore, it’s stated if the employee physically and emotionally engages the work it effect on the whole of the organization. 

What is remote employee engagement? 

Employee engagement is a key factor when measuring employee satisfaction. When employees are involved in the workplace, there is a sense of belonging. They are passionate about contributing to the growth of the organization.(Merrill,2021)

Employee engagement is related to how employees feel about their jobs and how dedicated they are to their jobs. Therefore, when employees are more engaged, productivity and job satisfaction also increase.As a result, employers are looking for ways to stay connected through remote employee engagement programs.

Importance of the Employee Engagement 

Employee engagement affects every aspect of business development. Encouraging high-quality work, commitment to culture and value systems, and branding becomes critical. Due to the noncontemporary nature of virtual work, it's important to show that the company cares about its employees.Therefore, employee engagement must become a top priority for employers and managers.

* When employees feel included in their work and work environment, they are more engaged and perform better.

* Remote employee engagement helps improve employee productivity and job satisfaction.

* Once the employees are satisfied with the job, they might not be leave of the organization 

While disengaged employees are still doing their jobs, they are more likely to do only the bare minimum. Higher engagement in a remote work environment ensures higher retention rates, thus keeping turnover rates low. There's no doubt that keeping remote employees engaged is challenging, but the results can be very rewarding.

Remote employee engagement cannot be a top-down approach. To improve employee engagement, we need to take a bottom-up approach. This means starting with the individual and understanding their unique needs, their motivations, their learning design, and ultimately the environments and conditions under which they perform best. Regular manager check-ins and engagement surveys can help gain a deeper understanding of this so you can guild your remote employee engagement program.

One way to ensure employees feel like they're part of the company is to share a corporate video that conveys the company's mission and vision. Video is great for triggering employee emotions. Therefore, managers can use them in place of face-to-face meetings.

Provide the essential tools for remote working employees for engagement 

According to Ananda, A.et at (2021) conceptual framework study,how technology has played a vital role in improved employee engagement and has brought an impactful growth of the organization. They have provided an exhaustive list of tech-based employee engagement practices like

a. Virtual team meet - ups.

b. Webinars

c. Online sharing of best practices to maintain health and hygiene.

d. Digital classroom training. 

The above few will help to boost employee morale and make them as more committed to towards organization in certain situations. As a responsibility of the human resource department should be concern of the wellbeing of the employee who works in remote work place as this digital environment. 

Best HR practices for the Employee Engagement Activities for Remote work

1. Set up the good communication network

 By setting up the good communication is essential for the remote workers because those are follows, 

- If the company having good communication facility that should be clear and smoothly deliver the information to relevant parties 

- Team members and companies can convey a feeling of the belonging or instill company ethics to remote employees through regular communication.

- Remote employees also feel connected through communication and participate in the social circle of the office.

2. Virtual Coffee breaks 

Virtual coffee breaks mean that people who work remotely those peoples will need some breaks, which can be video conferencing and chit-chatting with each other. During that session, they can ask about how the is day, what are the challenges they have faced throughout the day etc. Every employee need a break from their work, even if they are working from hone and talk over coffee can go a long way. That will lead to employees who feel they belong to team and having relationship among the team. 

3. Weekly Catch up

Connecting with people who don't have a plan. Look for opportunities to quickly follow up individually or with the entire team. Hosting a virtual tea party or weekly birthday celebration never seems to disappoint. Try the "water cooler" technique, a great solution for stimulating creativity even more than a planned video call.

4. Flexible working time 

In the current context, when people are struggling to balance work and family, offering them flexible working hours may make employees happier, less stressed and more productive.

5. Virtual Events and encourage Brainstorming activities 

Virtual events that encourage brainstorming: For remote workers, without the opportunity to attend engaging events and celebrate special occasions with colleagues, virtual events become inevitable. Arrange activities that prompt them to think outside the box. While productivity and work discipline take precedence over engaging activities in remote work mode, make sure you have ways to get in some good laughs and celebration time.

                                            Source :1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjHPLGyKgA4&t=5s

6. Knowledge sharing among the team

As company knowledge sharing session can do the amazing work for your company and team. Get the subject matter expert to having discussed on topic and share their experience & knowledge with team members. Every one likes to feel more important. That will lead to motivate the employee and to contribute to the growth of the organization.

7. Offer Online Training 

Offering virtual workshops and training sessions on non-work-related topics is a great way to engage employees with team members. This might include classes on mindfulness, stress management, yoga, healthy cooking or creative activities such as painting. Such events can foster personal and professional growth while building stronger virtual communities.

Further organization can facilitate the relevant industry growth opportunities for the remote worker such as conference , industrial workshops , certification programs. Then remote workers will be more motivate and engaged to work.

8. Acknowledge the personal events like birthdays, if any employee achievement, work anniversaries and send the card with thought notes.

9. Virtual Water Cooler Concept- Its mean of the which is given chance to remote & hybrid team for casual fostering the same meetup in the physical office setting. For this share personal experience , phots , fun activities and getting and enhance mutual support Eg: Holiday Themes,Summer travels, Halloween, Christmas. (Lead Blog, Undated) 

10. Remote work  team fun activities 

                                Source: 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJqFpRLsoIw&t=492s

Example for Employee Engagement activities of Hybrid work model in Sri Lankan company 

1. Syscolabs - https://syscolabs.lk/mof

They have provided the various type of engagement activities for their employees engaged. 

