Hiring the best team possible for your business often means hiring individuals that will need to work remotely. It is important to keep these individuals engaged.

There are a number of strategies you can implement to engage your remote employees, thus strengthening the role they play within the business. These include:

Clear goals

Setting clear goals is important for all employees, but particularly for those who work remotely. Goal setting for remote employees is necessary for managing their time effectively and for ensuring the work they produce is aiding in achieving overall business goals. Clear goals allow them to take ownership over their responsibilities and their workload, which means they are more likely to be engaged.

Technology

For individuals to work seamlessly with the business from a remote location, you need to ensure that the business is digitised and that they have easy access to all the necessary documents and software. Ensuring appropriate programs are used to allow communication between remote workers, yourself and employees who work in the office is also essential.

Recognition

It is very easy for employers and managers to forget about their remote employees and fail to recognise the work they are doing. Just like anyone else, remote employees should receive adequate feedback and recognition for the work they do; without it they are likely to become disengaged.

Stay in touch

Staying in regular contact with your remote employees allows you to keep up to date with the work they are doing and it helps break down barriers between them and the business. Employees are more likely to be engaged and strive hard for the business if they feel a personal connection to you. This can be achieved through strategies such as having weekly Skype check-ins, end-of-day progress reports or regular phone calls to track how they are doing. It is important that you are contactable for them and can offer them support should they ask for it.