Imagine putting your best people on a winning team but never letting them meet, celebrate, or collaborate face-to-face. 

Chances are, even the most motivated players would feel disconnected and disengaged. That’s exactly what many organizations face today with remote work.

Gallup’s global data show that 30% of fully remote employees are engaged, compared to 21% of on-site empl lued, and motivated, no matter where they work from. With more companies embracing hybrid and remote models, tracking and improving engagement has become a non-negotiable for productivity, retention and workplace happiness.

In this blog, we will learn what remote employee engagement is and how to improve it.

What is remote employee engagement?

Remote employee engagement is the metric that measures the level of engagement remote employees have in their tasks for the organization.

They can engage or communicate with their team via Slack, Gmail, Google Meet or other tools. 

Tracking remote employees is essential because many employees feel disengaged and do not know their coworkers to build a bond.

Here’s what a Redditor has to say about spiking engagement of remote employees:

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Challenges in remote employee engagement

Although remote mode is booming right now, it comes with its share of challenges, like:

• Lack of face-to-face interaction: Even though remote employees connect on communication tools, they rarely get to see each other in person. This fails to build a team rapport and have a personal touch. 
• Communication gaps: If the employees are positioned in person, they can connect with the team impromptu. However, in a remote setting, it is a tad uneasy to ping teammates every other while and it also leads to misinterpretation of tone or intent.
• Feeling of isolation: Employees feel isolated when they do not commute to office and don’t see peers. Going to the office on-site leads to interaction, sharing experiences both professional and personal. In remote settings, there are weaker personal bonds and lower team spirit.
• Limited team collaboration opportunities: It is difficult to hold all activities online. Some events and activities are held onsite and thus, remote employees miss them. This restricts opportunities to build bonds and collaborate.
• Technology fatigue and over-reliance on tools: Remote employees rely on tools for each task. From communication to execution, they need tools for emails, video calls, chat apps, project management tools, etc. While these tools are essential, over-reliance can lead to technology fatigue.

How to track remote employee engagement?

Using workforce analytics, you can combat these challenges head-on. Utilize a tool like we360.ai to track remote employee engagement. These features include:

Best practices to improve remote work employee engagement

Now that we know how to track them, here are some best practices to improve remote employee engagement:

1. Impeccable onboarding: Most employee dropouts occur during the onboarding process. Therefore, it is imperative employees feel supported and guided during onboarding process.
2. Set up in-home office: Provide financial assistance to employees setting up workstations at home. This boosts employees' satisfaction, performance and engagement.
3. Recognize and reward teams: With a workforce analytics tool like we360.ai, identify your top-performing employees and reward them. Take measures to upskill struggling employee, thus earning the employee's trust.
4. Provide opportunities for continuous learning: With platforms like Udemy and Coursera allow your team to upskill and upgrade their performance.
5. Conduct regular check-ins and feedback sessions: Set up a meeting weekly or biweekly to gather your remote employees’ feedback. Appreciate their performance and empathetically take measures where your employees need assistance. 
6. Foster regular communication: Schedule regular team meetings, virtual coffee breaks or happy hours. Motivate your remote team to openly communicate and roll out games to help team members lighten up. 
7. Promote supportive work culture: Cultivate an environment where team-mates can share personal updates, celebrate achievements and hold each other in tough times. Like project deadlines, or rolling out new products or patch releases. This helps build a sense of community among your remote employees.
8. Nurture team-building activities: Plan virtual team-building activities like virtual team lunches, group fitness challenges to promote bonding and strengthen relationships among team members.
9. Encourage opportunities for social interaction: Incorporate informal social activities like online book clubs, virtual trivia nights or group workouts so that employees bond beyond work hours.
10. Support mental health and wellness: Offer support via virtual counselling services, mindfulness sessions or wellness challenges to help your remote employees stay connected and feel supported.
11. Foster workforce autonomy: Companies that encourage autonomy yield greater results from their remote employees.

We360.ai: your remote team copilot

Remote employee engagement goes far beyond tracking login hours or virtual check-ins. It’s about creating a culture where employees feel valued, connected, and motivated, no matter where they work from. By recognizing challenges like isolation, communication gaps, and technology fatigue, and by implementing strategies such as continuous learning, recognition, team-building and fostering autonomy, organizations can transform remote work into a thriving and productive experience.

With tools like we360.ai,  businesses can track engagement in real time, analyze productivity trends, and support employee well-being through actionable insights. This ensures a healthier, happier, and more engaged workforce.

So what are you waiting for? 

‍Book a free demo with we360.ai today and discover how workforce analytics can help you build stronger, more connected teams.