Planning an Event to Keep Your Remote Workers Engaged

There is absolutely no denying that the not-entirely-voluntary adoption of remote work has shown how many benefits a business can see by enacting such strategies. However, this is not to say that remote work doesn’t have some drawbacks to it.

One such drawback is how much company culture can potentially suffer without the presence of a unified workplace. Let’s take a few moments to examine the phenomenon, and then discuss some ways that this kind of damage can be mitigated through the right kind of employee event.

Fact: Nurturing a Company Culture is Easier in Person

For this discussion, let’s delve into some armchair sociology.

Human beings are, at their core, social creatures. We function better when we are part of a tribe and can benefit from the support that such a structured environment can provide. For all the emphasis that we put on collaboration in our MSP Blog Service, the reality of our collaborative nature goes far deeper than the modern workplace. Humanity only really began to advance when we formed cooperative tribes, something that isolation and solitude actively work against. The tribe is what led to the invention of so many concepts, industries, and processes that we take for granted today.

Now, something else that we frequently touch on in our MSP blogs is the value that remote work can bring to a company. 

However, Remote Work Isn’t ALL Sunshine and Rainbows

All of the values we say that remote work can bring exist and can considerably benefit the operations that a business carries out. However, we admittedly tend to focus more on the impact it has on the business’ wellbeing, and less so that it has on the wellbeing of an employee.

At the very least, remote work—particularly that which stretches over an extended time, as many businesses are still relying on—can make your disparate employees feel cut off from the rest of the business, from the tribe that they and their coworkers instinctively form. Cut off from something that the business world refers to as company culture. 

A Healthy Company Culture is an Underappreciated Necessity

Company culture is something else we’ve extensively discussed, both in this blog and in our syndicated service. We won’t reinvent the wheel here, but a good company culture offers a lot of benefits to a business that nurtures it:

• Improved productivity
• Improved loyalty
• Improved employee attraction and retention
• Improved efficiency
• Improved customer service
• Improved business reputation
• Improved company health
• Improved revenues

I think you see the point: the better your company culture is, the better off your business is.

Based on this, it becomes clear that anything that takes away from that culture can be seen as a clear business detriment. Likewise, something that contributes to your business’ culture is a benefit to your business overall.

Circling back to remote work, many businesses have (as we’ve said) seen their company cultures suffer as widespread remote work has continued… and again, this is somewhat to be expected. Remote work is inherently isolating and cuts employees off from the support structure that their coworkers provide.

This means you need to actively do what you can to engage your employees and preserve your company culture. Let’s discuss a few ways to do that.

What Can Be Done to Nurture Company Culture in Remote Workers?

Okay, so let’s do what we can to (if not solve) minimize the company culture deficits that extended remote work can and does generate.

The Long and Short of It: You Need to Dedicate Time to Building a Remote Culture

That’s really all there is to it. In order to keep your remote team members from feeling more and more remote, you need to actively invest in activities and habits that keep them involved with the business and their coworkers. For instance:

Commit Time to Team Activities: There are many ways to host activities that involve your remote team members that are more for the benefit of your culture than any other business priority. Collaborative activities and problem-solving exercises have been virtualized by many providers, and can otherwise be carried out over the collaboration tools that businesses have embraced. Play games, set aside time and space for casual, non-work-related conversations, and be more lenient about off-topic conversations.

Give Your Remote Employees Some Recognition: Don’t be afraid to heap praise (when warranted and earned, of course) on your remote employees. Not only is this just a nice thing to do, of course, but it also reinforces that you see their contributions and appreciate them. Remote work isn’t easy, so seeing their efforts appreciated will do a lot for your remote team members’ motivation.

Communicate, Communicate, and… Oh Yeah, Communicate: Encourage your team to communicate with each other more often, whether it’s to collaborate on work matters or socialize, as this helps bring your distanced employees closer together. Building relationships in this way generally leads to more effective and productive work, as well as establishing shared values in your team.

How Have You Been Keeping Your Team Engaged?

Share some of your ideas with us! We admit, this is a little different than the content we usually share, but it’s also important to pay attention to these matters. Moreso, building a positive company culture amongst your team can ultimately tie back to marketing benefits by generating positive collateral and improving the experience your clients have overall.

For assistance in using this collateral, we’re here to help. We specialize in providing MSPs with the marketing services that most effectively serve their business model. Give us a call today at 888-546-4384 to find out what we can do for you.