Boosting Employee Appreciation and Workflow Across Remote Departments

As the business world extends deeper into the 21st century, remote work has continued to cement itself as a permanent fixture for many companies worldwide. However, when those employees aren’t front and center in the office, it can be easy to forget they exist. To run a successful business, you need to recognize your staff, improve your workflow, and show the proper appreciation.

Here are some ideas and strategies to implement in your company to ensure connectivity amongst all departments.

Start With Solid Communication

When you have several remote departments, creating a connected workplace where management and the teams can work in tandem is necessary. Open communication is the first step to ensuring you’ve optimized the workflow. With it, you can offer direction, see each employee’s accomplishments, and begin to provide recognition.

The first step to creating cohesive communication is to find and implement a team collaboration tool that everyone can use so employees can reach out when necessary and be held accountable. Some of the best collaboration tools allow you to host a project, set deadlines, and create progress reports that everyone can see.

There should be various channels of communication that employees use to reach management and vice versa at a moment’s notice. While phones and email will do, a collaboration tool like Microsoft Teams or another instant messaging app can be best. This software allows quick transactions and real-time video calling, so the entire team can meet and see each other on their screen.

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Improving Workflow

With the communication in place, you need to manage your workflow from start to finish. Start for example by setting defined goals for the team. This is especially important for remote departments — when they understand the objectives, management can have confidence that they’ll do what’s expected when they work on their own. Once the team is aware of their goals and knows how to reach them, you can offer recognition based on how they approached the work and the results they obtained.

Once the employees are working, regular check-ins are a good idea so management can get an idea of where each worker stands and if they’re on the right track or need a hand. You can’t coach or provide review if the employee does not accomplish their goals, but you weren’t there to help them. Watch them work and collect and analyze data during the project to see where the employees reach their strides and where they hit roadblocks, and modify accordingly.

Finally, consider creating a feedback system to give remote employees a proper forum to voice their concerns and suggestions for better efficiency. This system should be voluntary, and you should give the employees the option to be anonymous if need be. The team needs to know that their opinions are valued, even when they’re far away.

Recognizing Remote Employees

Meetings are a great time for managers to recognize and congratulate specific employees or entire teams in real time. That public acknowledgment can do wonders for employee morale. Employees will continuously work hard for this recognition. That being said, spread your recognition equally amongst your employees and treat everyone equally during meetings, and run an inclusive meeting where everyone can offer ideas and recognize other team members.

You can also find new and creative ways to show appreciation for a job well done. One way is to utilize video software and have a weekly meeting at the end of the week when employees and management can discuss accomplishments. This meeting can also be an excellent time for a casual get-together where the employees can talk about the weekend and get to know each other more personally.

Finally, managers can show employees they value their hard work and contribution by praising them during one-on-one and annual reviews. If the worker is interested in a higher position and puts in the work, show them how to reach that next milestone. Sometimes, giving someone a path to their own success can be the best reward.

Treat your remote employees as if they were there in the office and give them the tools to succeed. They’ll feel genuinely valued, and that appreciation will show in their work.