As HR manager role in remote employee engagement 

HR plays an important role in every step of remote employee engagement, from developing an engagement strategy and putting it into action to using tools to track progress, to personally engaging with employees to measure the success of the initiative.

The Human Resources Department is responsible for:

* Remote tools, software, strategies and methods for determining employee engagement

* Hold leadership and team members accountable for initiatives

* Listen to employee feedback, measure engagement over time, and intervene when engagement issues arise

* Grow employees virtually and discuss career paths

* Social interaction activities 

 Playing the HR Manager Role of employee engagement in Remote work place  

As HR Manager can play to different role in the workplace, which has been describe as follows, (Swaroop and Sharma,2022)

Strategic Partner – Create and align strategy with organizational goals, help solve workforce-related issues, change management, develop systems thinking, help achieve strategic goal outcomes, and strategically manage workforce management and development.

Administrative expert – Promote employees centricity and apply technology tools to deliver HR services based on business needs, manage people-related costs and deliver efficient services and systems.

Change Agent –HR - Understand organizational culture, institutionalize change capabilities within the organization, assist and lead in managing organizational change, act as advisor and provide development. Eg : Diversity & Inclusion 

Employee Champion – Implementation of the best practices and strategies for building the employee commitment and provide better contributions for employees. 

• Digital Role of HR Managers – Technological transformation of the work place , HR managers and HR department job role would be make some easy to do and seamless of the process in daily operations. Example Using AI ( artificial intelligence), Social media platforms, and machine learning, is paly to major role in HR functions, Recruitment, training & development etc.  

Comparing the other organization/Industries  having employee engagement activities are follows, (Remote work patter and hybrid work patter) - (Double donation blog,2023)

1. Adobe

* Adobe provide the their employee for summer and winter breaks for ensuring the work life balances. further they offers a wellness fund for each employee in the company upto $600 and sabbatical starting at four weeks off after completing 5 years working the company. 

* Provide the learning fund and reimbursement facilities for their employees. Which is facilitating and given value for their employee to continuous learning is improve the employee as well as by learning can contribute the company also utilization of knowledge.

2. Microsoft 

* As the internal employee engagement program, they are using AskHR, which is mainly prioritizes communication between HR department and employees to ensure the employee inquiry properly address without any delay. 

* Team Building Activities- They are doing the more CSR activity for getting involvement of the team as Unity. 

Example for Sri Lanka, Manufacturing company as MAS, Brandix , DPL , Lalan Rubbers doing the more engagement activities for getting involved their team member and motivated them to engaged to productive way. 

* MAS - Doing engagement activities, "Women Go Green Program - Friends of Women Initiative"

Conclusion

Employee engagement is very important to discuss in the virtual workplace. The engagement activities and model have differences in the in-work environment & virtual environment place. It requires the right amount of attention, flexibility, benefits, and communication to increase their engagement. Remote employee engagement is necessary for the success of the organization. 

As an HR professional, and reflecting on the personal outcome of this article, Remote employees need to feel connected to their organization, managers, and coworkers. They need to feel like they're not missing out on any opportunities by not being in the office. It's challenging, but not impossible. The key is to realize that what works when employees are in the office may not work when they are at home.

Therefore, every organization must personalize to its agenda and plan of action for enhanced management. Giving attention to your remote workers and adding fun engagement activities can prove to be a hit. In Sri Lanka, most companies have implemented remote & hybrid work patterns ensuring employee wellbeing as well as a company need to get better outcomes. 

Reference 

Harther,J.(2023).Are Remote Workers and Their Organization Drifting Apart? All Gallup Employee         engagement (Online) Available from  https://www.gallup.com/workplace/509759/remote-workers-organizations-drifting-apart.aspx. [Accessed on 04 April 2024].

 

Lartey, F. and Randall, P.M. (2022). Enhanced Engagement Nurtured by Determination, Efficacy, and Exchange Dimensions (EENDEED): A Nine-Item Instrument for Measuring Traditional Workplace and Remote Employee Engagement.International Business Research. [online] Canadian  Center of Science and Education, pp.3–5. Available  from  https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v15n2p1[Accessed on 6 April 2024].

Lead Blog (Undated) The Importance Of Watercooler Moments In Remote And Hybrid Work (blog entry). Available at https://www.lead.app/the-importance-of-watercooler-moments-in-remote-and-hybrid-work/#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20during%20a%20water,for%20managing%20work%2Dlife%20balance  [Accessed on 6 April 2024].  

 

Littlefield,C(2023), 5 Quick Ice Breakers for Remote Teams (Online Video)  Available from       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjHPLGyKgA4&t=5s.  [Accessed on 08 April 2024].

 

Merrill,J.(2021), Remote Work, Employee Engagement, and the Implications of COVID-19(Online). Available at: https://www.proquest.com/openview/71843d15fee623540fe108725dbebb88/1? pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y. [Accessed on 06 April 2024].

 

Swaroop,S and Sharma,L. (2022) Employee engagement in the era of remote workforce: role of human resource managers.Scholarly Journal(Online),23(619),Available at :https://www.proquest.com/openview/ffe616603d6a8f7ac79ce32e7a3e34a2/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2045095.[Accessed on 08 April 2024].

 

Teamly (2022), Virtual Team Icebraker Ideas, (Youtube) Available at:                                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMwgIJgNMnw. [Accessed on 05 April 2024].