The shift to remote work has left many employees detached and unmotivated. appreciation is one effective cure. Extending appreciation to remote workers takes a unique blend of creativity and intentionality, shares Craig Goodliffe, CEO and founder of Cyberbacker, and discusses tips to help.
According to a recent surveyOpens a new window by Workhuman, over one-third of your employees plan on leaving their jobs this year. While those employees cite various reasons for leaving, the impact on the organization will be the same. Their departure will mean a drop in productivity, a blow to morale, and a host of expenses related to recruiting, hiring, and training their replacements.
Fortunately, Workhuman also discovered what it takes for organizations to become the outlier with a better chance of keeping employees at their jobs. The key, it explains, is employee recognition and appreciation. A survey conducted by Workhuman in conjunction with Gallup revealed that companies that score high on employee recognition have employees who are more connected, engaged, productive, satisfied, and less likely to leave.
Unfortunately, scoring high in employee appreciation and recognition is complex, especially in remote work. The abrupt shift to remote work required by the pandemic left most leaders focused on overcoming the technical challenges of a remote workforce. Few considered the managerial and relational challenges the shift would cause or how to overcome them.
Now, remote work has been normalized, with recent stats showing that more than 25 percent of all US employees are currently working remotely. Additionally, 16 percent of all US companies are now fully remote. However, statistics show that most in leadership have yet to take the steps necessary to make remote employees feel appreciated. A 2022 InComm InCentives surveyOpens a new window shows that 59 percent of employees feel less appreciated and connected to their team post-Covid. Only 13 percent in the survey said they feel recognized by their executive team.
Transitioning your workforce from one that feels overlooked and unmotivated to one that feels appreciated and committed is not easy. It takes intentionality and creativity, and a commitment to working with digital tools. Here are some tips for moving your employees’ appreciation meter in the right direction.
Affirm Your Employees’ Intrinsic Value
For appreciation to bear fruit, it must go deeper than rewarding your employees for a job well done. Authentic appreciation focuses on an employee’s intrinsic value and communicates that you appreciate who they are, regardless of their work.
My company is a remote and global company that is full of people who are doing fantastic work. While we prioritize appreciating their professional effort, we have learned that it takes more than that to provide a great employee experience. We go out of our way to appreciate the person behind the position.
One step that we took to boost our appreciation efforts was creating a new role dedicated to psychological safety within our organization. Psychological safety exists in a work environment where people feel encouraged to speak up without fear of being embarrassed, rejected, or punished by their colleagues. Studies have found that psychological safety is critical for fostering a workspace where employees share concerns, make suggestions, and ask for help. We call those in this new position “Funbackers†and charge them with checking in regularly on the emotional well-being of all our Cyberbackers.
Psychological safety can be challenging to manage in remote workspaces, but it is critical for encouraging trust, sparking positive dialogue, and fostering deeper engagement. By intentionally and strategically addressing it, organizations can take significant steps toward ensuring that all employees feel heard, valued, and appreciated.
Organizations that promote psychological safety also encourage peer appreciation, which studies have shown to be more powerful than managerial appreciation in creating a positive employee experience. The sum result is an environment in which remote employees are shown value, invited to be authentic, and supported as they face the loneliness and isolation common to those in remote work positions.
See More: Three Steps to Fight the Back-to-work Blues
Assist Employees in Mapping Out Their Future
A lack of professional motivation has been identified as one of the side effects of remote work. Experts cite a lack of structure, support, and social interaction as possible reasons. Regardless of why remote employees feel this way, appreciating their contribution and showing how they can play a larger role can inspire motivation and career satisfaction.
This issue can be addressed by establishing a department that assists our Cyberbackers with growth plans. The team members dedicated to this task are called “Headbackers.†They conduct regular check-ins to discuss goals for growth among all Cyberbackers within the organization. By providing an open line of communication to discuss individual growth plans and ideas, we communicate to our remote team members that we support them and are committed to seeing them achieve their highest career potential.
See More: Focus on 3 I’s To Shape the Future of Employee Experience
Create Space for Human Connections
The best workplaces have a healthy mix of social and professional interaction. Those who have worked onsite in offices know that casual conversations happen over lunches, coffee breaks, and before and after physical meetings. Remote workers lose most, if not all, of those opportunities for human connections when they shift to a work schedule that primarily involves digital connections.
Organizations that want to show that they appreciate their remote employees will create spaces for those connections. One step my organization has taken is hosting meetings every Friday, which we call “unplugged meetings,†in which Cyberbackers are invented to share anything other than work-related issues. These meetings, which take place during a company-wide Zoom call, give everyone a chance to talk about personal successes and challenges connected with family, travel, and budgeting, to name a few topics. We have received great feedback on the meetings from our teams, which acknowledge, value, and celebrate that every employee is a human being who has a life outside of the workplace.
Organizations struggling to make appreciating remote employees a part of their culture must consider the organizational benefits it provides. Not only does it assist in retaining employees by improving the employee experience, but it also boosts productivity by increasing workplace motivation. Companies that intentionally and consistently appreciate their remote workers will create an environment of happiness, health, and increased effectiveness.Â
Which strategies have you implemented for extending appreciation to remote workers? Let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .
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