We have struggled with finding a new normal in the past couple of years. COVID-19 took a toll on many companies worldwide, and every one of them had to think fast about their next move. Remote working came in fast and soon became an ordinary action for any company that could work online.
Before the pandemic, remote work was about making sure that employees could still have a life outside of work and get everything needed to get done. The idea was that the ability to do remote work makes work-life-balance much easier for both employees and employers. However, as remote work became more prevalent, we realized that taking care of employee well-being can be made challenging with remote work in place.
In this article, we will discuss some ways you can improve the employee experience of a remote worker.
Related articles:
Managing Remote Workers Toolkit: A New Hybrid Workplace
How To Comply with Labor Law Poster Requirements for Remote Employees
What is Remote Worker Employee Experience?
Remote worker employee experience is, in simple terms, the transactions and day-to-day interactions that an employee experiences while working outside of the office. Some remote workers work at different locations such as an off-site location a co-working space or from their own home.
Having an at-home option for employees is an essential factor that can impact how people may look at the company and the workplace culture. Having a company that allows for flexibility will help the employer have a wider talent pool and attract top talent through approaches like IT staff augmentation.
Since the remote working experience has become normalized over the years and a lot has changed, employers should learn how to make the experience better for both employees and themselves. This includes the autonomy of working remotely as the only consequence of the remote workforce isn’t just having flexible work but, to have the ability to have autonomy without having the office environment.
Knowing and understanding how the remote worker employee experience works will help HR make employees feel more comfortable in their workspace. For example, some companies have invested in telecommuting tools to help employees better collaborate with their team members while others have reimbursed employees for work-from-home office supplies and furniture.
5 Ways to Improve Remote Worker Employee Experience
1. Enhance Your Onboarding Process
When hiring new employees and getting them trained, it is essential to remember that this will establish the tone of the overall workplace.
It is best for the employer to feel comfortable and not stressed about a new experience when having a new employee. Having a unique online experience can be overwhelming, especially when doing online training. The employer must help the employee learn the new work and not leave it up to the employee to figure everything out.
How can an employer help the new employee succeed?
- Provide a mentor: Providing a mentor is a simple way for the new employee to find a person easy to talk to in the workplace. The mentor will also show the employee the ropes of the workplace and provide feedback.Through this action, working in a company remotely can make the remote experience less scary. As a result, there will be a higher employee retention as the employee won’t be afraid as they are now more comfortable with virtual work and know that they have someone to count on.
- Make sure the employee knows they can ask questions: Having communication in the workplace is crucial for a positive outcome for the employee and employer. When the employee has a question, the employer should be easily approachable, so the employee isn’t scared and does the job incorrectly.
- Provide training videos: Although speaking to someone face-to-face may have its advantages, training videos are an easy and effective way to provide information to a new employer. This shouldn’t be confused to the employee being in isolation from the group. Try to implement constant feedback and communication with supervisors.
- Explain the mission of the company – When a new hire joins the company, state the mission of the job. An employee should understand what the company is about and their core value. If the employee understands what the company is working towards and knows how the company is impacting the world. A mission statement shows where employees should put their energy toward and understand who they are working for.
2. Supporting a Work-Life Balance
Remote working can benefit the employee’s overall health as they will:
1. Be able to work anywhere
2. Have a solution to common absenteeism
3. Have a better solution for millennials as there will be an increase of work arrangements
4. Increase time-tracking through organization which will increase time-off
Having to commute 1-2 hours a day can be very hard on a person’s health. On top of a day at work which is usually a 9-5 job, that is 8 hours at work, not including the 2-4 hour total commute. Already having half the day gone, it is hard to balance work and still be able to see family, friends, or have alone time.
However, employee productivity can sometimes be hard for the company to keep track of, so the company should schedule a workday to keep the employee a stable work schedule and a stable work-life balance.
Overall, this should help increase productivity and produce best work. To be successful with this, here are some suggestions. Encourage:
- Breaks for stretching or working out: Stretching and working out is a simple way to have many mental and physical health benefits. Having the availability for the employee will encourage them to try since it doesn’t hurt their time outside of work. Remote working would facilitate this task as the employee would have the time to be active at home without having to care of their appearance at home. The remote employee will take advantage of work outside the office and take this extra time wasted in transportation and will be able to covert it into time to take care their wellbeing.
- Setting clear deadlines: Having your employees know when the deadlines are for a particular project or assignments will help them know when to put more energy into a particular task and better manage their workload. This will also help with organization and teaching employees of how their schedule should be flexibly implemented into their calendar. Utilizing one of the best calendar apps can make this process even more seamless by allowing employees to set reminders, schedule tasks, and optimize their time efficiently.
- Opportunities for socializing: Organizing networking opportunities or team building events helps remote employees get out of the house and build relationships with their team members.
- Flexible Work Schedules: Give employees the freedom to work at the times that work best for them and allow them to implement a good work-life balance. Some organizations are even trying a four-day work week in order to promote rest and productivity among their workforce.
3. Supporting a Healthy Relationship with Mental Health
Mental health is just as important as physical health. Supporting mental health will increase productivity and make the employee happier. But it’s also important to recognize that it’s ok not to be ok 100% of the time. It’s our role to support employees in both cases either on-site or working from home.
How can you help?
- Check-ins on the employees: Daily or weekly check-ins on employees will give you a better understanding of who they are and how to help them succeed. Asky are adapting to new problems and how they like their business environment.
- Provide safe spaces: Have a chat room with a trained mental health professional.
- Provide mental health programs: Work to provide a set of identifiable and reliable resources and tools that employees can rely on when they are not feeling at their best.
4. Encourage Employee Development
When it comes to your employees, you want them to push themselves to grow and be successful in your organization. Having an employee push themselves to learning and upskilling will give them more confidence in their work and help them to progress in their careers.
Some of the ways to help your employees succeed include:
- Pay for them to go to school: Giving your employees tuition is a great way to help your employees learn more about what they are working on. Education will also help with talent development, and the employer can increase the employee’s pay. Giving this opportunity will bring more talent. Online learning expands remote higher education jobs, offering flexibility for employees pursuing further education.
- Reward good work: Employees like working towards something, and if they know they can gain a reward, that will keep producing work and have them perform an extra mile to prove their success. Working fully remote will give them the opportunity to have extra time and be more efficient. It’s just a matter of having the right tools to adapt as working remotely implies utilizing a lot of software. What are you is your company doing to truly reward employees instead of giving disadvantages to this new era? Are you giving them constant video-conferencing, office space equipment to have at home, constant meetings per week, allowing employees time to gain a reward based on efficiency and performance, employee feedback, employee recognition?
- Hear what your employees have to say: When listening to your employees it will create a work environment where people are more confident in speaking up about their opinions. Listening to your employees will make the company better since they give a different perspective.
5. Adopt Employee Experience Software
Using an employee experience platform can help employees know where to go when they need to access their tools, make requests to HR or find information about their employment.
What should your software include?
1. Communication tools: Your employee experience platform should be a place where they get company information and be able to communicate with their managers and peers.
2. Feedback & Surveys: Collecting feedback and employee satisfaction data can help organizations keep an eye on the employee morale and know the areas where they need to improve.
3. Notifications & alerts: Using notifications lets employees know when certain actions are due or coming up such as their annual performance review or when benefit elections are due.
