Achieving success in the world of small business is extremely challenging, as most small business owners have many companies they compete against. If you want to get an edge over your competitors, assembling a team of highly-motivated and experienced employees is important. Over the past year, more business owners have started to use remote workers to fill their vacant positions.
SInce so many businesses were forced to close their doors in response to the COVID-19 health pandemic, many employees were sent home to work for the first time. If you have employees working remotely, it can be a challenge to manage them effectively in this new environment.
Making your remote employees feel connected is crucial when trying to keep them both productive and loyal. Here are some tips to help make your remote employees feel more connected to your team and the company.
Make Sharing Information Easy
Having a team of remote workers is not easy. Since these employees will not be working in the office, you need to find new ways of sharing information within the team and with clients. A lack of information can lead to frustration and low productivity, so it’s important to find ways to deal with this challenge. One way to simplify the process of sharing information is by using an online faxing service. This will help everyone on the team send and receive important documents efficiently.
With the technology offered by MyFax, you and your employees can send faxes online quickly and easily. Not only does this allow information to freely flow between you and your remote workers, it also helps you avoid the cost and aggravation of maintaining traditional fax machines.
Other collaboration tools that are cloud-based will help to keep your remote workers connected as well. Technologies including project management software and instant messaging apps will make communicating and delegating tasks to your remote workers a breeze and are easy to learn.
Host Regular Video Meetings
Approximately 30% of American adults worked remotely before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the start of this pandemic, millions of new employees have now started to work from home at least a few days a week. While remote workers are generally more productive, they also have a higher risk of feeling disengaged. If you want to increase engagement in your remote workers, host daily or weekly video meetings to keep everyone connected.
These meetings are a great opportunity to get some facetime with your remote team. Before you start these meetings, take the time to create a detailed breakdown of what you want to cover. By doing this, you can avoid rambling, wasting time or going off-topic. At the end of your video meetings, ask your remote workers if they have any questions or concerns. Addressing these questions and concerns can help you avoid problems involving miscommunication in the future.
Establish a Mentor Program
High employee turnover rates can be disastrous for a small business. If you want to keep your remote team members loyal, then you need to show them there are advancement opportunities available to them. Showing remote workers that you are invested in their growth with your company is easy if you establish a mentor program.
Allowing new remote workers to pair up with senior members of your staff is a great idea. Not only will this help the remote worker feel connected to your business, it will also teach them valuable skills they can use later on.
Put Effort Into Properly Managing Your Remote Team
By following the tips in this article, you can make your remote employees productive and connected. Increasing worker productivity levels also allows you to grow your bottom line over time and get an edge on your competition.